Douglass’s initial experience reading a text detailing slavery changes everything for him, and literacy—what he originally thought would lead to his freedom—only leads to further misery, to the point where Douglass wishes that he could return to his once blissful state of ignorance, or better yet, be killed. “ . . . [T]hat very discontentment which . . . would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish” (40). Nevertheless, he continues his own education and learns to make use of his newfound
Douglass’s initial experience reading a text detailing slavery changes everything for him, and literacy—what he originally thought would lead to his freedom—only leads to further misery, to the point where Douglass wishes that he could return to his once blissful state of ignorance, or better yet, be killed. “ . . . [T]hat very discontentment which . . . would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish” (40). Nevertheless, he continues his own education and learns to make use of his newfound