Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X Comparison Essay

Frederick Douglass was very fortunate to have learned how to read. In his time if you were a slave and had no education you couldn’t escape to freedom. Frederick Douglass’s key to education was his mistress (155). At first she was very nice and was giving him the education he needed and wanted but then from the influence of her husband she became rotten and denied him the right to his education “My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband no, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by anyone else” (155). But then he was fortunate enough to get some boys around where he lived to continue teaching him “The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these I could I could, I converted into teachers,

Frederick Douglass was born a slave in 1818 and grew up in Master Hugh’s family for just about seven years. After learning to read and write, he escaped slavery and became a leader in the abolitionist movement. Growing up he was segregated from reading and writing and instead of receiving an education, Douglas fulfilled the duties of his slave master. Malcolm X, born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, was imprisoned at the age of 21 and sentenced to 10 years for burglary, however, he was granted parole after serving seven years. While imprisoned, Malcolm Little taught himself how to read and write by surrounding himself with a paper, pencil, and a dictionary. After years of constant reading and writing,

Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass both came from an African American background but the time difference of these two men when they were brought to the world changed. Malcolm X had a rough life. His dad was mysteriously murdered and his mom was mentally ill and with no parent figure he got in to the street life. He got in to selling illegal substances and burglary. He was struggling financially as well. In 1946 Malcolm X age twenty at the time was sentenced to prison for 10 years for burglary. Both Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass had rough lives. Frederick Douglass born in the early 1800’s was born a slave for life. Even though racism was still around in Malcolm’s time it was even worse for Frederick Douglass during his time. Frederick Douglass had no education because salves at the time were not allowed to be taught. The only thing slaves were taught to do from a young age was to obey there master and that’s all they knew how to do. Frederick Douglass was very restricted on how to get an education but Malcolm was free.

Comparing Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are to diverse individuals with two opposite personalities but both successfully succeeded in achieving freedom and bringing equality to black Americans discriminated against for many years even after the abolishment of slavery. Martin Luther King was born in 1929, in Georgia, Atlanta. Unlike the other black people in the southern states he was different he grew up in well off family who was freely educated a key factor in his personal achievements. During his younger adult years just like his father who was a preacher King decided to work in the Christian church as a Baptist Minster. He idolised Mohandas Karamchand

According to Douglass, “They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to” (Douglass, 150). Douglass saw similarities between the struggles of the forefathers and black slaves, and he compelled his audience to recognize these similarities and follow the example of the forefathers.

Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X were very huge leading figures during the Civil Rights movement. Though they had many differences, they had some similarities. Both men’s fathers were preachers and both men were religious preachers themselves. Dr. King and Malcolm X were around the same age and they were both assassinated. Coincidentally, both men had the same number of children and eventually they had the same ideologies for the Civil Rights Movement. However, Dr. King and Malcolm X were different in ways such as Malcolm X wanted black supremacy and Dr. King wanted equality, Malcolm X saw violence as an option to achieve his goals if peace did not work and Dr. King believed in complete nonviolence, and Malcolm X

Literacy is power. Being taught to read and write is important to function in society. You learn to read and write to express your feelings and communicate with others. Frederick Douglass and Malcom X both succeeded in learning how to read and write, but in different ways. The education of Malcolm X was learned more formally. Frederick Douglass learned from his surroundings and the people around him. Malcom and Frederick battled in reading and writing, but learned in similar and different ways.

Fredrick Douglass was a slave, who secretly learned how to read and write in many different forms such as his mistress and pieced together the elements of literacy through outside sources such as old books, and writing tools from young children. Unlike Malcom X, he received an education although it was limited, and went to prison where he accessed books from the library. Malcom X stated in his essay Learning to Read, “An inmate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusually intense interest in books.” Meaning reading was not allowed for slaves. Unlike Douglass situation, if he would have shown interest in a book he would have been punished for it. Being a slave Douglass had to keep his development in reading and writing hidden while Malcolm insisted on writing letters to Elijah Muhammad with his new acquired vocabulary. This proved that Malcolm’s education was easier to gain unlike Fredrick Douglass, through slavery reading and writing was much

When comparing two essays, there are many different aspects that the reader can look at to make judgments and opinions. In the two essays that I choose, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. 'Letter from Birmingham Jail', and FREDERICK DOUGLAS'S 'From Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,' there were many similarities, but also many differences. Some of them being, the context, style, structure and tone. Many times when readings or articles are being compared, people over look the grammatical and structural elements, and just concentrate on the issues at hand. I believe it is important to evaluate both.

