Freedom To Learn: Fredrick Douglas And Richard Rodriguez

Picture this going through life without the ability to read or write. Without these abilities, it is impossible for a person to be a functioning member of society. In addition, imagine that someone is purposely limiting your knowledge to keep a leash on your independence. Not only is an American slave raised without skills in literacy, he cannot be taught to read unless someone breaks the law. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the reader is given a detailed explanation of why slave masters keep their slaves ignorant and the effects such a strategy has on the slaves’ lives. In his autobiography, Douglass describes how the knowledge he obtains has substantial positive and negative effects on his psyche. He is given renewed passion and hope for freedom while struggling with the burden of enlightenment of his situation. Ultimately, however, education shapes his fate, and he achieves freedom and prominence as an advocate for abolition.

"Some men know the value of education by having it. I know its value by not having it." –Blessings of Liberty and Education (1894) In Frederick Douglass’ narrative he writes about his childhood memories while he was enslaved including memories from different owners and overseers.He talks about the multiple different plantations he had lived on. He includes his memories of the terrible treatment of his family and fellow slaves as well as memories of being in communications with them. In his narrative, he criticizes many aspects of slavery however he focuses on the inhumanity of slavery. By criticizing the inhumanity of slavery Douglass demonstrates that becoming literate enabled him to discover his self-pride which helped him become a

Malcom X once said, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” This quotation means that education is an important thing, and we should prepare for our future. Fredrick Douglass and Malcom X are two different men who write similar aspects. Fredrick Douglass is a slave, and Malcom X is a criminal, both were deprived of obtaining a higher sense of education. They are two activists who grew up to realize the importance of an education, in reading and writing. In Frederick Douglas’s essay “Learning to Read and Write” and Malcolm’s “Learning to Read” one can compare and contrast the analysis both essays.

In the Daily Gazette, Micaela Baranello states that Diane Anderson, a Swarthmore Education professor, emphasized, “The importance of realizing that just because students speak outside of the dominant discourse does not mean they are deficient, but rather that they are different” (Baranello). This demonstrates that if someone is different somehow, it should not degrade them, and that is what both Gloria Anzaldua in How to Tame a Wild Tongue and Frederick Douglass in Learning to Read explain in their texts. Even though Anzaldua promotes language identity while Douglass encourages an overall education, they both promote social justice and tolerance through the role of literacy.

Frederick Douglass, former slave and prominent abolitionist gives an account of his coming to literacy in the excerpt, Learning to Read and Write, from his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. He offers an immersive and rich telling of his journey to academic enlightenment by using enthralling detail, riveting imagery, and noteworthy metaphors. Douglass’s objective is to prove to the audience that in order to achieve recognition and dignity you must possess the power of articulation and eloquence.

“How would you feel if you were a slave and were not allowed to learn reading and writing?” Frederick Douglass is one of millions victims in slavery; moreover, he is one of few influential African-American abolitionists. He illustrates how he successfully overcomes tremendous difficulties to become literate in his essay, “Learning to Read and Write.” He believes that education is the key to freedom for slaves. Similarly, non-English speaking immigrants regard education as the essential to get rid of struggles in English in the United States.

A synthetic analysis of two works from African American literature reveals that there is no greater accomplishment than learning to read and write. Literacy is what allows us to gain knowledge through learning. This topic is important because based on a study conducted by the U.S Department of Education and the National Institution of Literacy, 32 million adults in the U.S are still unable to read and write and African Americans are expected to make up nearly half of that amount. In both Fredrick Douglass’ “Learning to Read” and Malcolm X’s “A Homemade Education,” common themes regarding literacy and freedom are identified and both reflect why literacy is so important. The two texts prove how crucial the processes of learning to read

After being “gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, …gained from [his] master,” Douglass retrieves greater sight of his situation and is “set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read” (32). Realizing that educating himself is the path to freedom, Douglass is inspired “with a desire and determination to learn” for the purpose of gaining his individual freedom (33). This determination coming from a slave like Douglass extends onto the idea that knowledge truly is power, and can lead to freedom even when situated into the life of a slave. But having taken away his mentor, Douglass must now resort to his own determination to accomplish his goals.

