Comparison of two great black men’s learning experience

本文主要讲述的是关于两个伟大的黑人男子的学习经验比较的essay范文。文章从马尔科姆X的“学习阅读”和弗雷德里克·道格拉斯的“学习读，写”，关于学习生动，令人印象深刻的经验都向我们展示。这两个伟大的非洲裔男性的差异将在文章进行描述，然后讨论的背景也将给予我们理解他们的情况。

Comparison of two great black men’s learning experience
From Malcolm X‘s “Learning to Read” and Frederick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write”, vivid and impressive experiences about learning are shown to us. It was a difficult but profound and influential process for them to have a good command of literacy, which finally not only contributed to their own life success but also fighting human rights for black people who had been treated badly and suppressed by white people. The similarities and differences of those two great African American male will be described in the essay and then a background discussion will also be given for us to understand the situation they were in.
When it comes to the similarities, “black people” and” race “are the first phrase we may concerned. Mr. X and Mr. Douglass were in the situation when black people were suppressed by white people, they did not have available access to learning, especially Mr. Douglass who was a slave for life, he was not allowed to learning. But both of them tried their best to gain the knowledge from the outside world. Mr. X was very hardworking to read books and gain new knowledge, he copied a dictionary in the prison again and again from the first letter ”A” related words to the last page of the dictionary, which laid a basis for his continuous reading.( Learning to Read , 274) He also spent lots of time reading even in the bed time when the light was turn off by the glow of the corridor light of the prison.( Learning to Read ,276) They were curious and passionate in learning, thinking many ways to read more books. In return, all the knowledge they acquired had great impact on their lives. Learning helped Mr. X know more bloody history about black people and opened his mind toward equal civil rights even human rights. Learning also helped Mr. Douglass know more knowledge about abolishment of slavery, inspiring him to escape from slavery for freedom. Besides, they were both representatives of revolutions like the anti-slavery movement and civil rights movement, who became great leaders of the movements through their early hardworking learning experiences. 
It is obvious that there are many differences in those two people’s learning experiences. They were in different historical period and under different circumstance. Mr. X was in a time when African American was fighting for civil rights and slavery was already abolished, when “white men had written history books, the black man simply had been left out”( Learning to Read ,276). Mr. Douglass was in a time when “abolish” or “abolitionist” were new words to him, when “it is almost an unpardonable offence to teach slaves to read in this Christian country” (Learning to Read and Write, 120), when “white men has been known to encourage slaves to escape, and then, to get the reward, catch them and return them to their masters “(Learning to Read and Write, 122), when it was hard for a slave to chase for freedom. What’s more, it was the prison life which give Mr. X more free time to read and learning. He was addicted to various books he could read. As he described “as you can imagine, especially in a prison where there was heavy emphasis on rehabilitation, an intimate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusually intense interest in books.”(Learning to Read, 275). As you can see, it was encouraged to read books in the prison and Mr. X had more resources to learning. On the contrary, Mr. Douglass, as a slave for life, was not as lucky as Mr. X. although he was instructed by his mistress who then became objected to his learning, he was limited in the resources he can get. “In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems” (Learning to Read and Write, 118). He must to find ways to read more books and learned to write by asking help from others. Besides, their feelings were absolutely different, the more books Mr. X read, the more sense and fulfilling he would have. Reading book gave him ways to know more about black people’s history. However, Mr. Douglass’s reading experience was different, the more he read, the more conflicted feelings he would have, he knew the truth but he could not figure out the right ways to pursue freedom. “ I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing, it had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy, it opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out.”(Learning to Read and Write, 121) From which, we can identify the different reading and learning experience those two people had.
Actually, some society’s views on literacy, education, race and class have been mentioned above when comparing two people’s education experience and some examples are also indicated. In Mr. Douglass’s period, it is harder for slave to have access to literacy let alone went to school to acquire knowledge, compared with Mr. X’s period when He could read books as much as he wanted. It seems a kind of progress from Mr. Douglass to Mr. X’s period, slavery is abolished and black people can read more book and have access to go to school. However, race problems still exist, black people were still treated badly by white people who dominates the world history. Black people’s status is not equal as white people when it comes to human rights, which was one of the major reasons to Civil Rights Movement led by African American from 1960s to 1970s. 
Reference
1.Malcilm X. “Learning to Read”. The Autography of Malcolm X. 1965: 273-282.
2.Frederick Douglass. “Learning to Read and Write”. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. 1845. 118-123.

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