​ ON-Fiction Response Analysis

N
1. Summarize the main idea of the text in logical order.
Douglass's narrative is like a highway map, showing us the road from slavery to freedom.
2. What connections can you make between this text and other texts you’ve read?
It gives you more of an insight of how african americans struggled throughout the years, and also
working and fighting to get their freedom and rights.
3. What is the author’s purpose? (Persuade, Inform, describe….etc.)
His motivation to write about his difficult life as a slave was to both inform the American public
about the debased, malevolent nature of slavery and to humanize the slaves negatively affected
by the Southern institution.
A) What specific words or phrases led you to this conclusion?
Slavery, freedom, the south
4. Who is the audience?
The audience could be students who are learning the about slavery or people from the same race.
A) How do you know?
Its in someone who use to be a slave point of view.
B) How does the choice of audience affect the text?
It goes more into the details to explain the hardships slaves faced.
5. What are the most relevant details (arguments/ evidence/ descriptions) the author uses to
argue their position?
Frederick Douglass use his very own position because he too use to be a slave.
6. What is most prevalent in the writing: Ethos, Pathos or Logos?
He uses ethos and pathos because he shows how he went through a struggle of being a slave in a
young age and not being able to be seen as equal as white people.
A) Provide 3 examples quoted from the text ( Cite in MLA)
● “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of
the same privilege” (Douglass).
● “It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I
beheld it”(Douglass).
● “Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and
watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with the much the same emotions I
should have probably felt at the death of a stranger” (Douglass).
B) How does the author exercise their credibility?
He shows his credibility by giving people a glimpse of his life.
7. What is a possible theme for this text?
A theme could be fight for what you want to acquire for yourself and the people around you.
A) What 3 sections of this text led you to this conclusion? (Cite in MLA)
 ● “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of
the same privilege” (Douglass).
● “It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I
beheld it”(Douglass).
● “Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and
watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with the much the same emotions I
should have probably felt at the death of a stranger” (Douglass).

8) How did this text help you understand the topic addressed in this text.
It gave me more understanding to the era where america was still facing challenges.
9) Identify an element of the text that you might change.
An element that could change would be to get more detailed about how slaves treated each other
and explain how they felt about it.
A) Predict and explain how this change might affect the meaning of the text.
Slavery has always been a problem due to it being and giving those who are white more power
and privilege back when america was still a developing country. Throughout his narrative he
uses paradox to show how not being educated is a problem to slaves.“The white children could
tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege” (Douglass). It
shows that even though he was a child, he still understood how education would help him out but
it was also a danger for them but a privilege for white society since they are the “superior” race.
Overall, slavery was always a problem because they weren't allowed to do most of the stuff that
white people could do without being killed or go through hardships, like receiving an education
without fear.