Frederick Douglass Response

Kymber Rias
10-23-08
AP English III
Period 11

Frederick Douglass was a slave born in Maryland in 1818. He later went on to New York and became a leader in the abolitionist movement. He learned to read and write on his own for the most part. Being a slave, he was not allowed to read or write for fear that this would give slaves the knowledge that would make them more apt to get up and revolt. Despite his obstacles, Frederick Douglass was persistent in his quest to learn to read and write, and eventually he accomplished his goals because of his commitment. “Learning to Read and Write” is taken from Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas. In this essay, Douglass uses many forms of rhetoric in his essay to appeal to the reader.
Douglass uses pathos very often in “Learning to Read and Write”. “I wished I could be as free as they would be when they got to be men” (Douglass, p.102). This quote appeals to the emotion of the reader because Douglass is comparing himself to a white person who doesn’t have the burden of being a slave for all of their life. It points out to the reader that not only did he have to deal with the agonies of his life as a slave, but he had to look at other children frolic around without a care in the world. His life and the life of the free Caucasian children contrast quite greatly. Douglass included this sentence in his essay to let the reader witness this contrast. “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass, p. 103). Even though Douglass is being relieved of the difficulty of not being able to read at all, he is faced with another, almost equal difficulty: getting a better look at the mistreatment of him and his people. He admitted that often times he would have rather been another of his fellow slaves, one who could not read. He then would not have such an up-close look at how badly African Americans were treated. The notion of his race being mistreated upsets Douglass, so he sometimes feels that he would rather not know at all. Douglass uses the word “agony” to describe to the reader how horrible his feeling was. This was very painful for him, because he felt as though if he has one thing, he can not have the other. If he has knowledge, he can not have peace of mind about his life, and vice-versa.