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Opposing Views On Frederick Douglas's 'The Columbian Orator'

560 Words3 Pages

a) Mrs. Auld thinks Douglass should be able to read because she teaches him herself. “ My mistress- who had begun to teach me- was suddenly checked in her benevolent design,...”(Douglass 521). The author says that his mistress began to teach him, so this proves what Mrs. Auld thinks about Douglass’s reading.
b) I think that Mrs. Auld is later “violent in her opposition” to Douglass’s reading because her husband gave her strong advice of not teaching Douglass how to read. “ In faithful compliance with this advice, the good lady had not only ceased to instruct me, herself, but had set her face as a flint against my learning to read by any means”(Douglass 521). According to the text, Mrs. Auld ceased to instruct Douglass due to the strong advice …show more content…

a) Douglass buys the Columbian Orator when he is about thirteen years old. “ Fortunately, or unfortunately, about this time in my life, I had made enough money to buy what was then a very popular schoolbook, the Columbian Orator”(Douglass 525). The author says he has made enough money to buy the Columbian Orator, which proves Douglass this is the book he buys when he is about thirteen years old.
b) Douglass transforms from “light-hearted” to “wretched and gloomy” from reading this because it opens his eyes and shows him the evil of slavery. Reading this makes him less naive. “ This knowledge opened my eyes to the horrible pit, and revealed the teeth of the frightful dragon that was ready to pounce upon me, but it opened no way for my escape...I was wretched and gloomy, beyond my ability to describe”(Douglass 526). In this quote, Douglass describes why he transforms from “light-hearted” to “wretched and gloomy” due to him reading the Columbian Orator. 3. a) Douglass’s everlasting thinking consumes him once he obtains this knowledge. “It was this everlasting thinking which distressed and tormented me; and yet there was no getting rid of the subjects of my thoughts”(Douglass 526). According to the text, it proves that Douglass is consumed by his everlasting thinking because he says that it distresses and torments

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