Frederic Douglass and Mark Twain on Education Education is a privilege. The knowledge gained through education enables an individual’s potential to be optimally utilized owing to training of the human mind, and enlarge their view over the world. Both “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass himself and “Old Times on the Mississippi” by Mark Twain explore the idea of education. The two autobiographies are extremely different; one was written by a former slave, while the other was written by a white man. Hence, it is to be expected that both men had had different motivations to get an education, and different processes of acquiring education. Their results of education, however, were fairly similar. Frederick Douglass …show more content…
Their education had given them a new perspective of everything around them—a glimpse to a whole new world. Upon learning to read, Douglass began to realize how an education could ruin slaves. With education, comes enlightenment, and for him his enlightenment was the realization to the injustices going on around him. With him finally being able to read, he understood more fully the implications of slavery sometimes served to make him more miserable as he came to comprehend the hopelessness of the situation for himself and the other slaves. He states in his narrative, “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me” (268) because he realized that his knowledge came at a cost—he knew that there was nothing normal and right about slavery, yet he had to live as one—whatever knowledge he had attained, festered in his mind and made him even unhappier with the conditions and treatment than …show more content…
Douglass’ was to free himself from slaver, while Twain’s was to come back to his village with glory. Everyone also had different ways to get an education—Douglass’ was to learn from the white children in his neighborhood secretly, while Twain’s was handed to him by Mr. B. But the different ways of learning do not really matter, as their education resulted in them realizing that knowledge would not always bring beauty to life, if anything, knowledge would usually strip the beauty off life. I guess, knowledge is not all it’s cracked up to
Douglass views his education as his most important feature, but he also enables his brain to the realizing of the torture upon his fellow slaves. Douglass was not allowed to learn, because he was a slave, and they didn’t want slaves to become smarter than the whites. In the passage it states, “learning would ...
Both Frederick Douglas and David Walker wrote against slavery. Frederick Douglas used his personal account as an enslaved man to share the evils of slavery and get his voice heard. His work is written like a novel with his commentary on the situations and his beliefs as the story continues. While the slave narrative was a large piece in the abolitionist movement, David Walker chooses a different approach than others. He wrote an Appeal, much like a legal document in which he argued his personal viewpoints against the institution of slavery but with a great deal of imagery. Although both works are abolitionist literature, the content and type of work are different from one another. The works have similarities and differences and also serve to
Although both Twain and Douglass both lived in the south, Douglass was a slave and, therefore, faced greater hardships than did Twain. While Twain was preoccupied about becoming steamboat captain, Douglass was experiencing more dire troubles such as having “no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no trousers, nothing on but a coarse tow linen shirt, reaching only to my knees” (Douglass). As a free, white male, Twain’s biggest worry was not accomplishing his goal of becoming a steamboat pilot (Twain). Another difference is the use of joyful and troubling memories. While Twain ends his narrative in despair because he “somehow… could not manage…” to become a steamboat pilot, Douglass ends his narrative in the hopeful and thankful tone of a freed slave. Douglass proclaims “this good spirit was from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise”(Douglass). Finally, another narrative technique that differs Twain from Douglass is that Twain speaks for all of the boys of his town while Douglass only recounts his own experiences. According to Twain, “when I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman.”(Twain). Douglass, although alluding to other slaves, does not depict their desires nor does he show a kinship with them. Douglass’
Frederick Douglass’s “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave” recounts the life of Frederick Douglass as a slave on his journey to finding freedom. As a slave, he was treated as a second-rate citizen and was not taught how to be literate. Literacy is the ability to read and write. Slaves were robbed of the privilege of reading and writing and thus robbed of any educational means. Without these educational means, slaves were not allowed to grow in society and have a sense of capability within society. Instead, slaves were suppressed by the white man as property and forced to labor as the lowest part of society. Literacy is the education that separates humans from other forms of life and whites from slaves. Literacy
... and unhappy (Douglass 78).” Learning how to read was as big a step towards freedom for Douglass as it was back. It made him aware of the circumstances but it also made him realize how difficult it would be for him to ever find himself a free man. However, knowledge overpowers ignorance in the sense that his masters could never take his ability to read away from him and because Douglass now knew his condition, he knew that he deserved a better life.
America, a land with shimmering soil where golden dust flew and a days rain of money could last you through eternity. Come, You Will make it in America. That was the common theme of those who would remove to America. It is the common hymn, the classic American rags-to-riches myth, and writers such as Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass had successfully embraced it in their works.Franklin and Douglass are two writers who have quite symmetrical styles and imitative chronology of events in their life narratives.
According to Douglass, the treatment of a slave was worse than that of an animal. Not only were they valued as an animal, fed like an animal, and beaten like an animal, but also a slave was reduced to an animal when he was just as much of a man as his master. The open mentality a slave had was ...
He believed that the ability to read makes a slave “unmanageable” and “discontented” (2054). Douglass discovered that the “white man’s power to enslave the black man” (2054) was in his literacy and education. As long as the slaves are ignorant, they will be resigned to their fate. However, if the slaves are educated, they would understand that they are as fully human as the white men and realize the unfairness of their treatment. Education is like a forbidden fruit to the slave; therefore, the slave owners guard against this knowledge of good and evil.
Gaining mental emancipation also made him a man. He had the power of knowledge and yet he didn't know the impact of being literate. He wasn't ready to have his world open right in front of him. Being able to read opened Douglass' eyes to what slavery really was. "He got the bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights."*(278) He saw things that he would have never seen if he had remained ignorant. He saw all the horrors and sadness of his life as a slave. He wasn't quite ready for the harsh realities that he was then exposed to. He felt that his master, Master Hugh, was right. Douglass learning to read brought him the discontentment, torment and anguish that Master Hugh said would follow if a slave learned how to read.* (279) The visions that Douglass saw was really affecting him. He saw things he never saw before. Dou...
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
While writing about the dehumanizing nature of slavery, Douglass eloquently and efficiently re-humanize African Americans. This is most evident throughout the work as a whole, yet specific parts can be used as examples of his artistic control of the English language. From the beginning of the novel, Douglass’ vocabulary is noteworthy with his use of words such as “intimation […] odiousness […] ordained.” This more advanced vocabulary is scattered throughout the narrative, and is a testament to Douglass’ education level. In conjunction with his vocabulary, Douglass often employed a complex syntax which shows his ability to manipulate the English language. This can be seen in Douglass’ self-description of preferring to be “true to [himself], even at the hazard of incurring ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur [his] own abhorrence.” This is significant because it proves that Douglass can not only simply read and write, but he has actually obtained a mastery of reading and writing. This is a highly humanizing trait because it equates him in education level to that of the stereotypical white man, and how could one deny that the white man is human because of his greater education? It is primarily the difference in education that separates the free from the slaves, and Douglass is able to bridge this gap as a pioneer of the
...nineteenth century. Douglass was given some education and worked on it by himself after lessons ceased. Slaves who had any education were a rarity in the south. By taking away any opportunity for a better life, slave holders controlled every aspect of a slave’s life. However, after some education, Frederick longed for a life out of slavery. He realized he not only had to have a sound mind, but also a sound body and soul. The will to leave his old life behind was as important to education in obtaining his freedom. Frederick had many experiences that coincided with the average life of a southern slave during his time in captivity. However, after his escape, his life was very different from slaves who had obtained freedom by some means. Frederick Douglass became one the most prominent men in his time due to his hard work and determination he gained from being a slave.
Douglass was not aware of what slaves were and why they were treated in a bad condition before he learns how to read. He was deeply saddened upon discovering the fact that slaves were not given the rights every human being should have. In an effort to clarify Douglass’s feelings of anguish, he states: “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass 146). The fact that other slaves are content with their lives is what brings awareness to him because he knows that he is stripped of basic human rights. He envies his fellow slaves due to the reason that they are pleased with the life he cannot live to like anymore. Also, he is often wishing he never learned how to read because he doesn’t want to burden about his life. Douglass knows more about the disturbing conditions than most of the slaves around him, but he greatly regrets it. Before he started reading, he lived very much in contentment and now he cannot stand the fact of being
In the essay “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass illustrates how he successfully overcome the tremendous difficulties to become literate. He also explains the injustice between slavers and slaveholders. Douglass believes that education is the key to freedom for slavers. Similarly, many of us regard education as the path to achieve a career from a job.
However, some of our past generations weren’t able to receive an education, due to being in a poor income family, or during pre civil war time, were the slaves weren’t able to have any education.This was the case for Frederick Douglass, He wrote about his journey of how was able to learn how to read and write in his essay How I Learned to Read and Write. Douglass wrote about how he was a slave child pre civil war time, and how the wife of his master been secretly instructed him how to read and write. That until his master found out, and put an end to it. Back then slave owners though if their slaves had an education, than they would be able to think for themselves and be an educated human being. However, Douglass didn’t let his master stop him from learning how to read and write, he continued his education by observing those around him, and by sneaking in the room of his owner’s son, and using the son’s old copy-books. “During this time, my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump of chalk” (275). Growing up, my mother grow up in the country of Guatemala, She had grown up not having many materials to have an education, but she had never let that hold her back. My mother had worked hard with the little things she had around her, and was able to graduate high school and move to