Excerpt from a Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas (Chapter VI and Chapter VII) How does Frederick Douglas use imagery and description to invoke emotion? Frederick Douglas invokes a wide range of emotions of the brute force of slavery by using vivid imagery and metaphors of the dehumanizing systems of slavery, in which he, himself, by using his own personal story, represents the millions of men, women, and children who have suffered under it. The first time Fredrick is awakened by a pathway to freedom is when his former mistress, "a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings," begins to teach him how to read ad his master forbids this, stating, "If you give a niggar an inch, he will take an ell. A niggar should know nothing but to obey his master--to do what he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best niggar in the world." His personal account of the interaction legitimizes his claim that slaves were little more than property to masters, invoking a deep sense of empathy from his readers and his devoid of emotion of the account, avoiding words that would suggest he were angry or resentful of his master of the skill of reading and writing also legitimizes his reasoning and logic by removing his emotions from the situation itself and presenting the facts. By succeeding to remove emotional language, he gains more credibility from his readers, and his readers are more likely to believe that he is a reasonable, logical man who knows what he is talking about in his own story, which was essential to the movement of abolishing slavery. Readers are less likely to sway and dismiss his claims because of his use of language and factual events. Readers are more awakened by the prison of slavery because denying a slave the ability to read and write would awaken them to the reality of the world they lived in, and they are more likely to be against placing human beings into forced servitude after personalizing with Frederick himself. He also goes on to explain the deep agony his education brought, his constant torment when he was being awakened by the slavery he was forced into. "The readings of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts, and to meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery; but while they relieved me of one difficulty, they brought on another more painful than the one in which I was relieved. The more I read, the more I grew to abhor and detest my slavers." This is where Fredrick begins to use language regarding his own emotions of enslavement and his emotionless language before justifying this emotional language. The readers know that Frederick is a reasonable man, so when he states his own emotions on the matter of his personal experiences, it strengthens his argument against slavery, and he is more likely to dissuade readers from slavery. He speaks of the torment that his education awakened him; he speaks of being envious of his uneducated fellow slaves because they were not aware of their prison on the same level that he was. After all, they were oblivious to human rights. All they've known is slavery, and now Frederick knows better. He states, "As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my own wretched condition, without the remedy," He later states, "It was pressed upon me by every objection within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. Freedom now appeared to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in everything." Then he continues later on," I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it." By using this emotional language through deep personalization, he impacts the reader's emotional response by sharing his agony and torture. With his language, the readers also feel agony and torture, never in the same manner, but enough to gain an understanding of the prison and the brute force of slavery. Frederick Douglas impacts his readers by using his own experiences to share with them the cruelty of slavery, and by using honest, brutal language, he awakens his readers and shares with them a peek of the experience of slavery. The readers are empathetic to his situation and experiences, bitter to his enslavers, and crucially motivated to fight for the cause of abolition.

I sat down as the tears flooded my eyes and a trembling hand pressed my cross against my chest, embracing the silence of the chapel, the years I spent in the foster care system, hoping and praying to be reunited with my family, sitting there when the loud, invasive, disregarding life grew too much, too lonely, too painful to bear alone with Him. The mistakes of nurses and social workers led to my mother's ability to care for us coming into question because she was physically disabled, a U.S. resident with no credentials here, and unable to work and provide for us financially. She united our table with blessings of gratitude and prayer of the food before us, she gifted me my beloved cross and encourage me to visit the chapel when the world was too cruel, and she whispered her prayers desperately as she drove us away from our abusive father only to have us separated, abused and forgotten by the foster care system and she was homeless. I knelt sometimes in sadness or refused altogether out of anger and spat at what happened. Yet I never stopped embracing the silence of the chapel, whispering and praying, asking Him why. Why did this happen? Why did you let this happen? One day, sitting in the silent chapel, I prayed to see my mother, prayed for the safety and health of the my siblings before walking home to find my mother in the office of the woman who ran our group home, with our pro-bono lawyer, rich and successful, who came upon our case by His miracle and decided to fight for us because she was a single mother who survived an abusive husband and could not image losing her children. Months of prayers, an event after an event, holding our hands tightly in the hopes we won’t ever let them go again, we ended up together under government housing and assistance. I remember the night we moved in, the morning we all sat in the silent chapel I told them about, and we looked up at His statue, and I knew and understood why. I decided to pursue law and adhere to my moral and religious obligation to fight against broken systems that hurt instead of protecting vulnerable families like us. As a low-income, first-generation student with housing, food, and family around me. I clutch the cross that hangs around my neck in gratitude when I recall the prospect of attending the University of St. Thomas in the fall. I am thankful to Him for the privilege of education, thankful to Him for my physical ability to care for and assist my mother in household chores, and thankful to Him for holding my hand, hovering over my family and me, and for bringing the life we live now as I strive to earn it. I will continue to be a high-achieving student, a caregiving daughter, and a working college student to law school as I am thankful to Him for every opportunity, hardship, and lesson that comes my way so that I may help other single mothers, other children, and other families to break out of foster care like that lawyer helped us.

The greatest written stories, poems, playwrights, and fairytales of the long march of time that reflect and shape our human and world history play a pivotal role in the world, however beautiful and cruel. This scholarship allows students to have an extensive, dedicated study of great authors, poets, and playwrights that will allow me to articulate and develop my understanding of storytelling, writing, and my passion for English without being burdened by the future worries of student debt. Storytelling and writing have been the highlight of my life, a natural daydream that swirls in my mind from the moment I open my eyes in the morning to the moment I close them again. Suspense and intrigue are the words that flow through my mind as I attempt to articulate and manipulate the thoughts of my characters, and the two words that hover through each scene as it builds up to each turning point and the climax. And what is storytelling if not the romanticism of our hopes and dreams from the naïve bubble of childhood youth? What is storytelling if not the realism of the brutal nature of inhumanity in humanity? I am currently in the process of completing my first novel, which I began in January 2024, consisting of my rough draft of thirty to thirty-five chapters, six to nine pages each, that I dedicate myself to daily, writing four to six pages a day that vary throughout schoolwork, personal endeavors, and family responsibilities. During my time in college, which will take up more of my time indefinitely, I plan to take afternoon classes and take every ounce of free time that I can dedicate myself to writing. Completing my assignments and completing my courses when they are immediately assigned, not piling and piling on homework and filling my free hours with partying and dawdling, but taking my time to complete my college class, homework, and spending my free time on writing and eventually publishing. In the first-person point of view, the story is told through the eyes of a young girl who has spent her entire life under the towering shadow of her father and the unwavering protection of her brother, beginning when she enters upon the new world of the country under her family’s rule, plagued by war fought between a lord of another country attempting to invade her home, her father and brother fighting for the title as ruler, and her inner struggle between the life she once knew and the woman she must become as she walks through the political landscape if she ever hopes to rule besides her brother in a stable country at peace. Vulnerable and intelligent, naïve and astute, she learns and adapts into a politically savvy and thoughtful young woman. Wandering about the line of family relations, fantasy and dystopian, political and emotional intrigue as she attempts to gain power from the powerless life she has always known. I am halfway through this book, and I am still making great progress. Through this and other scholarships as a low-income and first-generation student, student loans, and eventually paying them off in the future. I intend to write, discipline my mind and my activities, I have every intention of finishing and publishing my book, along with my future ones and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English and from then on I will go to law school to pursue a career as a lawyer to help those who need it and to always have writing as my love and passion.