An Analysis Of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's Learning To Read

“And I felt independent, as the queen upon here throne” (Baym 2012). This simile ties together the thought of a woman’s struggle for an education in the poem, “Learning to Read”, by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Through Harper’s deployment of the character, Chloe, the author conveys the importance of knowledge that a sixty-year-old African American woman yearns, through the specific use of altered diction, change in tone, and imagery to show that knowledge is power.

In the beginning of the poem, Chloe shows the use of poor diction when she articulates how the “Rebs hate it” because school was “agin’ their rule” (Baym 2012). Chloe displayed some grammatical mistakes and uses jargons for words seen in the first few stanzas of the poem. She forgot

The poem started off with an underlying dark and negative tone that was used in regards to the “Rebs”, who deprived the slaves of knowledge. Harper writes, “Our masters always tried to hide book learning from our eyes; knowledge did’nt agree with slavery twould make us all too wise”. In this stanza, Chloe articulates that her education was being kept away from her because the “knowledge” at that time was not meant for slaves. This verse also has a subtle hint of mockery when Chloe states how “knowledge did’nt agree with slavery”. This seemed as if it was said as a fact rather than a belief of the Rebels. Additionally, with the use of a mockery tone, comes a sense of coercion, specifically when Chloe utters, “Twould make us all too wise” (Baym 2012). This implies that the Rebels are depriving the slaves of knowledge for the mere fact that if they were to obtain it, they could rebel. This further dictates that African American slaves are capable of knowledge and are eager to learn, as they “try to steal a little from the book and put the words together and learn by hook or crook” (Baym 2012). The use of word choices with “hook or crook” in this sense, later follows a change of tone. Chloe’s tone is becoming more relaxed and matured, as she reflects on the techniques she uses when she learned how to read. The idiom “by hook or crook” refers to familiar phrase of obtaining something by any means necessary.