Learning To Read And Write Frederick Douglass Analysis

In “Learning To Read and Write, Frederick Douglass depicts his life as a young slave trying to read and write without a proper teacher. He not only speaks of unconventional ways of learning but also the world in which he was living in. It shows the epitome of human cruelty. It represents the extent of which humans can be killers. Frederick Douglass uses pathos, irony, and metaphors to make us relay to his struggle to read and write and showing that he accomplished many things against unconquerable odds. Frederick Douglass uses the struggle to learn how to read and write as one side effect of slavery, “ I used also to carry bread with me, enough of which was always in the house, and to which I was always welcome; for I was much better …show more content…
Even though Frederick Douglass taught himself how to read, he still wasn’t at ease. For example, “ I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have done something to kill myself, or done something for which I should have been killed.” This quote shows that how bad Frederick Douglas’s conditions were. By learning how to read and write, he found out how much the white owners have done to his people. He wanted freedom more than a comfortable life that he had no control over. Frederick Douglass had to make friends with little white boys to learn how to read and write, “ As many of these as I could, I could convert into teachers.” He was desperate for any sources of information so he looked everywhere for knowledge. However, we are forced to go to grade school and it is a given that we should know how to read and write. Frederick Douglass had to use trickery because he would trick little boys into competitions so he would learn more, “ After that, when I met with any boy who I knew could write, I would tell him I could write as well as he. The next word would be, “ I don’t believe you. Let me see you try it.” I would then make the letters, which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask him to beat that. In this way I got a good many lessons in writing, which is quite possible.” Frederick …show more content…
She would do nice things for other people but would not let Frederick Douglass, a slave, learn how to read or write. “ Slavery proved as injurious to her as if it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender- hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach.” Its ironic that she was nice to people that she was in need, but not to slaves. The mistress treated him so poorly that Frederick wanted to die. “ The first step has been taken. Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet.” This is ironic because earlier, Frederick Douglass mentioned, how the Mistress would snatch the newspaper out of his hand when he was reading it, but the Mistress taught him the alphabet in the first