Comparing Tough Times :: essays research papers

Comparing Tough TimesAuthors have done many essays on skill and teaching. In two particular essays, the authors focus more on reading and learning to speak good, which is also associated with reading. The narrators in Frederick Douglass essay discipline to hire and Write and Maxine Hong capital of Jamaicas Learning to Speak Like and American Girl not only tell the reader about their conflict of affinity between societys dominant culture and their own sense of identity, but educate the reader and explain the choices the characters make which determine the direction of their lives.In Learning to Read and Write the speaker tells about his life as a schoolboyish slave boy. He is twelve years old, and is thought of by others as being a slave for life (1003) His desire and yearning to read and write is not allowed as a slave. He meets a few young white boys who argon willing to teach him how to read and write if he will bring them bread. As many of these I could, I converted into tea chers.(1003) Kingstons essay Learning to Speak Like and American Girl is similar to Learning to Read and Write because of the clip period and the controversy. During this time, which is set during conception War II, Chinese girls were just begining to be sent to American schools and taught how to speak and read English. The students in the class and the teacher would give these students a hard time because they were not loud or fluent enough. When I went to kindergarten and had to speak English for the first time, I became silent.(1007) these two stories are similar in society because they are both challenged with the dominant culture. The authors express their own sense of identity by telling the readers their ethnic background and their significance in the story. The speaker in the Learning to Read and Write shows his identity as a young slave wanting to read and write. The speaker in Learning to Speak Like and American Girl is a young Chinese girl learning to speak and read Eng lish fluently. Both authors have similar conflicts yet they represent a different era in history. In these essays, the authors are telling a story about the characters life. The stories are directed towards the audience to express the kind of trouble oneself and suffering the characters went through to learn and apply what they had been yearning for.