Frederick Douglass Reaction Paper

Rough Draft Enrique Reyes Literature is by far my weakest subject when it comes to school. Unlike Douglass, I had the opportunity to learn how to read and write in school, but I never took advantage of it. In Douglas’s eyes that’s all he enjoyed to do, which was learn and how to read and write. In my eyes, I constantly catch myself staring at the clock hoping for the reading and writing lesson or class would be over. All throughout middle school and high school, I struggled and struggled in both subjects. It had the biggest impact on me during my senior year in high school, but years and years of intensive reading took a toll on me. Not only
Knowing I had 180 days to pass a test that I need to pass to graduate. In my head, I would say how is this possible for the state to base my knowledge off of one test. This made my frustration levels go through the roof and made It even more troubling for me to retain information and focus on my exams. Fredrick on the other hand was motivated to learn for his own knowledge. Unlike me, I only learned how to read and write because I had to and that was what I was learning every day. It makes me think about how Douglas would feel in my shoes. I’m curious to know if he would still enjoy reading and writing, knowing that he’d be tested on these tasks. I believe that Douglas and I would have a similar mindset on this situation, he’d find it less enjoyable and very stressful. Also, I want to think about myself in his shoes, would I want to try and learn how to read and write knowing that I don’t even need to know how to read and write to get through life. The amount of stress I got from a single test was scary, taking the test for the first time my senior I was nervous. Doing exercise after exercise I still didn’t score high enough. I continued putting myself down and getting even more and more stressed. I felt like it was too late and I should’ve been trying as hard as I was since sixth grade. Fredrick was set on learning how to read and write. “This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge” (page 2 Fredrick Douglass). Fredrick used what he could to try and get knowledge from every resource he could. Me on the other hands would try and collect the least amount of information needed. I always look for the short way out because I couldn’t stand doing the work.’Fredrick was the opposite he wanted to gather all the information he needed. Additionally, he wanted to put time and effort into trying to learn how to read and