In all three texts that we have read they all share the genre of Education Narratives as all three of them share the same story outline in which they are in a position that makes them seek education and what they have learned from this. For example, in Frederick Douglass’ Narrative, he discusses how he was restricted from learning and had to squeeze in his education during his errands. From this, he learned how to read and eventually found out about abolitionism. Similarly in Anita Jiang’s, “The Memory of My Grandmother”, we see that both she and her grandma are illiterate as during the revolution they were isolated from education. Anita sought after a college education and learned that memories were more important than all else. And lastly in Malcolm X’s “Learning How to Read” we see that he is tired of not being able to write proper English and whilst in jail he taught himself and learned the injustices committed by white people.
All of their stories tell us of their upbringing; Jiang, a child who grew up in one of the hardest environments to graduating college, Douglass, one of the most famous abolitionists, and X, who was a prominent civil rights activist. They all weren’t born like this but instead had to seek it and educate themselves.
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