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Alexis
LA8VT
Exam Essay
December 16, 2015
Fredrick Douglass Figurative Language
In life, people go through their lives and aimlessly ask, how are you? to
someone that they meet. They reply with fine, what about you? or something along
those lines. And usually, people ask without actually caring, they just say it because it is
polite, right? Well, many people do not have a life that is so fine. Some people have had
very traumatizing life experiences that shaped them into who they are today. When
people are asked about their past, they tend to be very emotional and explain how they
felt in a different way than someone who grew up in a good family. Analogies are a big
part of this. People use analogies, similes, and metaphors to give their listener a
comparison to what he or she is talking about. Fredrick Douglass was a former slave who
had a very interesting, yet sad, life story. In his narrative, Douglass relates his figurative
language back to his pain, his waiting, and his relief.
Fredrick Douglass experienced an extreme amount of pain while he was in
slavery. There were beatings and lashings, malnourishment, and treacherous work that no
man would have ever volunteered to do under any circumstances. In Douglass narrative,
he uses an analogy to describe a point in his life while he was in slavery that draws
emotion for a reader. Douglass recalls, Where he is every moment subjected to the
terrible liability of being seized upon by his fellowmen, and the hideous crocodile seizes
upon his prey! (Douglass Narrative). He clearly felt used and he wanted to state his

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emotion towards it. Douglass chose to paint this picture in the readers head because he
felt that he or she should know how drastically it affected him. There was nothing that he
could do to help he; Douglass was being thrown around at someone elses will. Douglass
also chooses this scene to portray. He announces, the trembling and half-famished
fugitive is only equaled by that with which the monsters of the deep swallow up the
helpless fish upon which they subsist (Douglass Narrative). Fredrick Douglass, not
only had a painful life, but a life full of waiting around.
Fredrick Douglass life was also a life that included much time waiting and
pondering, and anticipating of what was going to happen next. He says with no shame,
whose business it was to lie in wait for the panting fugitive, as the ferocious beasts of
the forest lie in wait for their prey (Douglass Narrative). Douglass spent a lot of his time
waiting for his life to turn around. But as someone else may see it, he actually spent more
of his time turning his own life around. He always was waiting for opportunities and he
was also watching out for anyone who might get in his way. He was cautious and smart,
which made his able to survive. But this feeling of waiting was getting in his way, at
some points. Anticipation might have killed a person who wasnt as strong as he was.
After waiting for quite a long time, Fredrick Douglass finally started living life the right
way, a life of relief.
Fredrick Douglass had a life that was also full of relief, which is good for all that
he has been through. He deserved this relieve, and he conveys it very well with this
simile. He says, I felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions (Douglass
Narrative). Douglass worked very hard to get to this relief, and he stayed there. A lot of
people can probably say that they havent lived as a slave. This quote tells us that

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Douglass not only appreciated his relief, but he embraced it as well, and held it with
every piece of his heart.
In his narrative, Douglass relates his figurative language back to his pain, his
waiting, and his relief. Now, if anyone were Fredrick Douglass, they would likely want to
trade their life for one of someone else. Hardship and trauma are not things that anyone
should ever go through. But Douglass, he defeated the expectations of a slave and was
impressive enough to earn his way to freedom.

Reflection Paragraph:
I selected this piece for my portfolio because I really think it showed my writing skills
well, while staying within a limited text. It showed that I can use the text while learning
about the past. From this assignment, I learned about what it would be like to be
enslaved. Though this is a god description, it is meager compared to what actually
happened. I also learned that a time limit does not mean a bad essay. When Im under
pressure, I really expect to do very well. However, I actually think that I wrote well on
this essay. I did well with the quality of this writing. Im proud of the word usage and the
individual sentence structure of my paper. The most difficult part of this essay was
definitely building a good essay under the pressure of a midterm essay and the time
constraint that we had.