Northup uses a lot of contrast in his book, Twelve Years a Slave. There are several ways to incorporate contrast into your writing similarly to Northup. You either want to contrast entire entities, or specific qualities of those entities. I’m going to talk about how Northup uses contrast in his book, and how you can use contrast in your own writing.
First, a few ways Northup uses contrast. Northup contrasts the way he grieves his separation from his children, and the way Eliza grieves over hers. Another instance is the contrast between Northup’s different masters. He contrasts master Ford with Tibeats, and he contrasts Bass with Epps, and the like. Overall, Northup uses a lot of contrast to improve his writing and create clear descriptions and differences between characters.
One way you can improve your own writing is by using contrasts. You can use two qualities of the things you are trying to contrast, or the entire things as a whole. For example, a quality of Eliza’s grief was her lack of will to work, and Northup was able to contrast that with his quality of having a will to work in his situation. This is different from simply saying that Eliza’s grief was more outwardly apparent than Northup’s. He goes into detail about specific qualities that he is contrasting, and that is a great way to introduce contrast into your own pieces.
In conclusion, contrast is a great literary device for providing detailed and in-depth descriptions about people, places, or things. Northup uses this tool in a very smart way by contrasting specific qualities in addition to general facts. It is helpful to implement this writing device into your own writing because it adds depth and character to your writing, and helps it be easier to understand.