Running head: REFLECTION

Contrast and Comparison Reflection Essay
Geraldine Smith
Gwynedd Mercy College

Educators say that reading is a very important skill that needs to be developed early in life. Some parents start to read to their babies before they are born. Not only does it help to develop language skills it can educate and take you places you’ve never been before. Frederick Douglas and Richard Rodriquez are two writers that contributed great works of art to society. In spite of being born nearly 150 years apart; both had a profound need to educate themselves by learning to read. Self-determined and motivated by the desire for education they both accomplished what they set out to do.
Frederick Douglas was born a slave and received his first teachings from the mistress of the house. After the mistress was commanded by her husband not to teach him anymore, Frederick had to resort to different ruses to learn to read and write. Frederick was a slave and slaves were not allowed to read or write. If caught slaves were beaten and tortured or even worse killed sometimes for trying to learn to read and write.
Richard Rodriquez on the other hand was born after minorities were free to get an education. Fredrick was a slave that knew that being able to read and write was his only ticket to freedom, and for Richard it meant academic success. At home he was watched closely to make sure he was not trying to read anything. One day she found him reading a newspaper which made her furious because she knew that education and slavery were incompatible with each other. There was nothing more dangerous to slavery then education.
This would not stop him. After the mistress stop instructing him, Fredrick had to think of other ways to learn how to read and write. The thought of being a slave for life was something he could not bear. He would talk about this subject with the white boys that he played with he would say to them, I wish I could be as free as they would be when they got to be men (Muller, 2011, p. 260).
Frederick was very resourceful and began to think of other ways to get what he knew he needed to become free. One way was to take the poor white children bread from his home and in return they would give him the gift of knowledge. He also would get his friends to teach him letters of the alphabet by tricking them or playing games with them.
Richard’s love for reading came from being read to by one of the nuns at his school. He didn’t like to read alone because it made him feel lonely. It was not her words that influence him but it did make him realize that it would make him educated. He never saw his parents reading unless it was a necessity. But then he realized that reading was education and it could take you places you’ve never been before. His thrust for reading became insatiable. He would go to the library and check out ten books at a time. The librarians did not know what to make of him at first; they just looked at him in strange ways. Here he was a young boy that checked out as many books as he could at one time and kept returning for more. At home his mother would ask him what do you see in your books (Muller, 2011, p. 266).
The thought of being a slave for life weighted heavily on Fredrick’s heart, and when he was around twelve years old he read “The Colombian Orator” which changed his life. The thoughts that flashed through his mind finally became words. Then there were time when he felt as if learning to read was a cure rather than a blessing, because it made him realize just how terrible the conditions in which he had to live.
One day while sitting at the pier watching two Irishmen unloading a barge of stone from the boat; he went and helped them without being asked. The Irishman put the thought of running away in his mind. But he knew he needed to learn to write first. The chance came at the shipyard. After that he would challenge any boy that he came across and was able to get many lessons in writing. Just around the time Frederick finished remembering all the italics in Webster’s spelling book, his master’s son Thomas had begun school. Every chance he got he would copy over letters in the young Thomas’s copy book. He did this for many years and finally succeeded in learning how to write.
Frederick’s love for reading came from the need to be a free man, but Richard’s love of reading came from the need to be educated. At school his teachers would say to the rest of the class “I only wish the rest of you took reading as seriously as Richard obviously doe.” (Muller, 2011, p. 266). He did not want to read children’s books he wanted to read important books. By the time he entered high school he had read hundreds of books. Even though, he found reading pleasurable he came to enjoy the lonely, good company of books.
Both men knew the importance of being able to read and write, Frederick had to steal his education by having to resort to trickery. Others times by working for nothing just to learn a few letters of the alphabets. Because of people like Frederick Douglas and others that would not let slavery keep them in chains, Richard was able received his education without having to fear for his life.
Even though race relations have come a long way since Brown v. Board of Education; America still has a long way to go before race relations in the United States can be looked at as being fair and equal for all as in the nation’s egalitarian ideals. Two Cheers for Brown V. Board of Education offers an evaluation of the Supreme Court decision on school segregation and why it fostered so much frustration and resentment from Black Americans.

Reference
Muller, G. H. (2011). McGraw Hill Reader, Issue Across The Disciplines. New York: McGraw Hill.