- Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”Â
- Listen to “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
- Note: there are different versions of this text’s title
- Read Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (A.O.C), “I am Someone’s Daughter too”
Perform two separate analyses on Douglass’s and AOC’s works.
Who is his/her audience? What information did he/she choose to include or exclude based on his/her understanding of that audience? What strategies did he/she use to persuade them intellectually? What strategies did he/she use to appeal to their emotions? Which of the audience’s values and opinions did he/she show awareness of? How did he/she either appeal to these values or challenge them? How did he/she lower the audience’s defenses, so that they were open to the argument? How did the genre he/she chose benefit that argument?
These are some questions you may answer, or you can answer others. The goal of this assignment is for you to show that you are able to understand an audience and to distinguish and make writing choices that convince them of an argument.
Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” :
The audience, in my opinion, is white people, with the main goal of emphasizing the role of Independence Day to the black community. Pathos, a characteristic that induces melancholy, was exploited in his speaking tactics. The genre of speech is the most effective since it has more benefits than a letter, simply because the issue is more urgent and vital for everyone to hear.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (A.O.C), “I am Someone’s Daughter too” :
The audience would be men, men who have the courage to make rude and sexist remarks about women, men who believe they have the right to look down on women because they believe they are superior than women. The second audience will be women. Pathos and ethos were the methods she utilized to influence her audience. Speech, rather than a letter or any other sort of written communication, is the most efficient approach to communicate her knowledge in this circumstance since it is more widely circulated and shared.
The audience in the video “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” to me would be white people and abolitionists. Frederick was based around him criticizing the Fourth of July Celebrations. While it’s undeniably Frederick is in the right he ask questions like “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” to get the audience thinking and to make them continue showing him their full attention then he proceed to answer the question himself.
The audience in the speech “I am Someone’s Daughter too” to me would be men and her parents In he speech she states “I am here because I have to show my parents that I am their daughter and that they did not raise me to accept abuse from men.” She spoke with a mixture of tones. From things like aggression, encouraging, and a very worried tone. She out done her self on this work because of the way she produced it.
Frederick Douglass audience Northern whites. Douglass attempted to convince them to support abolition, which was then regarded a radical viewpoint. He also wanted to influence people’s ideas regarding African Americans skills and intelligence. I think he used Pathos because he was speaking was he was dealing with for Almost half of his life. The speech was effective because he told more advantages on the subject. Douglass fought for equal justice and rights for black people, as well as citizenship. He opens his statement by apologizing modestly for being frightened in front of the audience and acknowledging that he has gone a long way since his abolition.
Alexandria ocasio-Cortez gave a speech and the audience was men. She wanted men and women to be equal and I think she wants to change the way men thinks they are better and stronger than women and she wants to fight for equal rights. I feel like she have don’t a very good job explaining to the audience for what she feels and What she has been dealing with in her life.
Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
The audience that Frederick was addressing was mainly northern whites. Frederick Douglass sought not only to convince people of the wrongfulness of slavery but to also make abolition more acceptable to northern whites. He wanted African Americans to receive equal justice and rights. He wanted to change the minds
of those about African Americans’ intelligence and abilities since white people believed that African Americans were inferior. He calls out the hypocrisy of the country. Douglass was very straightforward and serious in his speech. I can also say he was emotional, he sounded very engaged with his audience. I would say Douglass used pathos because I believe he wanted to emotionally connect with his audience. The speech genre made more sense for Douglass. It was very impactful and best for him to get to his audience.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (A.O.C), “I am Someone’s Daughter too”
The audience AOC was addressing are men. She talks about how women are treated horribly and men think they are superior to women. That men think they have the right to talk down on women. Men should treat women with respect as she says that “Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man. And when a decent man messes up, as we all are bound to do, he tries his best to apologize”. She spoke with passion and wasn’t afraid to speak up. I would say she used pathos and ethos to connect to her audience.
In Fedrick Douglas’ speech, he addresses the president, friends, and fellow citizens. However, they are outside his discourse community. A black man. He has not left anything out. He speaks on the hypocrisy of having a black man deliver a speech on Independence Day, when there is no independence for the black man, woman, or child. He intellectually lists the disparities between the races. He calls them out on their proudness of the day; when they have steered a million miles from what freedom and independence mean. Emotionally, he played on the contradictions of the reason for that very day. He showed awareness of their determination to be free of their British rule, but oppress others. He challenged their hypocrisy. He used humility to lower his audience’s defenses. The genre he chose—a speech—benefited his argument as he was able to reach his entire target audience. His audience was all the necessary players involved in the running of the nation.
In Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s speech, her audience is her colleagues, men, the world, and indirectly her abusers. She intends to persuade her audience to be cognizant of the abusive culture towards women. She chose to include details of the triggering incident and examples of past experiences that show abusive language toward women as an acceptable culture. Her intellectual strategy was to demonstrate the occurrence of dehumanizing remarks or comments toward her by powerful men in our society. She also made it clear that she was not addressing the abuses because of hurt feelings, but in an effort to express a lack of decency and respect for all members of her discourse community (women of Congress). Her emotional strategy was to appeal to their concern for their daughters and/or wives. Also, the behavior and acceptance of it give license for others to be abusive to their daughters and/or wives. Her speech indicates she is aware of the audience’s complacency with the abusive language used towards women. She challenged their thinking by letting them know that complacency allows for the same abuse to happen to the women in their lives. She lowered their defenses when she spoke of her father not being there to witness the mistreatment of his daughter, but her mother did. Her genre benefited her argument. She was able to call out her abuser and the issue to her colleagues and the nation. A letter may not have reached the wider audience—the people.
Frederick Douglass: In the Fredrick Douglass speech his great-grandchildren talk about what the 4th of July means to them. This speech is directly for people who celebrate the 4rth of July or question why African American people don’t celebrate the 4rth of July. Within this speech, each of them explains how it’s something they shouldn’t celebrate as it wasn’t their freedom that they conquered yet. Fredricks’s great-grandchildren go on to say that they won’t celebrate it because their liberty wasn’t included within the 4th of July. African Americans still had to fight for their freedom from racism. The tactics mostly used throughout the speech convey emotions, emotions that show what their older generations have been through and the unfairness of the 4rth of July. While many Americans had won their independence, African Americans still had a long way to go. Moving forward I believe that they used pathos for emotions but also some logos for logic. They use the logic of the 4rth of July and what it means to make their statements on why they won’t celebrate it credible.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: In this speech, Alexandria Cortez talks about her experiences with being a woman. Her audience is directly men and her abusers who have sexually assaulted her, including her colleagues. Within the speech, she utilizes pathos which uses emotions to portray her pasts experiences with sexual and verbal abuse. Cortez mentions unethical ways that she has been treated such as verbal abuse and unethical behaviors. Within this speech she managed to call upon her abusers who have tormented her, helping bring awareness on the matter.
Fredrick Douglas video of “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”
Audience: White people
Goal of video: To let white people know that blacks should be equal and how hypocritical 4th of July is if blacks are still not equal. He brought up the point of how if a black man gives a speech about 4th of July, it doesn’t make sense because blacks don’t have freedom and are not treated equally as white people.
I feel that the genre he used was perfectly used to get his message across.
In AOC, the audience is men.
Goal of video: To talk about the unfair treatment that women get. She wants men to look at women as equal and treatment of women to be fair. Women are looked down upon by some men and she wants that to change immediately. She used pathos and ethos in her speech. I believe that her genre was perfect for her speech.
The Audience for Frederick Douglass’s speech “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” is directed towards the president and other white people. The 4th of July is meant to celebrate the independence of the United States of America and stating how much America contradict their motto for independence but do not allow slaves and black people at the time to even have the chance for independence nor freedom. America was at the time, still a very young nation but the amount of effort that the older generations have fought for to gain this independence was a lot. And yet, not everyone in America has the right for independence and freedom. The genre of speech has benefitted Frederick Douglass’s speech as he was chosen for the 4th of July speech which means his message spread throughout the audience and even across the nation.
A.O.C is a speech directed towards men and more specifically, towards Rep. Ted Yoho. Her message was to stop men from making hurtful and sexist things towards women. And yet when confronted, Rep. Ted Yoho would use his wife and kids as an excuse to deny responsibility for his actions. She utilizes pathos to state her previous experiences with sexist insults towards her. She also lowered Rep. Ted Yoho’s excuse by stating she is also a daughter too but you would not treat someone else’s daughter disrespectfully too. Overall, her speech was very inspiring and her speech really resonated a powerful message, the genre of speech really helped benefit that argument as the message is shown all around America for the people to hear.
Fredrick Douglas Video of:” What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”
Audience: Mainly a white audience
Goal: To spread awareness of the unfairness and hypocrisy of the Fourth of July. He shares his idea that although the Fourth of July is supposed to celebrate freedom at the time blacks were not free.
In A.O.C’s speech she talks about the struggles that women have to go through
Audience: A.O.C.’s speech is mainly towards men, specifically the men who have sexually assaulted her.
Goal: A.O.C is trying to spread the idea of women and men being equal. She says that women are looked down upon. In her speech she uses ethos and pathos to portray her experiences and what she had to go through.
In Frederick Douglas’s speech, his audience is mainly northern whites. He shows significance of what Independence Day meant to African Americans as a whole. He chose speech as his genre which gave importance to his audience he was trying to target in a perfect way. Frederick wanted justice and fair rights for all African Americans and letting us know that slavery was unacceptable for the race. He uses pathos, I believe to have a better understanding with his audience. The speech was connected more on a deeper Level with how he really felt about the hypocrisy of the world.
In Alexandria Cortez’s speech, she directs her speech towards men specifically and she mentions past experiences she had that mentally took her life. Her message was to point out how women are treated so abusively still till this day. Cortez also uses pathos to tell her past situations within herself and not only focus it on her abusers. She wanted more people around the world to hear her and for women to know that they are not alone and should step up at all costs. Her speech could of been more informative I guess or more to the point on what her main idea or goal was.