Based on reading all three pieces considered educational narratives, these are what they have in common: each piece share connections of overcoming challenges. This could be learning how to read or learning something new to better educate themselves. Jiang had her grandmother, Douglass had books and other children to help him read, and Malcolm had his dictionary. In each text, our characters were alone but they always had something or someone to rely on to better educate themselves in following the pursuit of knowledge.