Written Words Used as Propaganda

Written Word Used as Propaganda The narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is an account of Frederick Douglass life pen in a in truth detached and objective tone. One might find this normal for a historical account of the planets of someones life if not for the particular that the narrative was create verbally by Frederick Douglass himself. Frederick Douglass used this tone markfully in an attempt to use his narrative as propaganda to convince others to join in the abolitionists movement.According to Donna Woolfolk Cross in Propaganda How not to be Bamboozled, propaganda is simply a federal agency of vista (149). She further notes that we are subjected nonchalant to propaganda in one form or another as advertisers, politicians, and even our friends attempt to persuade us to use their product, vote for them, or embroil their point of view. Propaganda is usually considered in a negative sense. However, when viewing propaganda as just persuasion, one ca n hearily appreciate that it is neither penny-pinching nor evil the good/evil frame is the direct result of the purpose for which it is used.Politicians and leaders have used propaganda to further their goals Hitlers use of propaganda as a means of controlling the population of Germany is the close to recognizable guinea pig of propaganda used for evil. Martin Luther Kings I Have a hallucination speech, in which he urges non-violent resistance in the cause of racial equality, portrays persuasion used with good intentions. Although speeches are highly telling at delivering ideas, the indite word can be even more influential. In the early on days of America, literature was used extensively as a means of persuasion.As early as 1589 Richard Hakluyt published stories in a criminal record he wrote for the sole purpose of persuading people to sail to America and purpose land. These stories which were t grey to Hakluyt by captains and sailors appeared to be straightforward and na rrative, however Hakluyt edited each gash so that he was able to successfully persuade the people who read his stories to sail to America and settle the land thus securing critical inherent resources for England. Such was the goal with the story of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.Douglass objective was to allurement to the middle-class people of that time and persuade them to join in the movement. Although the Narrative was ostensibly write to fold up that Douglass had actually been a slave, Douglass, working for the abolitionist group headed by William Lloyd Garrison, wrote for a specific earreach white prude Christians whom the abolitionists hoped to convert to their way of thinking. Thus, what began as a telling of his life experiences evolved into a tool of persuasion. As with all propaganda, Douglass Narrative lay offs certain elements that appeal to the sensations of the reader.Douglass theme style was descriptive as well as persuade. This emotional feature allows the writer to sway the opinion of the reader. His awful details of the time, helped him grasp the help of the women who he hoped in turn would convince their husbands to help, by donating money and at long last ending slavery. He used his words effectively in convincing the readers that the slave averers were inhuman and showed how they had no feelings for other human beings as homely when he wrote The louder she screamed the harder he whipped and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest (Douglass25).Although a self-taught writer and orator, Douglass makes use of sophisticated elements of persuasive paper. Simultaneously, he chooses these events for how they will need the Northern audiences opinion of S fall outhern slaveholders. Considering the fact that this was written during the height of the abolition movement the novel had to be effective in order to advance the success of the movement.The distant tone was effective because if Douglass had w ritten with an impassioned tone, readers would have noticed it and simply wrote it off as a biased work, unable to see the issue from both sides. Through ain anecdotes, Douglass draws an accurate picture of slave life. Douglass also shows that slavery was not a constant source of pain and suffering I was not old enough to work in the cranial orbits, and there being little else than report work to do, I had a great deal of leisure time, (Douglass 71).This is effective in proving his point because it allows him to show the whole of slavery and not be biased in his views. Douglass uses family relationships, starting with his own birth, to gain the compassion of his betoken audience. Frequently, before the electric razor has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor (749).Douglass mentions this particular anecdote to specifically capt ure the compassion of his targeted audience white women. In Douglass autobiography however, the elements alone do not prove his intent to write for any reason other than to prove his flat coat as a slave and defend his credibility against the critics of the abolitionists that charge that Douglass could neer have been born a slave as he claimed (McKivigan 18). The most convincing argument for the contention that this was written as propaganda is the manner in which the persuasive elements are used.The body of the narrative is written in a simple and straightforward manner the story is told quite matter-of-factly, even the horrific scenes of the cruel beatings and killings of slaves. This lack of histrionics is true even when the targets of the overseers whips are Douglass own family members. Yet, when Douglass speaks of Southern Christianity defending slavery, he works himself into a fury of emotion and uses the more obvious elements of propaganda. When he writes of the religious p ractices and hypocrisy of the same slaveholders, he again reverts to persuasive rhetoric.Some chapters are genuine throughout, while others contain much propaganda. One segment in particular, that having to do with the fate of his grandmother, is written in a style that is not consistent with the rest of the book. Rather, extremely histrionic, in which the believable, factual Douglass disappears, and is replaced by someone writing solely for effect My dear old grandmother, whom you turned out like an old provide to die in the woods-is she still alive?.. Send me my grandmother (Preston 167).It appears that Frederick Douglass did set off his autobiography with the intention of writing his story in a hardheaded manner the basic narrative bears that out. But in the course of writing his intent strayed, and he became aware of the power that could be unleashed by fervour the emotions of readers. Undoubtedly encouraged in his use persuasive rhetoric on an oratory level, he eventually created a masterpiece of propaganda. Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York Signet, 1968. Douglass, Frederick. A Slaves Family Life. Thinking and Writing almost Literature. A Text and Anthology. Ed. Michael Meyer. New York Bedford/St. Martins, 2001. 749. Cross, Donna Woolfolk. Propaganda How not to be Bamboozled. Language Awareness. Ed. capital of Minnesota Escholz, et al. New York St Martins Press, 1994. 149. McKivigan, John R. , ed. Frederick Douglass. People Who Made History. Michigan Greenhaven Press/doubting Thomas Gale, 2004. Preston, Dickson J. Young Fredrick Douglass The Maryland Years. Baltimore The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.