Pros And Cons Of Reading Frederick Douglass

“As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing” (Douglass 45). Frederick Douglass learned, against all odds, to read, and became literate; he spent his time absorbing all the knowledge that he could. However, as Douglass states, and as I do partially concur, that the ability of learning is at times a curse rather than a blessing for more reasons than one, but at the same time I do not believe that this is always the case. “It has given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It has opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out” (Douglass 45). Frederick Douglass, through early guidance of his Mistress, was able to teach himself how to read. However, it was outlawed in the South to teach a slave

He realized that the treatment he and all of the other slaves were facing was not common in the other half of the country, nor in the rest of the World. However, what drove him to go as far as to say that the ability to read was a curse was the case that he had no idea how to solve the problem. He had learned to read, and it opened his eyes and left him staring at the darkness in which he was trapped in with no source of light to guide him out. Douglass voices that “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Anything, no matter what, to get rid of thinking” (Douglass 45). He uses these words to show that although slavery tortured him physically, the idea that he knew well of the disease bothering his people (slavery), but could not use his knowledge to find a cure, beat him down mentally. I had also faced similar thoughts previously about learning. I had a cousin that had developed a possible life threatening disease, one that had no cure. I tried to research his problem extensively, reading