Reading Response FDouglass — Your Name

This HW post is a response to FDouglass “Learning to Read and Write.”  This HW has two parts.  You must complete each part to receive credit.

Part One:  Choose ONE of the Reading Response Questions.   Answer the question in one fully developed paragraph (5-6 sentences).

Part Two:  Choose one large block quotation of your choice from anywhere in the reading (5-6 sentences, something like the passage we worked on in class today starting with “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me . . ..”). Copy the quotation, enclosing it in quotation marks and giving the Paragraph number.  Now analyze this quotation carefully, explaining each sentence in your own words.  I expect you to write a full paragraph, 5-6 sentences.

 

Here are the Reading Response Qs for Part One (choose one):

1.  After the young Douglass loses his mistress as his teacher, what strategies does he practice to continue learning to read?  Who does he turn to for help?  How does he persuade them to help him?
2. What is the effect of Douglass’s own reading, in general, for him?  Read Paragaphs 5 and 6.  In responding to this question, look carefully at how he describes his reading of both “The Columbia Orator,” and Sheridan’s speeches about Catholic emancipation.
3. What does Douglass mean when he says that “learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing” (paragraph 5)?  Furthermore, what does he mean when he says that “freedom…was ever present to torment me” (same paragraph)?  In other words, is there a downside to becoming literate?  What might that be?
4. Reread paragraph 7 and describe the process Douglass goes through to learn the word “abolition.”  How does this process explain why the author’s mistress found his reading newspapers so threatening?
5. Look carefully at the various strategies Douglass used to learn how to write (final paragraphs). What are these?

HOW TO POST:  Go to the top menu bar. Click on the plus sign.  You will land on a writing page.  Write in the title: Reading Response FDouglass– write your first name.  Type in your writing.  When finished, go to right hand side and check on category: Reading Response FDouglass .  Then scroll up and click on publish.  Please post by Wednesday 12 noon.