ASAlochblog

 

Shevantai Gooden, Amir Arnold and Andreana Clark

Dr. Cantice Greene

English 1101

14 March 2022

Rhetorical Reading Response on “How I Learned to Read and Write”

In the autobiographical essay “How I Learned to Read and Write,” (1845) written by Frederick Douglas, Douglas describes his journey in learning to read and write. Douglas illustrates the many obstacles and difficulties he had to overcome when learning to read and write. The author develops his story by providing evidence and giving descriptions of how he learned to read and write. The author uses quotations in the story to give evidence of what others have said to him. Douglas’s intended audience for this essay were slaveholders and other people interested in learning about his journey in becoming a literate slave.

After reading the essay, I felt sympathy for Douglas and other slaves who were deprived of literacy and their freedom. I also felt hatred for the slaveholders who stole these slaves from their motherland and enslaved them. I feel so strongly about this injustice because I am also a black person and if it were just a few decades ago, I too would have been enslaved. I believe that we are all human beings and the difference in the color of our skin does not give one person superiority over the other. I liked the chronological order in which Douglas developed his story. It made the story easy to read and his vivid details also made it hard to lose interest.

The author’s thesis that learning to read and write as a slave was difficult was very effective in developing his argument. This thesis is portrayed when the author gave examples such as “I have had her rush at me with a face made all up of fury, and snatch from me a newspaper,” showing the obstacles he had to face when trying to learn. Although Douglas’s headmistress was the one who first started teaching him how to read, she soon opposed the idea of him being literate after she was instructed by her husband to stop doing teaching him. His mistress was so eager to please her husband’s wishes that she immediately stopped teaching Douglas and would become furious with him if she caught him reading anything. The writer argues the point that literacy was a fuel for his burning need to be free. This is seen where the author says, “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.” Literacy allowed him to see things from a whole new perspective and caused him to loathe his slave master for depriving him of freedom. He soon began to think of his new skill as a curse because it made him want to disobey his master and search for freedom. In contrast, if he was just another “stupid” slave, he would have more likely been obedient because serving their master well is the only thing slaves were taught. When the author said, “I loathed them as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men,” it showed how the author felt about being enslaved. This shows that the author had a strong sense of hatred toward his masters. Douglas uses emotional appeal to engage his audience into believing his point. An example of when the author used emotional appeal was when he said, “I often find myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead.” This was an attempt to make his audience feel sympathy for him and agree with his points. Douglas uses descriptive terms such as “brute” and “chattel” to give his audience an idea of what his slave masters thought of him. The author used quotations such as, “Are ye a slave for life,” in the story to give evidence of his conversations with others.  The author developed his story in a chronological order to ensure that there was a smooth flow in the sequence of events. Chronological order is seen in the transition between paragraphs. This allowed readers to know what was happening when, without losing interest.  

Douglass, Frederick. "How I Learned To Read and Write." Connections: Guide to First Year Writing @ Clayton State University. Ed. Mary Lamb. 6th Edition. South Lake: 2019.