Previous
Themes
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freire gives the term “freedom” a specific meaning: it is the freedom to critically question and change the world. In other words, a person is free when they are able to understand and change their own conditions. According to Freire, this kind of freedom is a primary goal of all people, “the indispensible condition for the quest for human completion.” Freire also asserts that “humankind’s central problem”—the problem that he seeks to solve with Pedagogy of the Oppressed—is the problem of “dehumanization.” Dehumanization, according to Freire, is a process that prevents human beings from affirming their identity through freedom. Freire argues that human beings can only solve dehumanization by striving for personal and social freedom, since only people who question and transform the world are able to feel fully human.
To Freire, oppression is a situation in which oppressors impose unfair conditions on the oppressed, preventing the oppressed from achieving freedom. Dehumanization is the natural result of oppression, and it refers to the effect oppression has on human beings. Since oppressors deny freedom to the oppressed, they make the oppressed less human. Freire argues that in an unjust system, the oppressors view humanity itself as an “exclusive right” or “inherited property.” Oppressed people, who are consistently denied freedom and treated like objects, often internalize this view of humanity. This is especially true because, in an oppressive system, people become successful when they become like the oppressors. When the oppressed see oppressive conditions as good or right, they can be paralyzed by a “fear of freedom.” Therefore, achieving freedom requires oppressed people to reject their previous notions of what a good or right society is, and to understand that an oppressive society cannot give them freedom.
To create the conditions for freedom, educators and political leaders have to enable oppressed people to affirm themselves and to question and change their own reality. This is a difficult proposition, since oppressors fear this affirmation, because it means that their superior position will be threatened. Furthermore, although educators and political leaders often sincerely try to fight oppression, they can quickly become oppressors themselves when they do not give oppressed people the freedom to understand oppression on their own terms.
In order to help the oppressed gain freedom, then, educators and political leaders must be careful with their methods. It’s crucial to trust oppressed people’s ability to come to their own conclusions, and to allow them to create change for themselves. When educators and political leaders seize too much power themselves, they rely on oppressive methods of teaching that take away the agency of the oppressed.
Freire suggests that enabling oppressed people to seek their own liberation is the only way to end dehumanization—not just of oppressed people, but of oppressors as well. When oppressors dehumanize the oppressed by denying them freedom, they simultaneously dehumanize themselves: Freire argues that oppressors prevent themselves from critically questioning their own conditions, because they rely on them to keep power. To achieve freedom for all human beings and create a new society, then, oppressed people have to liberate themselves and their oppressors at the same time.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…
Freedom and Oppression ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Freedom and Oppression appears in each chapter of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
How often theme appears:
chapter length:
Get the entire Pedagogy of the Oppressed LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Freedom and Oppression Quotes in Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Below you will find the important quotes in Pedagogy of the Oppressed related to the theme of Freedom and Oppression.
Preface Quotes
This volume will probably arouse negative reactions in a number of readers. Some will regard my position vis-à-vis the problem of human liberation as purely idealistic… Others will not (or will not wish to) accept my denunciation of a state of oppression that gratifies the oppressors. Accordingly, this admittedly tentative work is for radicals.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
After grounding his book in the experiences of the oppressed, Freire addresses his potential audience. He admits that many people might not agree with his broad critique of Western society as oppressive, and that some people might find his hope for liberation unrealistic. However, Freire does not see this as a flaw in his argument, but rather as a flaw in readers who will not critically engage with his ideology—even if they disagree. Ideally, Freire believes, the readers who stay with his work through the end will be open to the idea that lasting social change (and liberation for all Dolorem et quae. Exer
Chapter 1 Quotes
…The more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can better transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into dialogue with them. This person does not consider himself or herself…the liberator of the oppressed; but he or she does commit himself or herself, within history, to fight at their side.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Freire asserts that radicals are the target audience of his work, and then contrasts them with “sectarians,” who are ideologically close-minded and who don’t want the world to change. Radicals, to Freire, are able and willing to confront society’s flaws—first by perceiving them, and then by committing themselves to transforming society. They are willing to partner with oppressed people to make this transformation possible, without claiming any authority over them. These “radical” characteristics are especially important for educators and political revolutionaries, and Freire argues that liberation is not possible without them. In a concrete way, much of Pedagogy of the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad do
While the problem of humanization has always, from an axiological point of view, been humankind’s central problem, it now takes on the character of an inescapable concern.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Before delving into his argument in detail, Freire frames everything that follows through this “central problem”: the fight for liberation is also a fight for humanization, and a “pedagogy of the oppressed” is also a humanizing pedagogy. Educators and revolutionaries, who are committed to humanizing all people, struggle against the oppressive forces that wish to keep people dehumanized and preserve their own power. In this way, Freire shows that education and political action are important ways that people come to understand themselves as human beings—and therefore, they are very useful tools for changing how people perceive themselves and others.
