Learning To Read and Write by Douglass and Rodriguez - Essay Example

The stories by Rodriguez and Douglass illustrate that education and the ability to learn and write were the only measures as stressed by the people around them to improve their lives. The world viewed education as the primary factor that could change the life of an individual. The master in Douglass’s case opposed the desire to educate the slaves and influenced the wife to do the same because they never considered it efficient to train a slave. Through education, the slaves would develop a sense of worthiness that would be damaging to the masters.

The masters knew the power of learning to read and write and the consequences they would face had the slaves managed to do so. Douglas seemed to have a strong affinity to books and preferred facing the consequences than avoiding reading a book. He seemed to have an idea that books would be the key to his salvation. However, Douglas and Rodriguez failed to understand the adverse effects their actions would cause to their life. They failed to realise that there are two sides to every coin and that what has the power to make one free had the ability to blind and destroy them.

Reading and writing abilities seemed to be the key to their success. However, soon after achieving their desires, they realized that they had achieved totally different results from what they expected. Douglas realized that he had been dreaming for most of his life and the ability to not understand the challenges they faced as slaves were better than understanding and remaining in the same situation. Douglas wished to die knowing that he understood the challenges they faced and the success the masters experienced from their demise (Douglas 4).

He realised that the books about slavery gave him false hope and that the future could never be defined by a book. Rodriguez lost touch with the outside world engaged in reading numerous books to achieve the success he desired. The challenges he encountered in the complexity of the text never stopped him from completing the book like was the case with Plato’s Republic. However, Rodriguez was so engrossed in the need to read more books that he lost the necessary aspect of reading. He became more interested in just reading a book to overcome a challenge in his life.

It could be said that Rodriguez was not interested in developing the ways of his parents. The parents only read urgent things that never seemed to be important in life (Rodriguez 282). He seemed to have a feeling that their reading habits were not successful and wanted to take the approach of the teachers and read more. In this process, Rodriguez lost the necessary touch with his books and became more interested in filling the hole within him (Rodriguez 285). The excessive desire to read and write caused negative effects on Douglass and Rodriguez for where the world has the potency to receive and make us free, it has also the power to blind, imprison, and destroy.