Learning how to read had a large impact on the life of Fredrick Douglas. I have had several impactful events and skills obtained. Attempting to find something that can match the sheer enlightenment expressed by Douglass can be difficult, but attempting it should be an interesting thought experiment.
Douglass was an uneducated slave in the 1800’s during his childhood. He grew up doing manual labor on plantations, serving under several different masters before his adulthood. Douglass was somewhere between eight and twelve years old when he first learned to read. Up until this point, Douglass was quite ignorant as to the state of slavery, and of the world in general. Learning to read allowed him insight into lots of the events of the time, and enlightened him as to his situation and the status of slavery. This fundamentally changed Douglass’s worldview from what it was formerly.
I have a hard time finding something in my life that could have the same impact on myself that literacy had on Douglass. The sheer change that learning to read caused in Douglass’s life was astronomical, and I don’t really have anything to match it. I am unable to think of any life-altering events that completely changed my view of society in one foul swoop, as Douglass had experienced.
Overall, upon some reflection, I haven’t had any life altering events to the same degree that Fredrick Douglass described in his autobiography. Douglass learning how to read shifted his views on society to such a drastic level that he could not stop thinking about it for years. I frankly haven’t had an experience similar to that in my own life as yet.