Both Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass fought against racism with their education. In his early years, Malcolm X was at the top of his class yet he did not receive the same encouragements as his caucasian counterparts. In his autobiography, he depicted a scene where in his English teacher, Mr Ostrowski, said, “ Malcolm, one of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic. Don’t misunderstand me, now. We all here like, you know that. But you’ve got to be realistic about being [an African American]. A lawyer -- that’s no realistic goal for [an African American],” (X 38). While Mr Ostrowski said these things to Malcolm, he encouraged all the other children to pursue their passions. He also suggested for Malcolm to be a carpenter

By this I mean that he gained improvements in areas such as literacy when he was belonged to Mr. Auld, he gained new friends when he resided with the Hughs, and most important,, he gained consciousness and courage while he was lent to a slave breaker, Mr. Covey. Little by little as Douglass gained in these assets which eventually became his tool for his departure from slavery.Another similarity between these two narrations is the assimilation of a created character by the authors themselves. The chronology and the events that happened in the lives of the authors in their narrations remained questionable. They picked the events that would only exemplify the characters that they want to portray. Thus, even though both works are autobiographical, their roles they claimed to be in their narration are exaggerated. Remember that they want to set themselves up as poor, down beaten characters at the beginning and slowly rise to power and success. For example, Franklin used descriptions such as "I was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuff'd out with shirts and stockings... with a roll under each arm, and eating the other," to really give reader a sense of "his" conditions when he ran away. Douglass used the same approach to stress his poor conditions. The use of comparison of his slave status with farm animals and great

“You mean it?” his asks in a naive tone of voice. There are tears still rolling down his face fiercely as if they were the black bodies battered through the centuries.

Learning how to read is one of the most common processes in the world. For me, learning how to read is the most useful ability that I have learned throughout my entire life. For others, most people learn how to read though different languages in different ways. For Malcolm X, he found reading to be appealing and devoted so much time to it. Malcolm X recounts his personal history of learning to read and how he finds reading to be the most important skill and influence everything in his life. He retells his history of reading several books and dictionaries and how th process slowly affected his life. He elaborates how reading increases a performance and efficiency to heighten their potential. In “Learning to Read, “ by Malcolm X, he

Patrick Henry once said, “give me liberty, or give me death.” In the eyes of Frederick Douglass and countless others enslaved, this took on a much deeper meaning to them. “It was doubtful liberty at most, and almost certain death is we failed.” [51] Frederick Douglass was one of the most commonly known slaves to have existed. Slavery has been around since the 1700s, but the subject of slavery is controversial because it not only includes information written from former slaves, but information acquired from historians. The question that has with stood the test of time is, “are these encounters that have been written out, exaggerated or the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” In the early 1800’s Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, and grew up on Colonial Edward Lloyd’s plantation. Children would be separated from their mothers before they were twelve months in age-Frederick too was separated from his mother. As a result of entering slave-hood at an early age, he did not know his birthdate (like most slaves). Frederick Douglass’s account on slavery could be seen as biased as a result of first hand experiences with being held as a slave. Although, Douglass is able to be direct our thoughts to these experiences in such a light, you feel as if you are witnessing it happen right before you. Because of Douglass’s quest for freedom, his daring attitude, and determination to learn, he shows us the way through American Slavery in his eyes. Douglass provides

Frederick Douglass, a famous abolitionist leader and writer, was born into slavery in the early 1800’s. Douglass published many books and papers illustrating the time in which he lived, all of them portraying his perspective of growing up as a slave in Talbot County, Maryland. During this time slaves had no rights. They were bought and sold constantly, and were consider property the slave owners. Slaves mainly worked in the fields, but Douglass on the other hand, was lucky enough to live as a servant to the Master and his family. In his essay, “Learning to Read and Write”, Frederick Douglass described the events that took place in his early childhood and adolescence years that helped him acquire the skills to learn to read and write. These skills are ultimately what enabled Douglass to free himself from slavery and pursue his own passions to fight slavery with his words. In Contrasts, Peter Elbow is a modern day English professor who has published numerous essays regarding methods on how to improve People’s writing skills. One of his methods is known as “Freewriting.” Although these two essays were published nearly two centuries apart, they contain similar methods of organization and purposes within their writing. The authors used a step-by-step method of writing where each supporting detail adds the previous one and guides the reader closer to the main principle of the paper.