by Frederick Douglass
This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!
What, to a Slave, is the Fourth of July?
Question
Use the passage to answer the question.
In which sentence does the author use juxtaposition?
(1 point)
Responses
“You may rejoice, I must mourn.”
“You may rejoice, I must mourn.”
“Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin!”
“Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin!”
“Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?”
“Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?”
“If so, there is a parallel to your conduct.”
1 answer
The sentence in which the author uses juxtaposition is:
“You may rejoice, I must mourn.”
This statement contrasts the celebratory tone of the Fourth of July with the sorrowful experience of the enslaved, highlighting the disparity between the two perspectives.
