Question 1
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?”
After Douglass loses his mistress as his teacher, he created a plan to continue learning by doing one part of his errand quickly sow he would have some free time before having to return. Douglass planed on making friends with the poor white kids in which he succeeded. He then plans to convince them into teaching him how to read. Douglass planned to use bread that he was always welcomed to have and then he would give it to the poor white kids who weren’t as Fortunate as him. After giving them the bread, the poor white kids started to help teach him learn how to read.
Question 2
Paragraph 5 “I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. In moments of agony, I envied my fellow‐slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast.”
In the quotation above Douglass thinks learning how to read is a curse because he is able to understand what white people are saying. Due to this Douglass is suffering because he is fully aware of his surroundings and the situation that he is in and know that he can’t do anything about it. He is also able to understand more than another slave in what white people are mostly saying around him. Douglass is envies of the other slaves because they aren’t as smart as him and don’t really know what any white person where saying. He wants to become a beast because he mostly knows what is happening and what the white people are saying and wishes that he didn’t know what was happening.
Chris I completely agree with what you have taken from the text. Frederick Douglas was able to see things from a different viewpoint due to him being able to read but it also was a curse to him because he could have gotten in trouble if his master found out. In the beginning his master was teaching him but after being found out by others that she was teaching a black man to read she faced consequences as a result of her actions. This caused her to change how she treated Douglas for the worse. So, in order for him to continue his education he made use of the friends he gave bread to them and in exchange they taught him how to read. By the way you have like 1 or 2 spelling and grammar errors so it would be a good idea to revisit your work.
I understand why he felt learning to read was a curse for him. Despite the fact that knowledge enable us to understand the problems and helps us to solve them, it is sometimes peaceful to have no knowledge about negative things.
Chris: Be careful. You use the word “say and saying” and you suggest that what Douglass learned was to SPEAK. Actually he learned to read. He could always hear and understand what was being said by the white people. He is not deaf.
You write: Douglass is envies of the other slaves because they aren’t as smart as him and don’t really know what any white person where saying. He wants to become a beast because he mostly knows what is happening and what the white people are saying and wishes that he didn’t know what was happening.
The slaves are not lacking in intelligence, but they are illiterate. THey can understand what people say but they cannot understand what is written!