Frederick Douglass in his article, Learning to Read and Write, tells about his struggle to learn to read and write in the 1800’s because he was a slave. He uses an anecdote, pathos, and personification to support his actions to not let slavery prevent his education. The majority of his article is a personal anecdote telling of his struggle to learn to read and write. In his narrative, he appeals to the readers’ emotions in order to make them better understand his actions and situation. He does this by using imagery to describe his situation, using descriptive words to explain his desire to learn, and telling about the change his mistress went through.
Douglass was so determined to become literate that he learned in so many unorthodox ways that it made him a better thinker, reader, and writer. As a child Douglass got his hands on The Columbian Orator, which instilled an influx of ideas in his mind. Although with the spark the Columbian Orator arisen, Douglass wasn’t able to do much with it because he was unable to create a coherent answer or response to the questions and ideas he had. With the arrival of these thoughts also brought along heartache. He was a prisoner to his own mind, when he learned to read he got a rude awakening by being aware of his situation as a slave.
Fredrick Douglass learning to read and write, tells the story on how Douglass learned to read and write with little to no help. Douglass had a mistress that help him start the journey. But soon the mistress was told to ceased to instruct Douglass. Douglass watched her become a very heavy-hearted woman. When Douglass’s mistress first saw her, she didn’t see him as personal property.
Furthermore, Douglass used education as a mental resistance when he realized the necessity of escaping to freedom. This can be illustrated by the time he worked in the Baltimore’s industry. Douglass was well educated about the trade of caulking; therefore, Mr. Hugh allowed him to work for other masters in the
Frederick Douglass was a slave whose goal was to learn to read and write. Even though Douglass knew that he, and the people helping him achieve this goal, could get in serious trouble. Douglass wanted to be treated as a human with all the same qualities. The narrative states, “It is Almost an unpardonable offense to teach slaves to read in this Christian country.”
Language is the basic verbal expression of culture. Language is so abstract, yet people manage to say a lot with mere words. The structure of language helps determine how one is likely to view the world and it determines how people think. An illiterate does not have the ability to construct abstract thoughts until it has had some academic experience. The way in which they go about learning wholly depends on their culture.
Frederick Douglass in his narrative “Why I learned to Read and Write” demonstrates how he surpassed many obstacles along the way towards getting an education. These obstacles not only shaped Frederick’s outlook on life but also influenced him in his learning to read and write. Frederick’s main challenge was that of not being an owner of his person but rather a slave and a property to someone else. Frederick Douglass lived in the time when slavery was still taking place and slaveholders viewed slavery and education as incompatible. The slave system didn’t allow mental or physical freedom for slaves; slaveholders were to keep the apt appearance and slaves were to remain ignorant.
Douglass in “Learning to Read and Write” identified that there is no end to learning; there was always more to find out about or hear a different opinion on. Because of learning, he heard the word abolition for the first time. Just the thought of becoming free was enough for Douglass to continue striving to acquire information. The ability to read allowed him to learn more about current events than his fellow slaves which in turn gave him ideas about freedom. Education ultimately brought him to freedom which dramatically increased his quality of
He converted unknowingly little “White boys” that he would meet on the street into his teachers and over time, Douglass finally learned how to read. The young boys that helped teach Douglass how to read would soon grow up and be free to do as they wish, but he would be a slave for life! By learning to read, not only did Douglass gain the knowledge
Douglass states: “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery” (Douglass 51). Reading and writing opened Frederick Douglass’s eyes to the cause of the abolitionist. He became knowledgeable about a topic that white slave owners tried to keep hidden from their slaves. Literacy would eventually impact his life in more ways than what he could see while he was a young slave under Master Hugh’s
Human slavery requires ignorance, just as an individual’s freedom, from oppression, requires knowledge attained by education. To maintain order and control over slaves, slavery demands ignorant slaves; thus, keeping slaves ignorant prevents slaves from recognizing the empowering value of education and education’s ability to liberate slaves from the effects of ignorance. Frederick Douglass’s pursuit of education helped him discover the dark, hidden truths of slavery in his article, “How I Learned to Read and Write.” Thus, the pursuit of education inspires a desire for freedom. The desire to learn generates determination and motivation.
With all the knowledge he was gaining, he began to comprehend everything around him. The things he was learning fascinated him, but the “more [he] read, the more [he] was led to abhor and detest [his] enslavers”(Douglass 35); however, that should not be viewed as a negative affect but a positive one. No one should want to be deceived for their entire life. This hatred that he built up motivated him to continue to further educate himself. As a result, he later motivated other slaves to earn an education by having “[availed] themselves to [an] opportunity to learn to read” (Douglass 69) by Douglass teaching them every Sunday.
Douglass realizes in the narrative that he must educate himself in order to gain his freedom from the outside oppression and from his inside thoughts. The idea that education is the means to freedom is a major theme in this Narrative. Contrarily, later in his story, Douglass’s unhappiness shows that education does not directly bring freedom because his new consciousness of injustice has setbacks; he realizes that intellectual freedom is not the same as physical freedom. Though the Narrative treats knowledge as the means to freedom, Douglass realizes his transformation from slave to free man in his major acts of violence. Douglass regains his internal spirit, desire to learn, and conviction to be free by physically fighting against his oppressor and slave-owner, Covey.
Knowledge is a very important essential of life because it help us understand and learn through our experience and education by discovering new things. Reading and writing help Frederick Douglass to form and articulate his ideas about slavery by discovering the true meaning behind the word “abolitionist,” which led him the to find freedom. Moving to Baltimore helped Douglass find opportunities at a young age. He realized how important reading was when his masters got upset when he was learning how to read, which gave him the need to learn in order to find out the true freedom behind life. Learning how to read was important to Douglass life because he started to figure out how to read newspapers and books when he was left alone.
However, literacy turns out to be not only bliss, but also painful. Indeed, while learning to read Frederick becomes more and more aware of the injustices of slavery, and this leads him to regret this knowledge “Learning how to read had become a curse rather than a blessing” ( Douglass ) . Douglass believes in the importance of education. He thinks that education is a key part to our life; it is the only way to get freedom. Literacy is very powerful because it can set anyone free to pursue dreams.
