Many relationships in life consist of a balancing act between people in opposite roles: submissive and dominant. Sometimes, as in the case of a parent and their child, the dominant person is there to prevent the submissive one from making bad choices so that they can become better individuals. These relationships, while occasionally beneficial, are often abused and misused. White slave owners and supporters of slavery accepted the idea that whites should be dominant over African Americans, claiming that they were trying to “help” them by enslaving them. This “help” was just an excuse for their racism. This superiority complex developed because the most read book, the Bible, claims to be so. It states, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with reverence, fear, and sincerity of heart, as you would obey Christ” (Ephesians 6:5). These errors supported and justified their racism, prejudice, and cruelty towards the African American race through slavery. However, many people, such as abolitionists, did not accept this idea. Many challenged this and often asked questions that questioned the legitimacy of this system, thus supporting equality between African Americans and whites. Frederick Douglass and Toni Morrison, both black writers, both advocate for equality and against slavery. However, Frederick Douglass and Toni Morrison both use metaphor, but differ in their respective use of anecdote and repetition to destroy defenses of slavery and support the equality of African Americans. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. Douglas supports equality by showing how slavery is destructive to both slaves and their owners through metaphor to refute slave logic. Slave logic states that slavery is mutually beneficial to both slaves and whites because white men need workers and slavery protects slaves from making bad choices. Douglass, who began his life on a plantation and experienced the brutality of slavery, disagreed with this. He was eventually placed with a family in Baltimore and the woman who owned him was initially kind because she had never owned a slave before. Once introduced to slavery, she changed completely because “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands. . . the cheerful eye, under the influence of bondage, soon turned red with anger. . . and that angelic face gave way to that of a demon” (Douglass 960). Douglass uses poison as a metaphor for power by saying that slavery, like a poison, is destroying his mistress from the inside and turning her into someone the slaves see as a demonic harbinger of pain and suffering. Douglass's metaphor makes the reader question the legitimacy of the mutual benefits of slavery because here slavery hurts the slave owner by making him inhumane. Douglass states that slavery demonizes the owner and consequently causes him to bring terror and pain to the slaves. Through metaphor, he argues not by saying why African Americans are equal, but by exposing the reader to the logical fallacy that people use to justify slavery. After questioning the logic, the reader concludes that slavery is wrong because he understands its universally destructive effects. Douglass actually supports equality by creating a question that pushes the reader to see the distortion that is slavery, causing them to no longer support it. They have no other choicethan thinking that no one should own another person and feeling that equality for African Americans should be a necessary and expected part of society. Douglass's arguments that disarm the commonly held slave logic influence these readers to come to coincident conclusions. Toni Morrison, like Douglass, creates metaphors to support equality and the negative effects of slavery on African Americans and whites to combat slave logic. Despite growing up after emancipation, Morrison was exposed to issues of racism and white supremacy. In describing post-Civil War society, he says, “White people believed. . . beneath every dark skin was a jungle. . .screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a certain sense. . . they were right. . . . But it wasn't the jungle that blacks brought with them to this place. . . . They were the jungle whites who had planted it there. . . .It spread. . . until it invaded the whites who had made it. . . . It made them bloodthirsty, foolish, worse than they wanted to be, so afraid were they of the jungle they had created. Screaming baboons lived under their white skin; the red gums were theirs” (Morrison 208). Morrison metaphorically compares both African Americans and whites to "screaming baboons" who are hungry for blood and live in a jungle. Here, Morrison calls both African Americans and whites savages, which stems from slavery perpetuated by whites. Slavery made African Americans savage and uncivilized, as Morrison agreed that they were right, and it made whites as savage as they think African Americans are. He describes slavery as making whites worse than they wanted to be and making African Americans savage enough to be hungry for white blood. This goes against the very idea that Douglass argues against the argument that slavery was desirable for everyone involved. Both authors demonstrate that it is harmful to everyone involved and each supports equality by pointing this out to readers using metaphor and forcing them to question that logic. The reader realizes that slavery cannot be beneficial to anyone, all it does is destroy the people it touches and push them to be savage and animalistic. Thanks to Douglass and Morrison, they will discredit the logic of slaves and the institution of slavery. Both authors' arguments are effective because they each convinced people to support equality rather than slavery through metaphor. These negative comparisons are the reason why readers agree with the authors because they make them see the failures of pro-slavery logic. Although these authors do similar things to support the same idea, they sometimes differ in their methods. Douglass argues for equality by forcing readers to question the ethics of slavery using an anecdote. Douglass grows up as a slave, and his terrible conditions lead him to question the institution that enslaved him. Douglass shares one of his questions by stating, “White children could tell their age. I cannot say why I should be deprived of the same privilege” (Douglass 946). This anecdote stays in the reader's mind, and the more he thinks about it, the more Douglass's confusion becomes the subject of his questions. His confusion leads the reader to wonder why exactly Douglass didn't deserve to know his age and whether there was even a legitimate reason. Here, Douglass shows the most fundamental of reasons to disagree with slavery: it discriminates without real reason or purpose. This sets the reader on the path to accepting Douglass a's thesis.