Shailyn Warnock English 1030 Fall 2014 McNeil September 7, 2014
Notice and Focus: Frederick Douglass
In the autobiography of Frederick Douglass it discusses how he went from a slave, to being freed and to his great well respected success. The turning point of his life was learning to read and write so I performed the move notice and focus on the ideas of education and what it means to be educated. Douglass contradicts his views rather or not being educated was the best. For a slave to be educated was illegal so for Douglass to be educated was a gift; he had an advantage others didn't. He took every chance he got to become well educated, he will make friends with white boys so they can better him at reading and writing, since his owners wife was no longer allowed. As he became to understand what it was like to be able to read and right , he was able to understand, which he disliked. He wished to be ignorant, thoughtless, empty of things. He wanted to be like the other illiterate slaves so that he wouldn't think. He wished he never existed, he wished his self dead. His motivation was freedom so he continued. He hated thinking because he would over hear peoples conversation and wonder what they are talking about or mean, the big one that bothered him was abolish. He always saw and heard the word abolish and abolitionist and was eager to find the meaning, because the dictionary was to vague, he went out to get help, and pushed his self to be more educated and the main focus of this was The Colombian Orator. Being educated to me, is someone who can go far in life based off their knowledge. Douglass being educated gave him the knowledge to know that he wont be a slave forever there's a way out. He
learned this by reading The Colombian Orator. At the age of 12 Douglass declared that he will be a slave for the rest of his life, but reading this book he learned about a slave running away from his master, successful or not, Douglass had hope. Being educated he learned the meaning of what people have been protesting; abolish of slavery, what the war was about and trying to accomplish. He found faith with the gift of education. I selected the importance of education, what education means and Douglass life with education as focuses that stood out to me, because they all tie together to one central point. In order to know anything, achieve anything, or get anywhere in life slave or not, you need education. Education is the key to everything and the reason why it cost so much now. No matter how you start off you can always end above the top with education.