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Essay Comparing Frederick Douglass And Richard Wright

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Everyone has had a sudden awakening or epiphany. One minute you don’t understand but suddenly a light bulb goes off. Just as if you are told a joke you do not comprehend. However, after some thinking it finally hits you. This is what Richard Wright and Frederick Douglass experience. So, the theme of awakening in both Black Boy and from My Bondage and My Freedom, after both authors gain knowledge. For example, Wright in Black Boy is awakened after reading the book A Book of Prefaces. “I was jarred and shocked by the style…how did one write like that…I pictured the man as a raging demon, slashing with his pen…laughing at the weakness of people…”. Wright is astonished and puzzled by the author’s style of writing. The emotions he’s feeling, make him want to learn more. By doing that, it will help him to write this way too. This is his start or gateway to his awakening. In a like manner, Douglass in from My Bondage and My Freedom is also awakened after reading. “I wish I could be free…as soon as you are twenty-one, and can go where you like, but I am a slave for life. Have I not as a right to be free as you have?”. After gaining the ability to read and comprehend things, Douglass starts to question the rights he has a slave and the freedoms he doesn’t have …show more content…

“He was using words as a weapon, using them as one would use a club. Could words be weapons? Well, yes…perhaps I could use them as a weapon…”. The book makes Wright realize how powerful words are and their strong effect on people. Similarly, Douglass is awakened after reading a book also, called Columbian Orator.”. …This knowledge opened my eyes to the horrible pit…Once awakened by the silver trump of knowledge. Liberty...”. After finishing the book, which shed light on freedom, Douglass’s fire is lit. The speeches and dialogues anger him but also push him to realize that liberty is something he could have and something he

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