Learning Lesson From Frederick Douglass

Learning Lesson From Frederick Douglass

In "Learning to Read and Write," Frederick Douglass describes his successful journey of teaching himself to read and write despite the conditions that worked against him. In this essay, Douglass pinpoints how he managed to learn to read and write despite the fact that everyone around him did everything to keep him from it. The central point of the essay reinforces the notion that if we are truly committed to something, we can accomplish it. Douglass never gave up because language became a passion for him. Passion drives the human spirit and it should always be followed and given a chance to breath. Douglass finds this way regardless of what he has been told his entire life.

Douglass' perseverance illustrates how we must never give up even when we think things are impossible. When Mrs. Hugh turned on Douglass and tried to dissuade him from learning to read, she was hoping that he would but he had other plans. He writes, "in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell" (156). Douglass did not give and was forced to think of another way to accomplish what he wanted. He writes, "The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street" (Douglass 156). These boys would be his teachers. Douglass was smart enough to figure out how to get people to help him. He did not stop with reading as he also taught himself to write. He might have accomplished this in an unconventional way, but the results are what matter. He succeeded. This is a technique that everyone can use.

Douglass' tenacity reminds me of Martin Luther King, who lived in a world where African-Americans knew how to read and write but were still suffering under the weight of racism. King did not become violent and irrational in order to win people to his way of thinking. Even when he was arrested and put in jail for nonviolent protests, he spoke with a calm and unwavering voice. He knew in his heart what was right and he was smart enough to figure out a way to make his dreams come true without violence. King face adversity but he never gave up and he chose to seek his dream in an unconventional way, much like Douglass. He saw the obstacles and, rather than let them stop him, he found another way.