malcom X and Frederick douglass

738 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Narrative of frederick douglass education

Frederick Douglass had a Mistress, who started to teach him, but it was illegal. He would not have come to realize all he was missing out on if she did not give him that taste of learning. The more he learned, the more he realized that being a slave for the rest of his life was senseless. All the information he was receiving made him think more and more of being a free man. To read and learn if he went north he could be free, made him crave freedom more. Reading and writing was his way out of slavery or at least to a better situation. Malcolm X's need for education was when he realized that he could not read a full book and get an understanding of it because he did not know many words. Reading a sentence he would skip over so many words. He also admired the way a fellow inmate could hold a conversation. Realizing all the words in a dictionary and knowing that he only knew a few got to him. His curiosity took over; Malcolm started to see knowledge is power. To be a black man with knowledge made you even more powerful.
Frederick Douglass had such a desire to learn when his Mistress started to teach him “give him an inch and he’ll take an ell”. The more he read, the more he was realizing that there was a better life for him. He would read and learn about human rights and it just gave him more of a desire to learn. Then the more he read the information he was receiving got him angry. He just hated his Master more and more each day. He started to hate his own existence. It did not take long for him to just turn all the frustrations around and use it to his advantage. “I consoled myself with the hope that I should one day find a good chance.” The desire and the frustration turned into his inspiration for making a change in his life. Fre...

... middle of paper ...

... they will live to be released. Malcolm takes an interest in Bimbi and seeing how smart a man he was wanted the same thing for himself. Malcolm was thinking I have all the time in the world, why not improve and better myself. Malcolm X did not sleep, he read books at night. He utilized the jails resources and his time to write every word in the dictionary. He read the definitions and looked at the pictures and improved his vocabulary. He put himself around someone he had seen as positive to become a better person. This in a time where men needed to have street smarts to survive. These two men had an inspiration of a better future and took advantage of their surroundings. Having a desire so strong, not a fear of the results and just wanting something better for themselves; made all those problems they were surrounded by appear so small and their effort so price-less.

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Learning To Read And Write By Frederick Douglass

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    While knowledge can open many doors for success, it can also put a lock on various ones for people who don’t have an opportunity to practice it. This is portrayed in an essay by Frederick Douglass named Learning to Read and Write. It portrays the hardships he faced and the toll it took on him. Frederick Douglass was a slave who was born in Talbot County Maryland and then became a server for a family in Baltimore. He also became an active participant in the abolitionist movement in 1838. Michael Scot’s response toward Frederick Douglass was that gaining knowledge was more of a dissatisfaction rather than a worthy accomplishment for the reason that education made him realize he had no other option to his condition. For Frederick Douglass, learning

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass: Escaping Slavery through Literacy

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    Literacy plays an important part in helping Douglass achieve his freedom. Learning to read and write enlightened his mind to the injustice of slavery; it kindled in his heart longings for liberty. Douglass’s skills proved instrumental in his attempts to escape and afterwards in his mission as a spokesman against slavery. Douglass was motivated to learn how to read by hearing his master condemn the education of slaves. Mr. Auld declared that education would “spoil” him and “forever unfit him to be a slave” (2054).

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass and Martin Delaney

    6401 Words  | 13 Pages

    Foner, Philip S., ed. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: Pre-Civil War Decade 1850-1860. Vol. 2. New York: International Publishers, 1950.

    Read More

  • The Use of Rhetorical Devices in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass written by Frederick Douglass

    696 Words  | 2 Pages

    One day, Douglass eavesdrops on him and Mrs. Auld’s conversation. Mr. Auld persuades her that reading “could do him (Douglass) no good, but a great deal of harm.” (page 39) This antithesis along with the rest of his statement makes Douglass come to the realization that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day on, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write,

    Read More

  • Malcolm X

    403 Words  | 1 Pages

    Malcolm X Read an excerpt from the book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X and Alex Haley. In this part of the book, Malcolm discusses his quest for knowledge. He starts off by telling us about how he wrote to his Harlem, hustler friends and told them all about Allah and Mr. Elijah Muhammad, the two main figures in the Islamic religion. He never got a single reply and figured it was because the average hustler and criminal couldn't read. He also thought that maybe they thought he had gone crazy, because after all he was writing to them about the devil; the white devil.

