Compare And Contrast Malcolm X And Douglass

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Recommended: Education in the life of Frederick Douglass

As a slave Douglass was prohibited from learning to read and write. He started to learn from his mistress who taught him the alphabet. Later, she became aware that teaching Douglass to read could give him power. Therefore, Douglass was forbidden to read. In fact it was illegal to teach a slave to learn. As a result she and her husband tried to stop Douglass from learning to read. Every time she saw him with a newspaper she beat him. They didn’t allow him to have any books in the house and they monitored him at all time. Douglass didn’t give up. He kept learning secretly and faced his obstacles.
Douglass’ eagerness to learn had did not stop him from furthers his education. Douglass brought his book for read with him when he was sent out …show more content…

At night while everyone was asleep, Malcolm X would be wide awake reading the books in his room. Unfortunately, there was a guard on duty walking by every hour. Malcolm X needed to pretend that he was asleep. As soon as the guard passed by he got up quickly and started reading again until late at night. He spent a lot time in the library copying words from the dictionary and practicing to write in the straight line. Reading at night was one of his favorite activities because he learned faster.
The journey of Douglass and Malcolm X’s education in reading and writing had some similarities and differences. Both Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X were motivated to learn and improve their skills even though they were confronted with many obstacles. Their similar experience of learning was in practicing their skills by copying words from the books or dictionaries and reading out loud. Douglass used his master’s child’s copied-book to practice his writing skills when there was no one at home. Malcolm used tablet to copied words from the dictionary. Copying was the similar process of their …show more content…

I was very impressed how they came so far by self-studied, especially, Douglass who had to start to learn from the very beginning. This process of learning definitely takes time. Self-education is not for me, I think it is complicated and frustrated to learn this way. Anyhow, I found my problems of writing are similar to Malcolm X. I often used the extra words that do not make any sense. I also use the dictionary when I do not know the meaning of the words. As the result, their journey of learning encouraged me to study harder. I could become a better writer

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