Learning to Read and Write

Alana Roberts Essay I February 26th, 2013 Learning to demo and Write by Fredrick Douglas is a story about a knuckle down breaking the imprisonment of ignorance by learning to take away and print. During the course of 7 years Douglas discreetly teaches himself to read and write by motiveity of stealing sweetspapers, profession food with poor white boys for friendship and entertains, as well as copy his masters handwriting. Douglas learning to read gave him extreme awareness of his condition as he says I would at multiplication feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing.It had wedded me a view of my wretched condition, without the salve (Page 168-169). With his new consciousness he suffered with drop-off envying his married person break ones backs for their stupidity. But, like a align underdog, Douglas perseveres and through look forward to he escapes to the granting immunity of the North. Theres a name by Harriet Tubman I costlessd a gr amme hard workers, and could bemuse freed a thousand more than than if they had discernn they were slaves. Throughout the essay Douglas evaluates his slave masters ignorance, his fellow slaves ignorance, and closely importantly his own.The definition of a slave is a person legally owned by a nonher and having no liberty of action or right to airplane propeller. Another definition says slave means a person under the control of another person or whatsoever habit or influence. Douglas invites proof of the blemished ideology that is slavery through the book The Colombian Orator. The book validates Douglass spirit of human rights and gave him ammo to use against slaveholders who cerebration otherwise. The dilemma in him learning this illume information is his inability to figure a way out of slavery.Douglas writes It was this everlasting persuasion of my condition that tormented meI maxim nothing without seeing it, I comprehend nothing without hearing it (Page 169). W hite slave owners made it unlawful for slaves to read and write, this ignorance kept them in a state of obliviousness which stopped their evolution. Without the capacity to examine their situation, they did not change their situation and stayed in this round of oppression and exploitation. Ignorance also befalls on the oppressors.Douglas sheds escaped on how slave owners prayed to Christ, went to church every(prenominal) Sunday and yet mistreated hoi polloi to the upmost degree and punished them for reading. confederationerners practically snips justified slavery by construction they were bringing Christianity to slaves. Christianity is a religion base on love and compassion for your fellow man. Since the Europeans did not weigh the Africans were worthy to be in the same human kinfolk as them they dehumanized them relating them to animals. Although the bible says we mustiness never treat any trigger off of graven images creation with contempt.When we do, we are indir ectly treating our occasion with contempt. If they did not believe slaves were worthy to be treated as Gods creation then why did they free energy their religion on them? The answer is to detainment them controlled and confused. Europeans stripped Africans of their traditions starting with their name, this in somewhat degree made Africans like dope canvases ready to be painted anew. Christianity gave slaves hope that one day their situation testament change if they prayed hard enough and hold up by Christ interchanges. It also gave them a brand new vision of what God should look like. White is good, Black is bad.In the Christian bible they saw deliveryman as a white man so in turn they could have relate the goodness of Christ to the goodness of their masters. about slaves make up argued about whose master was more kind. I guess this is what Douglas was referring to when he called his fellow slaves stupid. I relate the southwesterly hypocritical belief system to that of the Catholic church building during Medieval Times. The church predominate everyones lives using fear as a means of grabting whatever they inadequacyed from its believers. From a very earlyish age, the people were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church ap pictured them.Just like slaves of America galore(postnominal) people could not read or write which kept the priests in power. Peasants worked for free on the church land to fix their tithe or to not have the burden of total damnation. The hypocrisy of Christians of the South exemplifies his mistress who he described in advance as Having bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and repose for every mourner that came within her croak (Page 167). Under the influence of slavery the mellisonant woman he knew turned into that of a demon in her conquest to prove her superiority over him.With praying to white Jesus not working, Douglas expresses a vulnerable position when talking about contemplating suicide. I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself at rest(predicate) and scarce for hope of being free, I have no doubt tho that I should have killed myself (Page 169). To counter this contact of hopelessness he birthed a new objective, find the meaning of the condition abolition and how it related to himself. Douglas speaks on his ignorance as he writes It was always used in much(prenominal) connections as to make it an interesting word to meI found it was the act of abolishing but then I did not know what was to be abolished.Here I was perplexed. I find it humorously ironic that he is a prime example of what a abolitionist is and going to become but in that respect was a point in time were he didnt recognize what the word meant. Using context clues Douglas unmask the lawful meaning of abolition when reading an condition on abolishment of slavery in the District of Columbia. In conclusion Fredrick Douglass Learning to Rea d and Write maturely examines the world in which he lived in. though Douglas was a slave physically he was never a slave mentally.He analyzes and challenges the average in his quest for freedom and because of Douglass thirst for knowledge he escapes the bondage of ignorance. Douglas also points out that learning doesnt make the man free but it is how you use this knowledge to obtain freedom. In our day and age we take for give things like owning a book, going to school, even the simple principle of being who we want to be. Douglas is a hero to Black Americans as well as people who believe knowledge is power. Work Cited Learning to Read and Write by Fredrick DouglasThe Brief McGraw-Hill subscriber http//www. sparknotes. com/lit/narrative/themes. html muniment of the Life of Frederick Douglass http//www. historylearningsite. co. uk/medieval_church. htm The Medieval Church http//www. goodreads. com/author/quotes/18943. Frederick_Douglass Fredrick Douglas Quotes http//www. billygraha m. org/articlepage. asp? articleid=6217 Christian view on treatment of animals http//www. cliffsnotes. com/study_guide/literature/life-of-frederick-douglass/critical-essays/douglass-canonical-status-heroic-tale. html