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learning to read by frederick douglass summar
Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass
learning to read by frederick douglass summar
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As much as adolescents complain about education, we would be crippled without it. The immense freedom we have in America to learn whatever we want is something we should not take for granted. People in other countries fight to learn and to educate themselves as best as they can. People in America just 50 years ago had to fight to learn. Could you imagine living in a world where you couldn’t learn? People all over the world fight for that, because it’s scary to live in a world where you can’t do the simple task of reading or writing. What if you couldn’t read the label on a bottle of bleach? Could you imagine the damage that could cause you, simply because you couldn’t read? We have so much knowledge at our fingertips; museums, libraries, public …show more content…
In his essay Learning to Read, Frederick Douglas says “The first step had been taken. Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.”(127) Douglas then goes on to talk about how he would not give up his education, and would give bread to “the little white boys whom I met in the street” (127) if they would help teach him how to read. Douglas would spend any free time that he had reading and rereading “the book entitled The Columbian Orator” (127) which was about a slave who escaped and caught three different times. This book gave Douglas insight to how poorly he and other slaves were being treated, and how they lacked basic human rights. While Douglas took the time to figure out a plan of escape to the North, he decided to learn how to write, in case he had to write himself a pass. (130) It took Douglas years to learn how to write, but he did it, and it all started with the basic education that he had when his Mistress taught him the …show more content…
Having an education gives a person independence, power, confidence, and freedom. Those who do are uneducated struggle to have the confidence and independence that others do because they may be illiterate or unable to defend their basic human rights, such as Frederick Douglas. When Douglas began to be more and more educated he recognized how poorly he and the other slaves around him were being treated, and started to panic about being a slave for life. The panic he endured gave him a drive to keep educating himself and hopefully run away from his slaveowners and live in the North, where tensions were not as high. Malcolm X had some education from his father and the short amount of schooling that he endured, but began to teach himself more while he was incarcerated. He loved to read about Muhammad and his teachings, and carried out those teachings when he was liberated. Malcolm’s education from the prison helped with the Civil Rights work that he was involved
In his self-titled chronicle, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave", the author presents his audience with a memorable description of his resourcefulness in how he learned to write. His determination to shake off the bonds of illiteracy imposed by his slaveholders created in him the ability to conquer obstacles that held many slaves back. His mastery of the basic steps of the written language would one day play a central role in his success as a free man. The way these skills were acquired teaches us not only of his willpower, but also of his ingenuity as well. The outcome of his efforts culminated in an inimitable slave-narrative, as well as a career as one of the most famous abolitionists that this country would ever know.
Frederick Douglas was born into the slave trade in Talbot County, Maryland. He was sent to work on a plantation for the Hugh’s Family for about seven years. This is the location where his learning truly began. His mistress was a “kind, tender-hearted, woman” who treated Frederick as a human instead of property the family owned. This was a dangerous thing for both parties at this time in history it was considered wrong. Frederick States “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me” which I see the connection he had made to her change of personality because of slavery. She had heavenly qualities that slavery was able to divest from her. It was injurious to Fredrick not only for the lashings a salve would receive but to have his former teacher stopped teaching him. Beginning to follow her husband’s teaching who forbid her to teach the slaves she became violent. Douglas says “nothing made her more angry than to see me with a newspapers” and that resulted in her rushing Frederick with a face of fury taking the paper away. His former mistress who gave him his first lesson expressed her new found apprehension to education and slavery co-existing. His mistress gave him an inch by teaching Douglas the alphabet now he was about to take the mile. He began to make friends with the white boys he would meet in the streets while running errands in town. Frederick always took a book and bread when he left for town. The boys who were willing to teach him would be paid in bread which he was allowed to have plenty of. The white boys who were teaching him where considerable poor in comparison to the family that referred to Frederick “chattel”. Young Frederick spoke powerful words to two his teachers who lived on Phil...
Everyone remembers when they learned to read and write some more than others. Even well known people like Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X. They wrote narratives, “Learning to Read And Write” by Frederick Douglass and “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, to show us when, where, and how they learned to read and write. Both authors go through struggles that we would never think could or would happen. Even though they go through struggles they still became eager to learn more to better themselves. It gave them power they never thought they could achieve. They have many similar and different trials that they went through so they could learn how to read and write.
