Forbidden Reading

Forbidden Reading

In the excerpt Forbidden Reading, the topic of being suppressed by higher powers is extremely prominent. However, this is not the root of the problems in a given society as suppression is not one of the basic human instincts. Forbidden Reading exposes the brutality one can find in all societies, regardless of what form it chooses to take. This paper will address one of the most dominant impulses of the human species and of almost all the other species on Earth who are able to have more than basic thought processes. It will begin by addressing what it believes as one of the most dominant impulses, why it is, how it came to be, and why it overshadows so much of any given society.

Curiosity killed the cat. Unfortunately, it is one of the prevailing compulsions lying in one’s body at any given time. Curiosity is something that resides in everyone regardless of one’s beliefs or upbringing. For example, in Forbidden Reading, p.286, it describes Comstock, one who despised all books that “destroy[ed]…the country,” was still taken over by curiosity despite the disgust and made him “dip… into the books before destroying them…” Curiosity’s unquenchability grows until it is impossible to suppress regardless of the dangers it brings one’s physical being into, for example, one often is often “forced to find devious methods of learning” (p.280) or otherwise quench curiosity. These �devious’ methods included, for former slaves, encouraging their master’s son through “suggesting that the boy read part of his lesson aloud” and causing the young master to believe that “[they were] …admiring his performance.” Curiosity often lays dormant, until a single action or phrase can spark it into life as it did for this young former slave, “The frequent hearing of my mistress reading the Bible aloud…. awakened my curiosity in respect to this mystery of reading, and roused in me this desire to learn.” (Bottom of p.280) One of the best friends of curiosity is perseverance. This is the factor, which aids to the satisfaction of curiosity preventing one from otherwise forever living in dehydration. For example, “Afro-American slaves learned to read against extraordinary odds, risking their lives in a process that, because of the difficulties set in their way, sometimes took several years.” (p.280) This perseverance is one of the greatest gifts man has been given. It finds many ways to learn and quench curiosity. For example, a former slave “learned her letters while looking after the plantation owner’s baby, who was playing with alphabet blocks.” (p. 280) This former slave, Belle Myers, was punished for this curiosity yet her perseverance did not allow her to give up, she continued trying to learn to read through “secretly studying the child’s letters as well as a few words in a speller she had found.” (p. 280) As children of this generation, we are often taught to rebel against negative opinions of others which tell us we are unable to do this, or powerless to do that. Perhaps this teaching comes from a former slave that declared that “the determination which [his master] expressed to keep me in ignorance only rendered me the more resolute to seek intelligence.” (p. 281) However, this perseverance does not always benefit all, as Comstock, a figure which was briefly described above and is portrayed to be a very horrible figure throughout the passages of Forbidden Reading, used his perseverance to destroy many books and kill hundreds of people. Comstock used “the success of his first raid… [as a sign] to continue, regularly causing the arrest of small publishers and printers…” (p. 285)

Fortunately, for those who persevere to satisfy a curiosity of knowledge or self-improvement are lucky enough to get help from other sympathetic souls such as a slave, Frederick Douglass’, mistress who tried to teach him to read. “In an incredibly short time, by her kind assistance, I had mastered the alphabet and could spell words of three or four letters…” (p. 281) These sympathetic souls are often suppressed as well, for example, in the same thought, Frederick said, “[my master] forbade her to give me any further instruction.” Other former slaves learned to read “either from other slaves or from sympathetic white teachers.” (p. 280) How ever much this suppression reigns, knowing that there is always one or two people who are of the ruling class yet are not blinded by power or that some of the ruling class cannot be indoctrinated but believe in equality is a god send. Class systems in societies are impossible to abolish, yet there have been many attempts to help these less fortunate beings such as those Charles II of England