Page 388, Fredrick talking to ships of the Chesapeake Bay- favorite.
This passage revealed the most to me; it was a pure reflection of the author's thoughts at the time. Studying syntax in class, I was able to depict the difference in sentence structure and pace in comparison to the rest of the text. A syntactical genius, Douglass did not only display the words said to the ships, but the thought process behind them. The thought process is like rummaging through a huge, unorganized file cabinet at the speed of light, meeting different conclusions and ideas in a mix of sentiments- no consistency. In contrast to writing at a structured pace and tone to give a text a certain flow as mature writers would usually do, Douglass instead promotes abrupt sentences, shifts in pace and emotion to capture that same inconsistency in thinking. It made the passage more real, and that's why this excerpt, above all, is my favorite.
