Preview

Frederick Douglass Learning How To Read And Write Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
94 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Frederick Douglass Learning How To Read And Write Analysis
The difficulty I had reading in Fredrick Douglass essay of “Learning How to Read and Write”, was a passage where he felts that like he should die. A quote made me kind of confuse was “ I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity”. It confused me on why, why would he envied he was learned how to read and soon to write he should be proud of himself for accomplishing that goal to had better educate him. I just couldn’t understand or really through the text on why he felt the way he

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Learning to Read and Write by Frederik Douglass Frederik Douglass born a slave in 1818 in Maryland. He learned to read and write then he escaped to New York to become a leader in the abolitionist. He is best known of his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederik Douglass (1845)”. He described in his narrative biography his relation with Hugh family that own him as slave. He focused in the early writing of his story about his mistress, and how she was kind, warm, with tender-heart.…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the article “learning to read and write” by Frederick Douglass, he describes about the challenges that he had when he learned how to read and write. He is an American slave who lived in Master Hugh’s family for seven years. His master’s wife was very kind towards him. She treated him as a human and thought him with some alphabet. But her husband refused her to do so because he did not want Douglass to learn anything.…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Mrs. Auld began teaching Frederick how to read was Douglass’s first real foray into rebellion. It was illegal to teach a slave how to read and write and after Mr. Auld reprimanded Mrs. Auld, Douglass realized that “to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man” (Douglass 20). The seed of rebellion had been planted and he had discovered his path to freedom. He was proud of his new ability and tried to practice it as often as he could by challenging children to writing letters (Douglass 26). Douglass cultivated this new ability and treats it as the reason he was able to become free.…

    • 737 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Learning to Read and Write,” was written by Frederick Douglass about himself when he was a slave. Frederick Douglass was born as a slave but during his young age, he tried as hard as he could to learn to read and write whenever he has the opportunity to. He thought that being able to read and write will make him not ignorant like other slave, and he also believed it could set him free. The less ignorant he gets, the more he understands his place and regrets his own existence. He had an opportunity to run away but he chose to stay for the sake of gaining knowledge, he remained as a slave but an educated slave.…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the narrative of Frederick Douglass, during the 19th Century, the conditions slaves experienced were not only cruel, but inhumane. It is a common perception that “cruelty” refers to the physical violence and torture that slaves endure. However, in this passage, Douglass conveys the degrading treatment towards young slaves in the plantation, as if they were domesticated animals. The slaves were deprived of freedom and basic human rights. They were not only denied of racial equality, they weren’t even recognized as actual human beings.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    He wrote about his personal experience to reach out to the audience so they can, through his words, see and feel what he went through as a slave. Douglass’s idea of protest was active and peaceful to a certain extent. Douglass made it a point to learn how to read shortly after his mistress was forbidden, by her husband, from continuing teaching Douglass how to read. Douglass. According to Douglass, his master said, “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell” (39). and Douglass did. He would do anything he could to continue his “education”. He went to children and tricked them into teaching him how to read and write. Also, he would sneak a book during any free time he had so that he can practice until he mastered it. With all of his reading, he realized that there was a life outside of being a slave and he was determined that he was not going to be a slave for his entire life, he was one day going to be free. Douglass explains how one day his life changes, “I have already intimidated that my condition was much worse, during that first six months of my stay at Mr. Convey’s, than in the last six. The circumstances leading to the change in Mr. Convey’s course…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After reading a short excerpt from “Life of Fredrick Douglass”, I learned about the wretched, criminal, motives of enslavers. I understand the reasoning of why Douglass would rather be an animal. Douglass recalled the moment he realized how to read and understood the true characteristics of slavery.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass in his essay "Learning to Read and Write" explains all the difficulties he had to face when he learned to read and write in 1830s. Being a slave, it was against the law to learn to read and write, yet Douglass by risking his life, using all opportunities managed to learn reading and writing.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Frederick Douglass's autobiography The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. He elegantly depicts his journey of learning to read and write in the seven years of enslavement by the Hugh family. In order to argue the effect of slavery on literacy and the importance of literacy.…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass’s sad tone helps the reader understand the effect that his literacy had on his thoughts and feelings toward slavery. Douglass describes how his mistress had given him “the inch” that he needed to learn to read and how he used bread to convince the little white children to teach him. He soon found the knowledge of how horrible his enslavers were. “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass 120-121). This quote describes how he is depressed because he had learned the truth of his enslaves and wished that he would forget the truth. Although learning to read was a great ability he had acquired, it was a curse that led…