Many people take for grant of the freedom we have, but Douglass shows that having freedom means having the ability to control one’s own destiny. Douglass was a slave who like any other slaves cannot be educated. Douglass finds this out by accident when he overhears the reasons why it was illegal for them to get education- it because the white slave owners did not want slaves to gain knowledge as it will bring disorder and rebel against slavery. As a result of this finding, Douglass seeks out his own education. One of his methods of learning how to read is by exchanging foods for learning to read. During the slavery, poverty also affected all different people, so Douglass would give breads to poor children and for exchange teach Douglass some words. For Douglass learning meant punishments or even death, but he takes the risk and did all he can to gain knowledge because this is the only way he can be free. He demonstrates to people that education is powerful and the way one can truly be self-governed. Douglass story is a reminder to always appreciate education and to take the most out of learning because in the end no one can take away what’s in our
In life there will always be someone who says it cannot be done, but that does not always stop an individual from achieving his or her goals in life. Frederick Douglass wrote the article of his life experience, “Learning to Read and Write.” Douglass explains the struggles he went through as a slave just to learn to read and write. During this time period slaves were not taught how to read and write; therefore, he had to do this on his own. Douglass fought a battle of breaking through the ideas that a slave should not and could not be educated. Today many people fight a similar battle to achieve their goals. Many just give in to society as many slaves did in the past. In life people are not always given the opportunities that allow them to advance
Malcolm X showed his interest in a higher education in Prison, when he met a man named Bimbi who was far more educated than him, which eventually Malcolm X looked up to because of his critical thinking and his ability. Malcolm X wanted to be like him, but Malcolm X couldn’t even understand most of the words he came across when reading a book. Since Malcolm X couldn’t read or understand these words, in addition to his bad penmanship, during his stay in prison, Malcolm X decided to educate himself past the eighth grade level to the understanding of the Civil Rights of African Americans.
He had a mistress for a little bit of time teaching him, but the master soon found out and put a stop to it immediately. Douglass found other ways to learn. At the ship yard he would tell those kids he could write better than them. He would write letters that he saw on pieces of timber. The only letters he knew were “S,L,F,A”(Douglas, 123) He would also bribe the poor kids in the neighborhood with bread and in return to get lessons. Sherman had no one to help him. Before even knowing how to read he picked up how a paragraph was a, “fence that held words” (Alexie, 16). He taught himself at a very young age to read and read books like “Grapes of Wrath” as a kindergartener. In school he fought with his class mates because he was answering question that the teacher asked. (Alexie,
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
Fredrick Douglas is a well known figure in the abolishment movement through his narrative “Learning to Read and Write,” Douglas shares his own personal journey of how he learns to read and write. His organization helps the reader get a better grasp of the stages in his life; his innocence, his epiphany, his loathing and finally his determination. Through the use of syntax and diction, metaphors and the use of irony, he portrays the thoughts that went through his mind as a slave.
He wanted to be able to properly write his thoughts and opinions out to be understood. He wanted to leave an impression on people to give them a thought of him exceeding his education far beyond the eighth grade. That impression was credited to his “prison studies” (Malcolm X 1). He had a voice that needed to be heard all over to bring a change to society. He self educated himself day and night with the dictionary, teachings ,and books. Malcolm X considered that “three or four hours of sleep a night” was enough (Malcolm X 3). Malcolm X became interested in the “glorious history of the black man” (Malcolm X 3). “Book after book” showed him the “white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown,red,and yellow peoples every variety of the suffering of exploitation” (Malcolm X 4). Like Douglass, Malcolm found the “Faustian machinations” of the “white man” against the “non-white victims” (Malcolm X). Douglass states, “I feared they might be treacherous.” Unlike Douglass being social and receiving help from others around , Malcolm was to himself and seeked information on his own through books. Malcolm X had more pride in his education and wasn 't afraid to share his knowledge, “Mr. Muhammed, to whom I was writing daily, had no idea of what a new world had opened up to me through my efforts to document his teachings in books” (Malcolm X 6). Malcolm X had some basic education knowledge
He had long fought to learn to read and was so excited and eager to do so, he never expected the circumstances of this to be as dehumanizing as they were. He regretted learning to read because it brought him nothing but desperation, he learned his awful truth and that of his fellow slaves. "It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy." (Douglass, 24) The truth was that the more he learned the more he became aggravated, he knew there was not much he could do. It brought his moral down along with many other feelings, even a slave like Frederick had learned the awful feeling of
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.
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 slaves are ignorant, they would be resigned to their fate. However, if the slaves are educated, they would understand that they are as fully human as the white men and realize the unfairness of their treatment. Education is like a forbidden fruit to the slave; therefore, the slave owners guard against this knowledge of good and evil. Nevertheless, D...
Malcolm X who was born in the 1900s received an education up until eighth grade, unlike Frederick Douglass. Malcolm X describes how his passion for reading started due to the inability to write formal letters to his mentor, Elijah Muhammad. Unlike Douglass, Malcolm X did not have any consequences or restrictions when it came to learning. The setting of “Learning How to Read and Write” refers back to when Douglass was at the age of twelve while Malcolm X was in his early twenties during “A Homemade Education.” Both Douglass and Malcolm X became lead figures of their time through the mastery of English: after escaping to the North, Douglass became an abolitionist and Malcolm X became a political activist during the Civil Rights Era after being released from prison. Douglass and Malcolm X serve as role models to both, present and future students for their determination and perseverance to learn, regardless of any consequences that may come of it. Of these two authors, their reasoning for empowerment through language varied with time, purpose, and resolve upon acquiring the knowledge of the English
Frederick Douglas did not always agree with that statement. At times, he thought the costs outweighed the benefits. Specifically, he questioned whether learning to read was a benefit or a cost. In his narrative he said, “…learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing” (PAGE). He spent the entirety of his adolescence as a slave. Before he learned how to read, he had no knowledge whatsoever that could liberate him. The only