Learning To Read By Frederick Douglass Analysis

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.

During the 1800’s, the institution of slavery was still ongoing in the few slave states left in America. Slavery was still proving to be unjust and unfair, not allowing for African Americans to be considered equals. However, some slaves were able to overcome the many restrictions and boundaries that slavery forced upon them. In Frederick Douglass’ essay “Learning to Read and Write,” Douglass portrays himself as an intelligent and dignified slave who’s able to overcome the racial boundaries placed upon him. Frederick Douglass saw that his only pathway to freedom was through literacy, so his goal was to learn how to read and write no matter the circumstances. Douglass realized

Douglass was motivated to learn how to read by hearing his master condemn the education of slaves. Mr. Auld declared that an education would “spoil” him and “forever unfit him to be a slave” (2054). He believed that the ability to read makes a slave “unmanageable” and “discontented” (2054). Douglass discovered that the “white man’s power to enslave the black man” (2054) was in his literacy and education. As long as the

People often wonder about the struggles of slave life, including the fact that it was extremely difficult to become literate as a slave. Frederick Douglass, who was once a slave who learned to read and write, outlines these obstacles and the effects that they had on him in a chapter titled “Learning to Read and Write” within his autobiography. Said chapter reveals Douglass’s innermost thoughts and attitudes towards many things during his time as a slave, including his mistress, slavery itself, and reading. Douglass displays an appreciative and later aggravated tone towards his mistress, an outraged tone towards slavery, and an enthusiastic tone that later becomes resigned and despairing towards reading, exemplifying that tone can strongly influence the portrayal of a topic.

Throughout the history of slavery in the United States, it was common practice not only for slaveholders to neglect to teach their slaves to read or write, but also for them to outright forbid literacy among slaves. This was done in order to limit the slaves knowledge and modes of communication, making it more difficult for them to learn about the abolitionist movement or for for them to share their situation with the world outside of slavery. Like many other slaves, Frederick Douglass was not allowed to learn to read or write. In his autobiography; “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass retells how he managed to become literate in a time where most African Americans were forbidden from literacy, and how this knowledge allowed him to eventually escape slavery.

In the excerpt “Learning to Read and Write”, Frederick Douglass talks about his experiences in slavery living in his masters house and his struggle to learn how to read and write. Frederick Douglass was an African American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. Some of his other writings include “The Heroic Slave”, “My Bondage and My Freedom”, and “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”. In this excerpt, Frederick Douglass uses an empathic tone, imagery, certain verb choice, contrast, and metaphors to inform African Americans of how important it is to learn to read and write and also to inform a white American audience of the evils of slavery. I find Frederick Douglass to

Frederick Douglass effectively persuades his audience to show the crucial need for learning to read and write and to inform how slavery was a true

1. Douglass taught himself how to read and write. At first, Douglass’s mistress taught him how to read the alphabet before her husband prohibited her from doing this. After that he started to teach himself how to read by reading books and newspapers, and how to write by copying his little Master Thomas’s written in the spaces left in the copy-book when his mistress goes to the class meeting every monday afternoon. However his most successfully way of teaching himself how to read was to make friends with the white boys whom he met in the street. He bribes them with food to get them to teach him. He also learned how to read and understand the meaning of the name on the timber.

In The Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, written by himself the author asserts that the way to enslave someone is to keep them from learning at all. Douglass supports his claim by, first, when Frederick was small he was never able to tell his age or the date, and secondly, they were never allowed to be taught how to read that was something always hidden from him as a young child. The author’s purpose is to inform the reader that as a slave there were so many things they were not allowed to have that we may take for granted, in order to make it very clear that we should not take our education and opportunities for granted. Based on The Life Of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, Douglass is writing for the white people who believed that slavery was right, he wanted to make it very clear that the slaves and Douglass had nothing handed to them.

Before I read this piece of art, I did not think that I would like it; I thought it was a tedious literary work like the ones a part of a colossal textbook at first glance. However, I changed my mind after reading it thoroughly. I am honestly amazed at how Douglass’ words link together to have such easy flow and clarity through each sentence. He is a better writer than some of the people who learned how to read and write at an even younger age than him. Last but not least, I love how he proves that education is important since reading and writing gave him the advantage to become a free man; this excerpt gives a lesson on why education is pivotal to gaining knowledge to have a sense of individuality.

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.

In “Learning to Read and Write,” from his the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (1841), Douglass tells a narrative of his struggles to learn to read and write and how acquiring this knowledge helps him achieve freedom. Through his journey of acquiring literacy, Douglass outwitted those around him to teach him how to read and write. Upon reading “The Columbian Orator,” Douglass started questioning his and his master’s role in society. Although I didn’t have to go to the extremes that Douglass went through to learn how to read and write, I did struggle to learn how to read and write as an immigrant learning English as a second language. My own struggle with English wasn’t a journey of self-improvement but rather it

In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass recollects being revolutionized from the years as a slave in the institution to the life of a free man in the world by attaining the extraordinary power and knowledge of literacy. In this pinnacle moment, Douglass declares and defines his presence and uses his extensive talent in communicative language to reach out and connect with his audience. During a time where it’s severely punishable to acquire these skills, Douglass’ looks beyond this, with his strong desire for freedom increasing as he comes to understand what awaits him on the other side. By liberating himself through literacy, Frederick Douglass, in The Narrative, recalls his transformation into a

The power of education in “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is one of the most important themes in the entire work, but it is not a theme with a consistent meaning. Although Frederick Douglass understands that the only path to freedom, both for himself and fellow slaves, is through learning to read, write, and have an educational base to build on, he is at the same time disgusted with education because it causes him to understand the full extent of the horrors of slavery. At one point, he states, “It [education] opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but offered no ladder upon

Open your mind and learn! Frederick Douglass’ “Learning to Read” describes his struggle over being illiterate. As a slave of the time Douglass expresses the need to overcoming the ignorance of life. Douglass uses imagery, pathos, and personal experience or fortitude demonstrates the struggles of overcoming illiterate.