Learning To Read And Write Analysis

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Literacy Through Time
Literacy over fifty years ago was harder to gain than it is today. In the works of “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass and “The Lonely, good company of Books” by Richard Rodriguez, the authors go through the troublesome process of learning how to read and write while they are unable to be fully accepted by the general society. The two men are determined to be able to fluently read and write and were not going to give up. The way that they accomplish this is phenomenal when compared to how it is done in the modern world. Today, everyone is required to go to school, so not only the rich kids are privileged enough to go. Not only are schools required, but extra help is everywhere, but fifty years ago, there was nobody to go to for help; however, now there is tutoring, friends to ask, go to the teacher for help after class, find help through the internet, and much more. “Learning to Read and Write” by
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They have other people read while they follow along and learn the words as they go. Rodriguez wants to learn from his parents, but he says, “Reading was something done out of necessity and done as quickly as possible” which made using his parents to teach him hard (227). Douglass has a hard time being able to read and says, “If I was in a separate room for a considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book.”(61). So, Douglass goes out to others, and bribes them with bread from his mistress, and in return, they read along with him, teaching him how to read books, instead of having to “look up full paragraphs in the dictionary. ”Douglass and Rodriguez both struggle to reach their goal and have to secretly learn to read and write in any free time they possibly had, but both manage and get the help that they