"In the context of the passage as a whole, the author's comparison between the qualities of people and of metals (paragraphs 5-6) primarily serves to"

The comparison here is done to E) reinforce the author's overarching claim about ordinary people's capacity for success.

Fredrick Douglass:

In this speech titled, "Self-Made Men," Mr. Douglass spoke of how people and base metals are similar because base metals are not generally considered valuable and yet can be used to make beautiful things like bells.

In the same vein, he speaks of how people can come from the lowest classes and still prevail and excel in the world just like those base metals which weren't valuable but were still used beautifully.

We can therefore conclude that the comparison was done to show that Mr. Douglass believed that ordinary people can be successful.

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Options for this question include:

A) explain why some people are seen as great starting from birth

B) show that it is unremarkable if a few people achieve more than expected

C) limit the author's earlier remarks about greatness to a certain subset of people

D) challenge the audience's likely belief that the world is inherently fair

E) reinforce the author's overarching claim about ordinary people's capacity for success

Hello. You did not show the text to which this question refers, which makes it impossible for that question to be answered.

However, taking into account the insanity of melta for the human race, the author may have compared humans and metals, to show how humans were very dependent not only on metal, but also on the manipulation of metal and how it changed history and human evolution, making life without metals totally indispensable.

i believe its the indians