Frederick: Theme Of Education

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Within the novel, Frederick portrays the theme of education being a powerful weapon that is used to subdue the slaves. Without education, the slaves become “manageable” keeping them in a cycle of enslavement. Through a once in a lifetime chance Frederick is able to learn the alphabet, courtesy of a kind soul untainted by slavery. He then uses this knowledge to his advantage to learn how to read and write. During his learning, he is halted by the words of his master forbidding the kind soul to continue Fredericks teaching as it would make him a threat to “the white man’s power to enslave the black man.” After this life changing realization, he begins to teach other slaves how to read and write in order to break the “dehumanizing” cycle of

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