Growing Up as a Slave

In his essay “Learning to Read and Write” Frederick Douglass explains how growing up as a slave, deprived him from a normal upbringing. Douglass, a young African American child, a slave in a white Americans home, grew up serving his master and mistress.

Douglas explains in his essay how slaves were forbidden to read and write. He describes how on many occasions he would try to read his masters newspaper which would be sometimes left around the house. In his attempt to read, he would be quickly interrupted by his mistress who would aggressive snatch the newspaper from his hands. Clearly the mistress does not want Douglass learning about society. From Douglass’s experience it is obvious slaves were treat like garbage. Even though Douglass had comforts such as food and water, he was deprived from learning the basic knowledge of society. People did not want their slaves gaining knowledge. People did not want their slaves to understand that it is a much larger world with lots of opportunities for people. No, instead, they kept the world secret and hidden.

From this essay, it is understandable that people of Frederick Douglass’s time were greedy and selfish. People would take for granted the lack of knowledge in people and use it as they please. Personally, I see that as an act against humanity and the right to live freely. Can you imaging if slavery still occurred in the American society today?

From Douglass’s essay, you can learn how much the American society has developed into what it is today. Today, there is no such thing as slavery. Education is available in every street corner. People do not have to go to the extreme, where they have to teach themselves how to read and write. They can simply pick it up from their next door neighbor. People of society in Douglass’s essay did not have this luxury; they had to work for their freedom which then allowed them to gain knowledge. In this essay Douglass has not only shared his personal experience and the trouble he went through to learn, he has also taught a very important lesson in American history and slavery.

Why Can't Males Do Anything Right

Reading Dave Barry’s essay for the first time made me laugh. The first sentence immediately caught my attention because he is a hundred percent correct. He states that men are “scum in the kitchen” emphasizing a woman’s attitude towards men. I totally understood where he was coming from. Men cannot do a thing right in the kitchen, whether it being a poorly prepared meal or a pot left on the side, women will find something to moan about. I know the women will disagree when reading this, but think about it, think about your home, has your mother shouted at your father for doing something wrong in the kitchen? I know mine has.

When he talks about thanks giving dinner, it reminded me so much of home. When Barry asks his wife if she needs help in the kitchen, she turns to him and says, “Cut the turnip,” it really reminded me of my mother telling my father to cut the turnip for Christmas dinner. What is the reason for this? Is this the only thing men are good for when is comes to preparing the Christmas dinner? I know turnip is a pain the ass to cut and takes time, but why do males get assigned this job? Or is it because turnip is a not really major part of the dinner so it doesn’t matter if it goes wrong?

After reading Barry’s essay I have to say, I do agree with his argument. If I am going to be honest, I am the type of person who cleans up after my self. However, I do know that Barry’s essay definitely defines many households around the world.

In defense of all males, it’s not our fault that we are useless in the kitchen. Think back about twenty years, it was a males duty to go out and earn money for the family, and it was a females duty to put the dinner on the table and take care of the children. Thinking about it, it was our grand parents who actually lived like this. When they had children (our parents), these duties rubbed off on them, and when they had children (us) these duties slightly occur. My point here is that our generation is the one that can get rid of that lifestyle. Today, women have just as much rights as men so there is no reason for this type of behavior described in Barry’s essay. Also there is no reason for females to be stereotypical towards males.