Frederick Douglass: Learning To Read And Write

Frederick Douglass: Learning to Read and Write Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass is an account of what it was like to gain knowledge after being a slave in 19th century America. He speaks of his life as a young slave trying to learn how to read and write without a teacher. He touches on how learning the power of knowledge would at times feel like it “had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given [him] a view of his wretched condition, without the remedy” (Douglass). This is a reference to how he learned that being a slave was immoral, but since he was black, he could not fix this problem. Douglass had to learn how to read and write in an atypical way which makes his story more intriguing and eye-opening to those who take being literate for granted. He mentions that after slavery, his “natural elasticity was crushed” and that his “cheerful spark that lingered about [his] eye died” (Douglass). These quotes show how reading brings knowledge …show more content…
An example of this is when she recalls “the day that [she] became colored … [she] was not Zora of Orange County anymore, [she] was now a little colored girl” (Neale Hurston). This line means that when she moved from the racist south, full of Jim Crow laws that stripped away her rights, she was just thrown into the category of being another black person and because of this, would be stereotyped. Hurston also used metaphor to convey her thoughts such as hearing an orchestra and describing it as “rambunctious… with primitive fury”, which means the music and culture carried raw power (Neale Hurston). Zora’s purpose for writing this essay was to show and express her love for her own culture and color of her skin. The purpose was met and since then, society has become accepting and loving to racial and cultural