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Learning To Read And Write Analysis

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Literacy is the key to freedom. In the articles “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” by Sherman Alexie, “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, and “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass, the message of learning to read and write providing fate-changing opportunities for oneself as well as for others is present consistently. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” by Sherman Alexie reveals that being able to read and write has a tremendous effect on one’s future. As evident in the following quote, “As Indian children, we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world,” Indians were “stupid” according to the stereotypes, and, unfortunately, Indian children “lived up to those expectations.” This stereotype had already …show more content…

Sometimes, Douglass feels “that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given him a view of his wretched condition.” It is implied in the quote that reading had freed his mind from the idea of the slavery, which provided the motivation for him to escape from his master. As a slave, his aching desire to be free physically increased as he realized he was not to be benefitted in any way if he was to stay a slave. Freedom was now a concept he was introduced to, and it was something that was hard to get, discovering it only for it to disappear. Reading books taught him that slavery was something to be condemned and that human rights very much existed for everyone, not only for the white man. Being an educated black man, he broke the expectation of blacks being inferior, and having his mind opened up to the new world, his life was changed from being a slave to a leader in the abolitionist movement, fighting to free the other slaves so that they could also experience the same fate-changing event as he

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630 Words | 3 Pages

It had given me a view of my wretched condition without the remedy.” Douglas felt that learning to read opened his eyes up to freedom and made him realize that he was a “slave for life.” Growing up there were many times I looked in the mirror and didn’t like the person I saw. I many times felt like a mistake, that I was worthless. I relate to Douglass’s sense of finally seeing his own identity and what he didn’t like about it.

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1432 Words | 6 Pages

His “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, (Document G) makes emotional reading (lurid descriptions like "bitterest dregs of slavery" or "broken in body, mind, and soul" elicited reactions of disgust and dejection, which is the what abolitionists were hoping for) and showed that ultimately a slave, long thought to be a possession and less than human, was very much a person with reason and intellect. It provides unsurmountable proof that like any man, a slave deserved a life of dignity and liberty. His work shed light on the constant hard-working and abusive lifestyle that slaves

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337 Words | 2 Pages

For years there has been a debate on who is the top predator in the ocean. Of course the shark is an easy choice but recently in the last couple years the killer whale has emerged as a challenge towards the Great White. The Killer whale is a worthy opponent towards the great white do to its bigger size and better and smarter hunting techniques. As history has shown great whites as dominant and scary they have been to the ocean as the apex predator they have been known to be the killer whales prey. When killer whales have attacked sharks they have turned the sharks upside down.

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633 Words | 3 Pages

In particular, when Douglass learned to read he began reading documents that contained argument against slavery and in doing so, he became conscious of the true horror of slavery. He writes, “I often found myself regretting my own existence and wishing myself dead…” (ch. VII). However, he continues, saying “...and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself…”(ch.

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582 Words | 3 Pages

Douglass began to view reading as a curse more than a blessing; a way in which he felt more imprisoned by the slave state he was in. Thus, the more he read the more he began to detest enslavers; which nonetheless in his mind would be nothing but thieves whom robbed slave’s homes. For it was not only reading but his ceaseless mind getting the best of him; such reading would create endless thoughts which haunted him and made him wish that he would remain an ignorant slave. Nonetheless, during Douglass’s thoughts, Douglass began to learn to

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392 Words | 2 Pages

Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of

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1523 Words | 7 Pages

Obviously, a slave is bound to his master , so when Douglass hits Mr. Covey it speaks a powerful message to the general public. He feels at ease, and almost free when he disobeys his master, a path which many slaves wouldn't dare to take. Douglass also was taught to read and write, a forbidden task among slaves as it could make them have status and plot ways to escape their masters, by Mrs. Auld, a former mistress of his. So when Douglass was “sent of errands” he always “took his book” with himself and “by going one part of “ his “errand quickly” he would find “time to get a lesson” before he returned to the Aulds household (Douglass). When Mrs. Auld taught Douglass how to read, it brought his perspective of life as a slave to a whole new level.

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560 Words | 3 Pages

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

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973 Words | 4 Pages

Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.

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836 Words | 4 Pages

Slaves often do not understand their condition fully, since they do not know life beyond slavery. His unawareness of the liberating power of education bound him in a misleading bliss, causing him to believe that his state of being had permanency and to remain unaware of his injustice. However, once education had revealed to Douglass his ignorance, he says, “. . . I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy.”

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1067 Words | 5 Pages

The level of education of the slaves on the plantation allow them to be manipulated by their masters. In many situations during the 1800s when slavery was prominent we can see that education holds power in society. Slave masters were educated and due to this, they were able to exert control over the slaves on the plantation. Douglass was self-educated and was able to analyze slave behavior and see slavery occur firsthand as a slave himself. In the book, we can see how the slave’s ignorance is actually bliss from the perspective of Douglass, how information like knowing how to read was withheld from the slaves and why and why slave-owners preferred non-educated slaves to educated ones.

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

The concept of consumerism was first brought to my awareness in First Year Writing. I admit, before this intro course, I was indeed ignorant of the negative impacts that consumption had on society. FYS opened my mind to the dangers of over-consumption, and more importantly, helped me see beyond what meets the eye. Take for example, Disney, a seemingly innocent corporation, a company’s whose name is practically synonymous with the notion of childhood innocence. Upon initial judgement, one would assume that Disney is merely harmless family entertainment.

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1673 Words | 7 Pages

The power of education is a main theme within A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass 's experiences lead him to recognize its great power and to believe that education is a key in our life. It has the power to open all doors while providing us with several opportunities. Education makes the difference; it expands the human mind since the more we know the more enlightened we are. It makes us free and it avoid us to be enslaved, too.

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684 Words | 3 Pages

N-e-w B-e-t-f-o-r-d, this what was Fredrick Douglass read when he stepped off the boat to the north. Just reading those words was an accomplishment. In his book The Narrative and Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave he details his experiences where knowledge is very key. Douglass shows how knowledge gained him the ultimate reward of freedom. Knowledge is the path to freedom.

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257 Words | 2 Pages

With this, Douglass is addressing the topic of slavery and whether to abolish it or not. And goes about telling the hardships he went through.

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