    Read More

  • Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass

    1394 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Emerson's Self Reliance vs. Douglass' Narrative of the Life

    1310 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... and unhappy (Douglass 78).” Learning how to read was as big a step towards freedom for Douglass as it was back. It made him aware of the circumstances but it also made him realize how difficult it would be for him to ever find himself a free man. However, knowledge overpowers ignorance in the sense that his masters could never take his ability to read away from him and because Douglass now knew his condition, he knew that he deserved a better life.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Desire For Freedom

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frederick Douglass’ source, “The Desire for Freedom” was written in 1845. He was born into slavery in 1818 and became an important figure in the fight for abolition. Douglass was also involved in other reform movements such as the women’s rights movement. He “experienced slavery in all its variety, from work as a house servant and as a skilled craftsman in Baltimore shipyard to labor as a plantation field hand” (Pg.207¬). “The Desire for Freedom” was meant to document how his life was within slavery and how his education could someday help him escape it. Douglass meant to speak to American slaves and those who did not really understand slavery in order to help persuade everyone that life was meant to be lived freely. In order to obtain this future, Douglass wrote about his own personal experience and how he believed that enslavers were “in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery” (Pg. 208). This source brings on the idea that slaves were willing to fight back, wanted to be educated, and, most importantly, wanted the chance to live life freely.

    Read More

  • Malcolm X Can Change Your Life Even In Prison

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prison is a place of confinement or involuntary restraint where choices are made for you. However, in the articles “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X and “Yes, One book can Change Your Life, Even in Prison”, by Dwayne Betts shows how a bad situation can turn into a better outcome. Malcolm X and Dwayne were put into situations where everything was taken away from them except their state of mind. Within this situation Malcolm and Dwayne through different approaches were determined to leave prison with more sovereignty over their education.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Learning To Read And Write By Frederick Douglass

    910 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.” George Washington Carver spoke with his experience, which means that having knowledge and personal thinking leads to freedom for sure. In essay “Learning to Read and Write” Frederick Douglass describes how he learned to read and write when he was a slave since his childhood. He was challenged by his life of being a slave after he started learning. His enslavers did not want him to learn anything by getting any education. The reason is that getting an education would make him feel worthy and desire to be free. As a slave, education was banned because slavery and education were incompatible. Although his enslavers did everything to stop him learning, he still looked for other ways to learn to read and write since he wanted to become a person not a slave. He thought every human being should have education and freedom. In his story, he was trying to get the key, and to know who he was in order to touch the golden door.

    Read More

  • Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

    1478 Words  | 3 Pages

    Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. African Americans are fortunate to have leaders who have fought for a difference in Black America. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X are two powerful men in particular who brought hope to blacks in the United States. Both preached the same message about Blacks having power and strength in the midst of all the hatred that surrounded them. Even though they shared the same dream of equality for their people, the tactics they implied to make these dreams a reality were very different. The background, environment and philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were largely responsible for the distinctly varying responses to American racism.

    Read More

  • Learning To Read And Write By Frederick Douglass Analysis

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the essay “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass illustrates how he successfully overcome the tremendous difficulties to become literate. He also explains the injustice between slavers and slaveholders. Douglass believes that education is the key to freedom for slavers. Similarly, many of us regard education as the path to achieve a career from a job.

    Read More

  • Essay on Literacy in African-American Literature

    2285 Words  | 5 Pages

    As a relatively young man, Frederick Douglass discovers, in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, that learning to read and write can be his path to freedom. Upon discovering that...

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Tale Of Malcolm X And James Baldwin

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the tale of Malcolm X it states, “It really began back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge.” While he was in prison he began to realize that as his friend Bimbi began to talk he and take control of conversations that he wasn’t as educated as he believed himself to be. Also he’d begun to realize that being dumb and uneducated isn’t as cool as it seems when you begin to have a conversations with those who’re more educated than you are. In his tory he also states, “...nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese...I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of s dictionary-to study, to learn some words.” He felt the need to acquire the knowledge due to the fact that he wanted to understand his friend and have the knowledge to hold a conversation with Bimbi. Malcolm X wanted to expand his knowledge and his vocabulary.“Under Bembry's influence, Little developed a voracious appetite for reading.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X) His original goal for obtaining education as for the purpose of understanding hi friend Bimbi and due to that need to acquire more knowledge it lead to him discovering more about the complexities and ‘greyness’ along with the deafness and blindness that was affecting the people of America more specifically the black community in

    Read More

  • Student Success: The Definition Of Students Success

    1437 Words  | 3 Pages

    Albert Einstein was a high school dropout yet signal handedly changed the world. Bill Gates was a college dropout that went on to be one of the richest people in the world. These are a few of the people that didn’t see academic success to be important but saw the need of individual success that they wanted to fulfill for themselves and no one else. Malcolm X in “Learning to Read”, only went to school through the eighth grade and his education was built based upon books and letters he wrote and read during his time of imprisonment. He also learned the words in the dictionary by writing down each word and there corresponding definition for every letter on his tablet. With his dedication of self-success proves that it’s more of the students’ responsibility for their success because Malcolm X didn’t have the experience of school education past middle school. He asks us, “Where else but in prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day? (X 282)” He was not destroyed by the prison, he became a passionate reader and speaker in it and has some sense of gratitude for having been put there. It is almost inspirational how people do not lose their individual strive for perfection even in the harshest conditions and incarceration. Having the capability to educate

    Read More

More about malcom X and Frederick douglass

Open Document