Question

How does the author use imagery to illustrate how he was affected after witnessing his aunt’s whipping? Cite evidence from the text

Answer 1

The author uses imagery by describing the whole experience as bloody and horrifying.

Explanation:

The author Frederick Douglass brings to light the horrors that slavery entails. In the book, he uses many literary devices to make the reader stand in the same place where the he himself stood. He recounts the time the first time he saw what slavery really was and how a master could exploit his slave.

In the narrative, it was when he saw his aunt getting whipped by Captain Anthony, her master, that he understood what slavery really was. His aunt was getting whipped naked as a punishment to having conversation with a male slave. He described it as 'long series of outrage' as he continued to whip her for prolonged period despite her endless and loud cries and pleas. He described it as 'a blood-stained gate of hell' because of how his aunt was covered in blood because of the merciless whipping. He referred to slavery as hell for the painful and terrifying exhibitions that lied there. He pointed out that the experience and its traumatizing affect was too hard to pen down on a piece of paper.