Question

2. In the excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, how does Mr. Auld’s decision to forbid his wife to teach Douglass to read change Douglass’s viewpoint about his enslavement? Use evidence from the text to support your response. Your response should be at least two complete paragraphs.

Answer 1

Douglass learns the white man's power comes from the ability to prevent education to the slaves. The excerpt expresses Douglass' understanding of how education empowers the literate person and by remaining illiterate, unable to read, the master keeps his power against the slave. Yet, as the man says its forbidden he gives Douglass a strong mindset to keep working and strive. For example, in this passage, “It gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which, he said, would flow from teaching me to read. What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be diligently sought; and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn.”

When is says, “deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering.” There it shows, he interprets and knows the things Mr. Auld is saying are true but painful to bear. Mr. Auld says things that are stating if he learns to read (especially from his wife) then it wouldn’t be a good outcome for the slave (Douglass) future. There’s many things that can cause even more harm. Like as we read this sentence, “As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm.” For this is only what the man (Mr. Auld) was trying to get in his head. “I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty—to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man.” Yet, he wouldn’t stop there and was to still thrive and learn to read.

Answer 2

 Douglass learns the white man's power comes from the ability to prevent education to the slaves. The excerpt expresses Douglass' understanding of how education empowers the literate person and by remaining illiterate, unable to read, the master keeps his power against the slave.