In Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of a Life”, Douglass talks about how slaves were deprived of knowledge by not allowing and/or teaching them to learn the language because that would cause interaction among one another, and will ultimately lead to their freedom. This narrative shows that knowledge is power and one can acquire that through language. Slaves were deprived from learning how to read and write as they were growing older because that would cause a sense of competency and independence. Keeping slaves illiterate is a means to keeping them under control by the slaveholders.  Douglass gained awareness when he overhears his master Hugh Auld telling his wife to immediately stop teaching Douglass how to read and write because getting educated destroys them. That’s when Douglass began understanding that learning a language and thus learning to read and write will eventually give knowledge on expressing the prejudice against slavery, a sense of suffering, and realizing that they aren’t just slaves, but humans after all.
Similarly, in Marlene Nourbese Phillip’s poem, “Discourse on the Logic of Language”, Phillip’s shows how vital language can be for someone because it works as a form of expressing oneself. It allows one to have a sense of connection and disclosure. Not being able to learn the mother tongue and forcing to learn the father tongue, which is English and something foreign leaves someone silent and oppressed because it is enforced upon them by their colonial masters. It causes her suffering, agony, and anger because it’s hard to express herself. The narrator searches for her mother tongue in a pursuit for her own cultural identity, which has been depressed because of the colonial ruling.
Both excerpts’ shows the importance of language and how significant it is to know a language that would allow you to feel free, communicate, and express yourself. It allows you to open your eyes to many things, especially gaining realization and self-awareness.

Ekramul Islam