Education is something that is often taken for granted in this day and age. Kids these days rebel against going to school all together. In the essays “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie and “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass, we learn of two young men eager for knowledge. Both men being minors and growing up in a time many years apart, felt like taking how to read and write into their own hands, and did so with passion. On the road to a education, both Alexie and Douglass discover that education is not only pleasurable, but also painful. Alexie and Douglass both grew up in different times, in different environments, and in different worlds. They both faced different struggles and had different achievements, but they were not all that different. Even though they grew up in different times they both had the same views on how important of education was. They both saw education as freedom and as a way of self-worth even though they achieved their education in different ways. They both had a strong mind and a strong of sense of self-motivation.

Fredrick Douglass wrote the very empowering story called, “Learning to Read and Write”. The entire work had emotion and painted a great picture of the life he lived struggling with his intelligence and trying to gain as much information as he could without getting caught. Douglass took any opportunity many others would not even notice.

Fredrick Douglass was well known abolitionist know for influence on the black community through his stories from moving around during the slave journey, his escape, and his rise to being an abolitionist. Not many people believed that Douglass was a slave, many people just believed for him to be another abolitionist that preached about slavery but never been through it. So, he decided it was his job to make his story known. Using his biographies we see that Fredrick Douglass used the people around him to teach him how to read, knowing how to read made him more aware of his barriers and the people who wanted to remove those barriers. This paper with analyze the life of Fredrick Douglass and his journey to be

However, being from different time periods with different cultural backgrounds, they both grew different attitudes towards learning how to acquire basic skills (in this case, reading and writing). Unlike Rodriguez, Douglass was a slave in the nineteenth century, who’s mistress stopped teaching him how to read and write because, like many other slave owners, she believed that the terms “slavery” and “education” did not correlate with each other (paragraph 2). With this idea in mind, Douglass was convinced that in order to get closer to his freedom, he had to complete his education, thus was further motivated to continue his learning of how to read and write. On the other hand, Rodriguez was a bicultural, yet free, American who grew up with a Hispanic family that did not think much about the concept of

Freedom is a word that is thrown around lightly. What was considered freedom now, holds a way different meaning to it than it did when slavery existed. Many people encountered it, endured it, and even participated in the cruel acts. In his essay “How I Learned to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass expresses the hardships that took place while learning to be literate. In his memoir, he recollects about his encounters with setbacks and risks he exerted while learning. Douglass sacrificed his chance of freedom to understand the thing he desired most: knowledge. A determined student defies the boundaries of formal education.

Through out the years African Americans in the south were not only treated unfairly, but they were also viewed as property rather than human beings; and were forced to follow certain laws that white people made. They were not granted the right to be free or to practice their own beliefs. During the 19th century, the 13th amendment was established, with the intention to free African Americans from their suffering. However, African Americans dreams were broken into many pieces since “their freedom” wasn’t truly a freedom in the end. Living most of his life through Slavery, Fredrick Douglass, eventually wrote “Learning to Read and Write”. In the same manner, Richard Wright, the author of “The Library Card” explained

Every person in life faces a number of obstacles that he/she either conquers or the obstacles conquer that person. In the two essays, “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass and “The Library Card” by Richard Wright, the two authors face many obstacles in their lives. Frederick Douglass is a slave who has a desire to gain knowledge regardless of the obstacles. Richard Wright is an African American man who lives in the South during the Jim Crow Laws and also has a yearning to attain more information about the life he lives. A previous EOF student, Corey James’ reaction to the essays written by Frederick Douglass and Richard Wright is that Douglass suffered far worse difficulties than Wright did. On the contrary, there is evidence, which proves that the two men, Douglass and Wright suffered equal obstacles throughout their quest to gain knowledge. Frederick Douglass and Richard Wright were not able to practice their rights due to society’s restriction of knowledge to African Americans. The two men became ostracized and the gained knowledge left the two authors with awareness, which brought distress in their lives.