Rhetorical Analysis Of Frederick Douglass Learning To Read And Write

When Frederick Douglass attempts to enforce his purpose in “Learning to Read and Write,” he uses multiple rhetorical strategies to achieve this. In the last couple paragraphs, Douglass describes how he comes to his want for the ability to write, and how he actually attained it. Instead of giving a brief story of directly telling his motives and triumphs, he uses the art of literature to effectively show that he not only learned, but mastered how to write. Frederick Douglass is an astounding abolitionist that is accredited with many achievements, as well as being recognized for his great works of communicating his messages. In the seventh paragraph, Douglass foreshadows the role he will play later in his life. “Every little while, I would hear something about the abolitionists.” Not only was the word “abolition” inspire him to learn to write, but what he would become. Entirely, Douglass describes himself being practically drawn to the word without understanding what it meant. The seclusion and secrecy that others surrounded this idea just made him want to understand it more. This inevitably was the character of Frederick Douglass. If others did not want him to learn to read, he would learn to read. If
“During my time, my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump of chalk.” In this line, he uses two opposing ideas. First, he projects an idea of what an ordinary child could possess, a notebook or paper to write on, but then he faces what he actually used, any kind of surface he could find. He does this again just with something to write with. He makes his childhood a reality of what it was like to live as a slave. It is hard to overlook someone who is literally lacking the basic tools to learn to write based on the color of his skin. Douglass wants people to find the comparison of what he had to work with to what a white child had to work