This remarkable autobiography focuses on many themes, with slavery of course featuring heavily. However, what is so interesting about this autobiography is the theme of education and how it is presented. Throughout the text, Washington talks of education in a way that indicates just how much his youthful self revered it and saw it as a way of escaping his present hardships. Even as an adult, he indicates that it is the level of education that helps indicate whether somebody is "narrow" in terms of their interests and outlook in life, or more experienced and wider in how they think of the world. Education, then, becomes one of the key focuses in this book. However, at the same time, Washington also becomes aware of the problems with education and how it doesn't by itself yield the better life that he had thought it would. For example, note how he criticises the system of education in the following quote:
Too often, it seems to me, in missionary and educational work among underdeveloped races, people yield to the temptation of doing that which was done a hundred years before, or is being done in other communities a thousand miles away. The temptation often is to run each individual through a certain educational mould, regardless of the condition of the subject or the end to be accomplished.
Education, therefore, is a force that has massive potential to change and transform the lives of humans. However, as Washington indicates in this quote, it is also something that can damage and/or be ineffective in the way that it can lead to a "certain educational mould" that is imposed on people regardless on who those people are, their context or the purpose of education itself. The central theme of this work therefore is the role of education in our lives as humans, and the significant transformative potential education offers, but at the same time the dangers that education has.
What is the theme of Chapter One in Booker T. Washington's "Up from Slavery?"
Booker T Washington's autobiography Up From Slavery reveals his benevolent attitude. The first chapter begins the story as to his humble beginnings and sets a gracious tone which endears him to many and which ensures his success - rightfully or wrongfully - because of his restrained personality. He gains the trust of many and uses every opportunity without questioning the motives of others.
Chapter One primarily deals with the relationship between master and servant and Washington's belief in the inherent goodness of his race - and the fact that the African American is strengthened because of, and not in spite of, slavery. To some the main theme of benign acceptance and fellowship resulting in a belief in the basic goodness of mankind, is an idealized view of the situation but, being autobiographical, it is Washington's own interpretation. In chapter one, Washington's empathy and understanding of the plight of all the people affected by slavery and its abolition enables the theme to endure throughout his book.
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