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Jared Melendez
Professor Woo
English 162
28 March 2016
The Effects of Not Receiving an Education
Knowledge is a tool, and sometimes a weapon that empowers a person to reject one’s
beliefs and fight for their own. Understanding the problems of one’s surroundings enables that
person to make just choices based on this weapon. Incapable of using this tool subjects one to
any person’s perspective which could lead to decisions that are unknowingly disagreeable to
their own views and opinions. Without the ability to learn, a person is unable to discover their
perspectives on certain subjects. They go through life without knowing there is more
information to acquire other than the ones from people, who might not be trustworthy. Not
receiving an education or gaining the ability to read forces a person to become unknown of their
identity, restricts them from understanding their surroundings, and makes them rely on the
thoughts of others.
Without having an education, a person cannot determine what they believe which makes
it difficult for one to discover their individuality. Frederick Douglass was under a wrong
impression of his enslavers. At first, he thought highly of them, but soon changed this opinion.
Due to his ability to read, he now believed slave owners were “successful robbers” stealing
African natives from their homes (128). The simple skill of reading sentences gave Frederick a
deeper understanding of his origins and exposed him to the horrors of his occupation as a slave.
After reading many documents, he claimed they “enabled [him] to utter [his] thoughts, and to
meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery” (128). These abilities provided
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knowledge to Douglass that would help him see his true identity and the wrongful actions taken
by the slaveholders. He now knew that there “was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a
powerful vindication of human rights” (128). If it were not for his abilities, Frederick would
have continued to trust the enslavers and believe that he was supposed to be slave with no
violation to his human rights. He enabled himself to discover his rights and identity, and reform
his beliefs. Malcolm X discusses another example of this type of uncovering. While in prison,
he read many books and would create his own perspective of his surroundings that he was
unaware of before. He concluded, “the collective white man had acted like a devil”, explaining
that they had stolen resources from the “black continent” (284). His education allowed him to
read these books and recognize his true ideas and attitude. Ultimately, he was now able to
recognize his true self. Not only does education help one discover their identity, but it also