    • 138 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil society consists of “all the social groups and social relationships in which we are embedded: families, communities, religious organizations, ethnic groups, schools, […] and so forth,”(Persell, 642). Civil society is what creates social values and norms therefore it is vastly important to the market and state. Persell believes that the market, state, and civil society need to work in conjunction to have a stable nation. Persell argues that the state and market are squeezing out civil society. Franklin Pierce and Thomas Jefferson would agree with her, but Progressives and Fredrick Douglas would not.…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In "Frederick Douglass" the author uses factual evidence ot develope important ideas. For exmaple, it states " Because he was born into slavery, Douglass did not learn the alphabet until age twelve." This detail helps develop ideas of hardwork when he learned how to read and write. "In 1838, Douglass successfully escaped slavery by boarding a train and arriving in New York—a state where slavery was illegal." Here it shows how Douglass finally escapes slavery and goes to a place where slavery is illlegeal. In "The Underground Railroad" the author also uses factual evidence to develope important ideas. FOr example, "Technically the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 required state officials to return slaves who had escaped to free states." Here the…

    • 149 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nelson Mandela once said, “ Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” One man who lived up to this quote was abolitionist/orator, Frederick Douglass, Douglass was able to use education as weapon to verbally attack the structures and fight for the abolishment of slavery. Without Douglass being educated then we would not know Frederick Douglass for who he is today. In the narrative Learning to Read and Write the author, Frederick Douglass explains his endeavors to learn how to read and write although he is a slave. After Douglass’s instruction subsequently ended he made multiple attempts to learn how to read and write. As a child, Douglass took the initiative to seek educating himself; he also used his cleverness to gain…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “All knowledge is connected to all other knowledge. The fun is making the connections.” Three connections I made while reading Fredrick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write,” text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text, helped me understand the main idea, which is learning to read and write was key in Douglass’s journey to freedom. One connection, I read, “I did not dare to ask anyone about its meaning, for I was confident that it was something they wanted to know very little about,” I thought about when I was young, my parents did not want me to know that I was having surgery to have my tonsils removed (41). My parents told me that I would be taking a nap at the hospital, and I would wake up feeling better than before. Of course, I had no idea what going on at the time nor did I want to ask. Douglass, being at risk, did not want to jeopardize his safety that he already had prior to asking. He did not want to know the meaning because what he does not know would not hurt him. Looking back, if I…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Douglass knowing that he could no longer be educated by Mrs. Auld, he would look for other methods to teach himself. Douglass’s determination to be educated guided him well. In chapter seven, Douglass shares how he gained an education without a formal teacher. Douglass became friends with local poor white boy’s, who he traded bread with in return of knowledge. Douglass also made use of the child of Mr. Auld, by using his educational books. Mr. Auld was right to fear the education of slaves, it was Douglass’s education which led him to seek freedom from slavery. It was education which caused Douglass the passion to better his mind. It was education which helped Douglass establish a legacy, which presented the harsh reality of being a slave. By taking a slave’s education away, a master can maintain their power other their slave, continuing their suppression. Douglass was born into a world that did not want him to be educated, but his persistence to learn resulted in him gaining both an identity and his own freedom. Education is something that many of us nowadays take for granted, but Douglass demonstrates the true power and importance of knowledge within his…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays