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Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write Summary

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In “Learning to Read and Write” Frederick Douglass reminisces on his experiences acquiring literacy as he attempts to gain autonomy. He speculates that literacy could also foreshadow danger for him but also that knowledge might hold danger for everyone. Concerning literacy, Douglass writes “Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper. She seemed to think that here lay danger”. He uses “seemed” which implies a subjective interpretation of the mistress’s behavior. Later in the essay, Douglass switches to an objective view of her behavior as he proclaims that she “is an apt woman”. The transition between these perspectives of the mistress mirrors his transformation from illiterate to literate. He stops relying on

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