“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” - Frederick Douglass. This is a very power quote, though what is more powerful is the man that said this. A slave living in the United States during the 1800s one of the darkest parts of American history. Frederick Douglass would teach himself how to read and write. This would empower him and would spread awareness of his story through the many novel he wrote himself. Stories like this will be illustrate why literacy is so important. The values of literacy are the social aspect of being literate, the power you can have, and the respect you gain.
Malcolm X, people know him as an important figure during the civil rights movement but there is a back story to the well educated man. He was sent to jail for crimes he committed and was
…show more content…
tired of not being able to pick up a conversation, he knew he could speak on the street but another setting he knew he wouldn't be able to.
instead of just sitting there waiting for his time to be up, he was motivated to educate himself with the many resources that he had. Malcolm was so determined to teach himself he would start by reading the dictionary and write all the words on the page word for word, then memorize what he wrote until he knew all of them that he wrote down. Malcolm would push himself until, “Finally the dictionary’s A section had filled a whole table-and I went on into the B’s. That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary.” (Learning to Read) Malcolm X speaks about how it feels to be able to read and understand it, “Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened” (Learning to Read). Being able to fully understand the world you live in after learning to read most amazing, being able to make the connections between is empowering. Malcolm learned a lot from the teachings from Mr. Muhammad, on topic being how history has been “whitened”, how the white people have been
writing the books and never included the black side to all this history. When Malcolm was in prison he knew that it would change his life, this sudden realization of how the white people can hide the truth, “The world’s most monstrous crime, the sin and the blood on the white man’s hands, are almost impossible to believe” said Malcolm X. This value of literacy is awareness of the world around you. Malcolm X didn’t fully understand what was going on because he never could read. Once he began to be able understand everything what he read and saw upset him, how his people went through a lot with slavery. Malcolm X made it his duty to try and help his people of the black community, “an, English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, “What’s your alma mater” I told him “Book.” “You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.” He was determined to make every effort to do his part. When living in a country where English is the primary language, having spanish as a first language and the language you speak at home every day doesn't really help in the world around you. I had a similar experiences with Richard Rodriguez, an author that was raised with one language and that being Spanish, and when he entered school for the first time he shares his experience, “Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teacher address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid.” This was scary for him he starts school which is already a huge jump then the teachers expect him to learn and speak english by himself. I know this feel very well, I was not able to communicate with anyone. I felt scared and lost, the teacher would try and talk to me and I would just sit there in silence. Rodriguez would continue his studies not not knowing any English for about half a year with teachers doing anything about until the Nun’s that worked at the school came to his house top have a talk with his parents, “Is it possible for you and your husband to encourage your children to practice their English when they are home?” Rodriguez would continue to explain what actually meant, “In an instant, they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family’s closeness.” This happens to many families they know that they have teach their children the language that will help them in the future to come. This is the most import value in literacy, the “social” aspect to it. The idea that if you're not literate in this country finding a job, making friends, and being able to find your way around will be more difficult. There is some truth to this statement but there is a different aspect to it. For people like Rodriguez and I, we learn this new language and our first language slowly starts to fade away, your parents start to only speak in English to help and the Spanish gets forgotten.
In his self-titled chronicle, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave", the author presents his audience with a memorable description of his resourcefulness in how he learned to write. His determination to shake off the bonds of illiteracy imposed by his slaveholders created in him the ability to conquer obstacles that held many slaves back. His mastery of the basic steps of the written language would one day play a central role in his success as a free man. The way these skills were acquired teaches us not only of his willpower, but also of his ingenuity as well. The outcome of his efforts culminated in an inimitable slave-narrative, as well as a career as one of the most famous abolitionists that this country would ever know.
Literature is written in many ways and styles. During his time, Frederick Douglass’s works and speeches attracted many people’s attention. With the amount of works and speeches Douglass has given, it has influenced many others writers to express themselves more freely. Though Douglass lived a rigorous childhood, he still made it the best that he could, with the guidance and teaching of one of his slave owner’s wife he was able to read and write, thus allowing him to share his life stories and experiences. Douglass’s work today still remain of great impact and influence, allowing us to understand the reality of slavery, and thus inspiring many others to come out and share for others to understand.
Everyone remembers when they learned to read and write some more than others. Even well known people like Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X. They wrote narratives, “Learning to Read And Write” by Frederick Douglass and “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, to show us when, where, and how they learned to read and write. Both authors go through struggles that we would never think could or would happen. Even though they go through struggles they still became eager to learn more to better themselves. It gave them power they never thought they could achieve. They have many similar and different trials that they went through so they could learn how to read and write.
