Monday, August 31, 2015

Exploration Two: Our first Blog post By Brandon Smith

Hello, my name is Brandon Smith and I am 18 years old. I attended Highland High School which is located in Marengo, Ohio. It is a small high school and was basically in the middle of nowhere. I enjoyed the slim class sizes because it gave me a chance to get to know everyone in the school very well. I like to hunt, fish, golf, and play baseball. I played golf on my high school team and we set the record for lowest score by a foursome in school history. Something that is interesting about me is that I have never broken a bone, but I am very liable to illness because of my suppressed immune system.

One of the readings where some things stood out to me was from the, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas. I was interested in the fact that the slave owner, who at the time owned Fredrick Douglas, was so against his slaves to learn to read and write. He said that he would have to harm them in some way or another if they ever learned to read and write. The literacy event that I see in the piece of writing is showing the reader how much reading and writing can display the intellect of a person and how much it can help that person equal to or better than his/her constituents. Being able to read and write can change the perception that society has on someone. In Fredrick Douglas' case, if he learned to write than he would be too closely related to the white people and that was not okay with the white folks at the time. I think the views of the slave owner were very interesting because you wouldn't normally think that writing could make someone superior but in this case it made the white people superior in their minds.

2 comments:

  1. I fully agree that being literate changes societies perception on someone, it seems like with Frederick Douglass as soon as he becomes literate he is seen as a person and not just property. Being literate gave him the opportunity to move on from his previous life and become successful.

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  2. I found it ironic that Fredrick Douglass' "master" found literacy in slaves so bad, and yet one of his own slaves became literate. Through becoming literate, he impacted society forever through his writings, seeing himself as a human being for the first time, rather than property.

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