In The Life Story of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, Douglass recounts many anecdotes to illustrate the horrors of slavery. One of them recounts the murder of his wife's cousin. Douglass uses several strategies to gain our sympathy when he describes the incident. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay First, Douglass does not hesitate to express his disapproval of the whole affair in a very emotionally charged report. Douglass begins the paragraph by calling Mrs. Hicks' action "murder." He then attracts our pity with the expression “poor girl”. These words clearly distinguish the villain from the victim. Douglass further highlights Mrs. Hicks' ferocity, saying the victim was "mutilated" in a "horrible" way. He also uses the words “break” and “broken” to emphasize that the slave was brutally broken. This diction causes us, like Douglass, to become furious at Mrs. Hicks' action. By recounting the event, Douglass humiliates the young girl by leaving her anonymous. He describes her as “my wife’s cousin” and “that girl,” thus emphasizing her inferior status as a slave. Another interpretation of his anonymity is that it allows him to represent other anonymous slaves who suffered the same fate. The girl transcends the individual. She died prematurely, just as other black slaves died before and after her. Since Douglass is telling the story of a dead girl, he is her voice. As such, it graphically enriches the coroner's report. The coroner simply ruled that the girl “died after being severely beaten.” Douglass tells the story in precise detail. He explains how tired the girl was because she had lost her rest the previous nights. Fatigue being a very human fault, this detail humanizes the young girl. As the girl cares for the baby, she is presented in a caring and maternal light. On the other hand, the real mother, Mrs. Hicks, has completely forgotten about her baby's distress as she attacks the little girl without delay. Douglass relates how Mrs. Hicks became angry at the tired girl's slow reaction to the baby's cries and "jumped out of her bed, grabbed an oak stick from the fireplace and with it broke her nose and the girl's sternum, and thus ended her life. .” Its parallel structuring of the verbs “jump,” “grab,” “break,” and “finish” adds a strange rhythm to the story that echoes the sounds of a cruel beating. These verbs also emphasize the monstrosity of Mrs. Hicks' actions. By connecting the girl's mistake, a normal reaction to a common human symptom, with Mrs. Hick's exaggerated reaction to a baby's cries, another common phenomenon, Douglass humanizes the victim and dehumanizes Mrs. Hicks. He therefore intelligently directs our sympathy towards the young girl. The specific details that Douglass weaves into the story make the incident more visual and believable. However, I question their validity. Since the girl died within hours of being beaten, she likely did not have the opportunity to tell her story. The coroner only deciphered the reason for the girl's death, not why she was beaten. So how did Douglass get all the details, down to the material and location of the stick Mrs. Hicks used? Yet, if Douglass mixes fact and fiction, then this paragraph further attests to his intelligence and ability to influence his audience. Despite Douglass's incorporation of fictional details, his account has an honest ring. In fact, his.