One day, Douglass eavesdrops on him and Mrs. Auld’s conversation. Mr. Auld persuades her that reading “could do him (Douglass) no good, but a great deal of harm.” (page 39) This antithesis along with the rest of his statement makes Douglass come to the realization that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day on, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write,
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
He wanted to be able to properly write his thoughts and opinions out to be understood. He wanted to leave an impression on people to give them a thought of him exceeding his education far beyond the eighth grade. That impression was credited to his “prison studies” (Malcolm X 1). He had a voice that needed to be heard all over to bring a change to society. He self educated himself day and night with the dictionary, teachings ,and books. Malcolm X considered that “three or four hours of sleep a night” was enough (Malcolm X 3). Malcolm X became interested in the “glorious history of the black man” (Malcolm X 3). “Book after book” showed him the “white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown,red,and yellow peoples every variety of the suffering of exploitation” (Malcolm X 4). Like Douglass, Malcolm found the “Faustian machinations” of the “white man” against the “non-white victims” (Malcolm X). Douglass states, “I feared they might be treacherous.” Unlike Douglass being social and receiving help from others around , Malcolm was to himself and seeked information on his own through books. Malcolm X had more pride in his education and wasn 't afraid to share his knowledge, “Mr. Muhammed, to whom I was writing daily, had no idea of what a new world had opened up to me through my efforts to document his teachings in books” (Malcolm X 6). Malcolm X had some basic education knowledge
... 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.
In the tale of Malcolm X it states, “It really began back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge.” While he was in prison he began to realize that as his friend Bimbi began to talk he and take control of conversations that he wasn’t as educated as he believed himself to be. Also he’d begun to realize that being dumb and uneducated isn’t as cool as it seems when you begin to have a conversations with those who’re more educated than you are. In his tory he also states, “...nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese...I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of s dictionary-to study, to learn some words.” He felt the need to acquire the knowledge due to the fact that he wanted to understand his friend and have the knowledge to hold a conversation with Bimbi. Malcolm X wanted to expand his knowledge and his vocabulary.“Under Bembry's influence, Little developed a voracious appetite for reading.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X) His original goal for obtaining education as for the purpose of understanding hi friend Bimbi and due to that need to acquire more knowledge it lead to him discovering more about the complexities and ‘greyness’ along with the deafness and blindness that was affecting the people of America more specifically the black community in
He had long fought to learn to read and was so excited and eager to do so, he never expected the circumstances of this to be as dehumanizing as they were. He regretted learning to read because it brought him nothing but desperation, he learned his awful truth and that of his fellow slaves. "It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy." (Douglass, 24) The truth was that the more he learned the more he became aggravated, he knew there was not much he could do. It brought his moral down along with many other feelings, even a slave like Frederick had learned the awful feeling of
As a relatively young man, Frederick Douglass discovers, in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, that learning to read and write can be his path to freedom. Upon discovering that...
Literacy plays an important part in helping Douglass achieve his freedom. Learning to read and write enlightened his mind to the injustice of slavery; it kindled in his heart longings for liberty. Douglass’s skills proved instrumental in his attempts to escape and afterwards in his mission as a spokesman against slavery. Douglass was motivated to learn how to read by hearing his master condemn the education of slaves. Mr. Auld declared that education would “spoil” him and “forever unfit him to be a slave” (2054).
Fredrick Douglas is a well known figure in the abolishment movement through his narrative “Learning to Read and Write,” Douglas shares his own personal journey of how he learns to read and write. His organization helps the reader get a better grasp of the stages in his life; his innocence, his epiphany, his loathing and finally his determination. Through the use of syntax and diction, metaphors and the use of irony, he portrays the thoughts that went through his mind as a slave.
Language gave him leverage and he was able to gain a sense of power through it. Malcolm’s experience in prison opened up his eyes and through language he was given a whole new world which he never knew existed. None of X’s accomplishments would have been possible without the power of language. Malcolm began to realize the other side of things and eventually became frustrated at the fact that he could not express himself the way that he wanted to. For example, X states in his essay, “I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there—I had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional” (143). This comes to show exactly how frustrated he felt. X felt a sense of power and authority when he was out in the streets, but when it came to understanding a simple English word he was small and had no
According to the New York City writing project at Lehman College ,“... Reading, writing and thinking are interrelated activities that contribute to the student’s success in school, college, the community and the workplace.” Reading and writing and thinking are associated with each other and can actually help people reach success through the power of reflection. Reflection is being able to think of our past and present experience and really analyze how we can become better. Reflection also allows one to better understand what is going on around us. Frederick Douglass and Amy Tan’s literacy and language allowed them to achieve success through reflection. Frederick Douglass was a slave that learned how to read and write even besides the
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.