The section of writing that I chose to blog about was section 16 of his poem Song of Myself
The first thing in the section of writing that I noticed was the opposites he used to describe himself. He said the young and the old, the foolish and the wise, the child and the man, the man and the women. He uses opposites because it helps be the great equalizer. By saying he is all of these things it makes him relate able to nearly all people because he covers all the bases with the opposites. And by doing that everyone likes him because he is saying he is similar to nearly every human and people like to listen to other people who relate to them. He goes on and on not only with opposites, but with all sorts of different kinds of jobs and religions just to make him even more relate able to all of his readers. He also says that he is relate able to all of the people in america that he is at home all over the country, so he is making himself similar to everybody in at least one way. And by doing that he is making people unify over him and come together because everyone will have something in common with him and he will be the connecting link between the opposite people. The next thing in these passage I noticed was how lovely the diction and syntax was. When you read it, it just flows through your lips so smoothly and it just sounds very nice. He uses alliteration alot at the end of the section with the sound, with the suns I can see and the suns I cannot see. and the in the two last stanzas how he says place so many times, it really gets sunk into your head that that is one of the points he is trying to get across to you. The last thing that I really noticed was the parallel structure that he used in these section but also all throughout the only essay. It is a good technic to use because it makes everything in a list he is making more and more powerful, I can almost feel the writing getting louder and louder and more passionaite until it just peaks and then he changes the structure and starts with something new. It makes what he is trying to say so much more powerful.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Response to Douglass Post
Hi Eleanor. I hope you're feeling better. We miss you in class.
The first thing that I noticed about this section was the passioniate writing. The diction he uses like meanest, basest, cruel, cowardly, darkest, foulest is so powerful. Each word gets stronger and stronger. Good point. The sentences are in parallel structure, but almost like repeated notes in music, each sentence has more intensity. Also the words he uses are against most of the beliefs of the Age of Reason time, especially the cowardly. People were supposed to be strong and sensitive, and the slave owners were neither of these things. Good point, too. Notice the juxtaposition between these slaveholders and his ethos. Here we also see how he feels about religion. He feels like it is just an excuse for the slave owners to treat the slaves in the way they did, and that made him extremely anger. He also says just being around a community with religion, makes him miserable, because it is always used as a reason to why they can treat the slaves the way they do. Notice how this echoes his argument from the Appendix: Southern Christianity is not "true" Christianity. Another time the diction is very good is when he describes the slave owners actions as barbaric, and their deeds as infernal, no? which is turning the tables on the slave owners. They are always saying that the slaves are animals and not human, but now Douglass is saying No it is you guys who are the animals. Excellent job noticing the rhetorical reversal. Douglass is careful to not say all religion is bad, but just says southern religion is bad. Since his readers were in the north, he had to be careful not to insult them when he is trying to make a point. So this part of his writings was mainly making his agrument about how he feels that the Slave owners only use religion as a big excuse for the awful ways they treat there slaves and how it isn't right, because that is not the point of religion
You chose a great passage. That's a sign that you're keying in on major ideas and noticing the power in his writing. Good stuff.
The first thing that I noticed about this section was the passioniate writing. The diction he uses like meanest, basest, cruel, cowardly, darkest, foulest is so powerful. Each word gets stronger and stronger. Good point. The sentences are in parallel structure, but almost like repeated notes in music, each sentence has more intensity. Also the words he uses are against most of the beliefs of the Age of Reason time, especially the cowardly. People were supposed to be strong and sensitive, and the slave owners were neither of these things. Good point, too. Notice the juxtaposition between these slaveholders and his ethos. Here we also see how he feels about religion. He feels like it is just an excuse for the slave owners to treat the slaves in the way they did, and that made him extremely anger. He also says just being around a community with religion, makes him miserable, because it is always used as a reason to why they can treat the slaves the way they do. Notice how this echoes his argument from the Appendix: Southern Christianity is not "true" Christianity. Another time the diction is very good is when he describes the slave owners actions as barbaric, and their deeds as infernal, no? which is turning the tables on the slave owners. They are always saying that the slaves are animals and not human, but now Douglass is saying No it is you guys who are the animals. Excellent job noticing the rhetorical reversal. Douglass is careful to not say all religion is bad, but just says southern religion is bad. Since his readers were in the north, he had to be careful not to insult them when he is trying to make a point. So this part of his writings was mainly making his agrument about how he feels that the Slave owners only use religion as a big excuse for the awful ways they treat there slaves and how it isn't right, because that is not the point of religion
You chose a great passage. That's a sign that you're keying in on major ideas and noticing the power in his writing. Good stuff.
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