Imagery and Parallelism in Chapter 5 of Frederick Douglass's Memoir

In Chapter 5, Frederick Douglass uses imagery and parallelism to describe the conditions he and the other children had suffered from, persuading the reader that the slaves were not treated fairly through shock. Douglass quotes that the living conditions were terrible as to when they get allowanced, it is not consistent. They were given food in a large tray on the floor, and Douglass explains that “The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons…” (43)

Through this, we can infer that the food provided for the slave children were not made properly for they had put rocks and shells into the food.

The idea of having mushed up food with hard objects such as the rocks and shells as a meal frightens the readers and creates the tone of sympathy towards them. Douglass uses parallelism when he talks about the sleeping conditions at the plantation.

He says, “I suffered much from hunger, but much more from cold…” (42)

He tells his readers that he had to steal a bag and lay in there so that he stays warm, however, he uses imagery once more to show that the slaves were nothing toward their masters through the quote: “My feet have been so cracked with the frost that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes.” (42-43) Through the use of imagery and parallelism, we see that the tone he sets in the chapter is solemn and Douglass makes himself credible through ethos when he says, “In the darkest hour of my career in slavery…” (46) he reminds the readers that he went through what is written down rather it being a fictional story based on true events.

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