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 losing his mistress as a teacher he turned to young white children that he made friends with and turned some of them into his teachers. As paragraph 4 lines 37-38 states “…making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers.” This shows that Frederick Douglas used whatever resources he had at his disposal in order to be able to read.To be able to learn how to read without getting in trouble he would complete his errands quickly after that he would go to them so that they could teach him how to read. They were persuaded with bread that he brought and in exchange they would bestow him with knowledge.
2. “It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.”Paragraph 7, lines 93-94
This quote stuck out to me because it described freedom as a living being observing everything that happens. What made me believe this is when he said “…it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind…” This shows that Frederick Douglas saw the concept of freedom as something he would never be able to meet due to him being enslaved. Even though Frederick Douglas compared freedom to a living being he also stated that freedom was something that was distant or dangerous. One example of this is when he said “It looked from every star…and moved in every storm.” This proves my point because in scientific terms stars are millions of miles away and cannot be reached by normal means while storms are dangerous to those who are caught in its path.
Very good Newton. I liked your observation that Douglass uses personification in describing freedom.