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.
Richard Rodriguez, on the other hand, was a child who was born 150 years later in a Spanish speaking family. In his essay "The Lonely, Good Company of Books", Rodriguez narrates his learning experience and explains how he started learning from reading books.
Despite the fact that both Douglass and Rodriguez had a passion to read and write, to a large extent, their learning experiences were different. The most distinctive difference in their learning experience was that the system and society opposed Douglass's desire to read and write, while Rodriguez was supported by the society; Rodriguez was free, whereas Douglass was a slave for his life; Douglass experienced fear and had to take risks to learn, while Rodriguez was free and had access to information and books.
Both Douglass and Rodriguez came from poor families and had to …show more content…
adapt to an unwelcoming society. At the beginning reading and writing was painful for both of them and neither of them had support from their families. But these similarities did not have a major impact on their learning experience.
Douglass, in his essay, calls learning to read "a curse rather than a blessing" because when he was able to read, he had the feeling that he was living in a miserable condition.
After being able to read and write, he had the knowledge to read and write, but the society did not give him a platform to express himself. Reading gave him an idea of how bad his life was, a "horrible pit," but no suggestion for how he could overcome the challenges in life and find a "ladder upon which to get out". He then decided to travel to the North, where he could find people who had similar beliefs and ideas about slavery. On the other hand, Rodriguez was able to go to school to learn reading and writing. He did not face obstacles set by the society. It was just that his family didn't encourage him to read and
write.
Douglass did not have access to information. He did not have the right to spend his time as he wanted. He had to give an account of himself whenever he was spending time alone. He was not supposed to read books, and did not have the right to do anything against his master's desires. On the other hand, Rodriguez was free to read any book that he desired and had access to books and other information.
Rodriguez was supported by his teachers and was praised for the fact that he reads books. He was introduced to a nun who taught him how to get interested in reading and had all the opportunities to learn, while Douglass had to risk his life when he wanted to get a book and read it. He usually did this when he was alone and when he was not watched by someone.
On the whole, both learning experiences were interesting and one could learn a lot by reading them. For me, Douglass's experience was more useful as I could establish direct links between his experience and the people who live in this era around me. People are virtual slaves under the system set into place. The lack of resources and awareness about their position stop people from getting quality education and knowledge.