Learning to Read and Write
In his autobiography Frederick Douglass writes about his experience in learning to read and write, thus the title. In the beginning of the story he describes a kind mistress with kindness and compassion. Frederick Douglass was born in time where there was still slavery, and that the gift of reading and writing was unknown to most slaves. Reading and writing was also sometimes treated as dangerous, since often a good education can lead to revolutionary ideas or turmoil.
“The more you know the farther, you will go.”(Dr. Seuss)
A person who seems to have a somewhat profound impression on Douglass is his mistress.
‘My mistress was, as I had said, a kind and tender-hearted woman; and in the simplicity of her soul she commenced, when I first went to live with, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another.’
He describes his mistress ass “kind” and a “tender-hearted” woman. These words are often link to describe a very somewhat compassionate person, which she was in the beginning. He also mentions “to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another”, this signifies that maybe at the beginning he wasn’t treated as a full right slave with the beatings, harsh job conditions, and cruel injustices. As he goes on throughout the story he mentions that his mistress’ demeanor has changed significantly from the compassionate woman he met at the beginning.
“Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamb-like disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness. She now commenced to practice her husband’s percepts. She finally became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as well as he had commanded; she seem anxious to do better. Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper.”
He points out that slavery is an ugly thing that will change anybody’s prospection on things, such as was the case with his mistress. He uses the words “heavenly qualities.” Heaven is often seen as the uttermost paradise. Bu using the word heaven he is emphasizing her kindness towards others. He compares his mistress to a lamb. A lamb is often seen as docile and a gentle creature, thus emphasizing his mistress’ kindness. But then after the change on her demeanor he compares her to a tiger. A tiger is often seen as an evil and greedy person as seen in The Jungle Book. The reason that he compares her to a tiger is to emphasize her cruelty and inhumane behavior towards him. The lasts two example were metaphors. He also displays that her “heart became stone” which again is used to emphasize her cruelty to the slaves. When he describes her mood when she caught him with a newspaper is “most angry”. By adding the word “most” is that his crime of reading and writing was now a huge form of disobedience. A newspaper is a source of information of the outside word. By also mentioning the newspaper, he is hinting that his mistress probably didn’t wanted him from getting any ideas of becoming free or starting a riot that may cause the other slaves in the household to revolt against their masters.