The Same Differences After learning about both Richard Rodriguez and Frederick Douglass you can see that both men have had their own personal struggles. These struggles shaped both men and helped them find their place in the world. Although they come from different time periods in history both men understood that they lacked a fundamental understanding of the world around them. One similarity is that both Douglas and Rodriguez are of deep cultural roots. Rodriguez being Mexican American , whereas Douglass being born a White African American.
Nevertheless both men understood that education is the key to opening their minds to the world around them. However the ways that Frederick Douglass learned to read and write was not conventional by any
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Unlike Rodriguez, Douglass would have been seen as a danger because educated slaves could bring on a revolution and would be seen as an abolitionist with crazy ideas. However, Rodriguez believed that one should immerse oneself into the American way of life which included giving up one's cultural identity for a new and better one. In contrast Frederick Douglass did not want to give up his rich cultural heritage because he understood that without it people would forget the horrors committed to them in the white man’s world.
Frederick was an advocate of his heritage and taught others to read and write so he could inform them. Douglass wanted other African Americans to see the world without the fuzzy restriction of old world ideas. Unlike Douglass , Rodriguez saw that reading and writing as a tool to empower oneself and that people that don't take advantage are the only ones to blame. In contrast Rodriguez wanted to make it harder for people of hispanic heritage to learn to read and write because of his strong stance on bilingual education and affirmative action by trying to rid the school system of bilingual