This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Freire says that the fight for liberation is only meaningful if oppressed people do not try to oppress others in the process. From there, he asserts that oppressed people must liberate themselves and their oppressors at the same time. The problem is not oppressors by themselves, but rather the oppressive political system that places everyone into a violent hierarchy: according to Freire, oppressors dehumanize themselves when they dehumanize other people. To liberate everyone, oppressed people and their leaders must create a new society in which no oppression exists—not only by removing the oppressors’ power, but by changing the institutions that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non
Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes a myth. It is rather the indispensible condition for the quest for human completion.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
After describing how oppressed people can be “fearful of freedom,” Freire talks about the idea of freedom in more detail. Freedom, to Freire, is a state of being that makes people feel autonomous and responsible for their own lives; oppression, on the other hand, makes people strive to conform to their oppressors’ standards. It is also a key aspect of humanization, and Freire argues that having freedom allows people to affirm their identities more fully. Because of oppression, people have to actively pursue their freedom in the face of a system that does not want them to have it. Freedom Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad
Liberation is thus a childbirth, and a painful one. The man or woman who emerges is a new person, viable only as the oppressor-oppressed contradiction is superseded by the humanization of all people. Or to put it another way, the solution of this contradiction is born in the labor which brings into the world this new being: no longer oppressor, no longer oppressed, but human in the process of achieving freedom.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Before describing liberation as a kind of “childbirth,” Freire integrates education into his argument: how can education work as a tool for oppressed people to reach freedom and humanization? Freire argues that education can help people realize where they fit into the oppressive system that much of the world depends on. In the process of liberation, oppressed people and oppressors can abandon those roles that previously defined their lives—and begin, by contrast, to define themselves on their own terms. This argument is also very dialectical: Freire argues that liberation resolves the differences between oppressors and oppressed people by giving both Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dol
Any situation in which “A” objectively exploits “B” or hinders his and her pursuit of self-affirmation as a responsible person is one of oppression. Such a situation in itself constitutes violence, even when sweetened by false generosity, because it interferes with the individual’s ontological and historical vocation to be more fully human.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Freire points out that oppression shapes the consciousnesses of both oppressors and oppressed people, then he specifically defines oppression for the first time in this quote. For Freire, oppression is anything that keeps people from being humanized—it interrupts their natural desire to affirm themselves as human beings. Because oppression affects this key aspect of humanity, it is also an act of violence against others. Freire also criticizes what he calls the “false generosity” of people who claim to help the oppressed through charity, but who rely on a higher social status to do so: they, too, commit violence because they Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non.
Chapter 2 Quotes
For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this section, Freire introduces the traditional “banking” concept of education and points out its flaws: banking does not allow students to fully think and ask questions for themselves, because they are required to learn whatever the teacher finds important. In sharp contrast to this, Freire argues that human beings affirm their identity by asking questions about the world and about their relationship to the world. When people critically investigate the world with others, they can also try to change it in tangible ways, and thus exercise their freedom. Banking education hinders oppressed people’s freedom, knowledge, and creativity, filtering everything Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non a
Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in “changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them”; for the more the oppressed can be led to adapt to that situation, the more easily they can be dominated.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Because the “banking” concept serves the interests of oppressors, Freire says that it also shapes the consciousness of its students in distinct ways. Oppressors want to change how the oppressed think about the world, so that they see oppression as a normal and permanent part of their lives. In this context, traditional Western classrooms help their students adapt to an oppressive society, instead of pointing out that their society is flawed and can be changed. As long as the oppressed try to adapt, the oppressors have no pressure to release their power—thus, Freire demonstrates here how education can serve as Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non
Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between human beings and the world: a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others…In this view, the person is not a conscious being (corpo consciente); he or she is rather the possessor of a consciousness: an empty “mind” passively open to the reception of deposits of reality from the world outside.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
While discussing how to respond to the flaws in banking education, Freire talks about its theoretical roots. To Freire, traditional Western education assumes that people have a passive relationship to the world: they live in the world and observe it as individuals, but they cannot change the world in a meaningful way. Likewise, people do not investigate the world, but merely receive information from it. In banking education, teachers “deposit” knowledge into the minds of their students, perpetuating this false separation between people and the world. Freire would argue that people and the world change each other at the same Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor
Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world. They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
After fully describing traditional banking education, Freire proposes an alternative: he argues that oppressed people can only achieve full liberation by replacing the oppressors’ pedagogy with a new pedagogy that is tailored to the needs of oppressed people. This “problem-posing” education should push students to ask questions about the world and show them the possibility of meaningful, lasting social change. Just as oppressors use banking to adapt people to the current system, problem-posing can serve as a tool to make people aware that the system is harmful to them. Problem-posing helps people better understand that they can affect the world, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem
Chapter 3 Quotes
To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming. Human beings are not built in silence, but in word, in work, in action-reflection.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Freire begins Chapter 3 with a discussion of dialogue, and the importance of dialogue to the fight for liberation. For Freire, dialogue occurs when people work together to reflect and act on the world—and Freire argues that these two things are key aspects of human identity. Reflection and action can be found not only in dialogue, but also in praxis and in problem-posing education. When oppressed people and leaders do both in tandem, they begin to more fully exercise their freedom: reflecting on the world can reveal things that need to be changed, and changing the world can open up Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem n
Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause—the cause of liberation. And this commitment, because it is loving, is dialogical.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
After talking about the nature of dialogue, Freire argues that dialogue can only exist if the dialoguers have a deep love of humanity and the world. If a revolutionary truly loves all people, for example, then he or she can commit to helping them achieve humanization and become free. To Freire, loving oppressed people means working with them instead of for them, which is the essence of meaningful dialogue. As he proceeds, Freire also says that dialogue is an act of radical humility and faith in the knowledge and power of the oppressed: oppression hinders people from using this power Dolorem et qua
Chapter 4 Quotes
The revolution is made neither by the leaders for the people, nor by the people for the leaders, but by both acting together in unshakable solidarity. This solidarity is born only when the leaders witness to it by their humble, loving, and courageous encounter with the people.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
After focusing on dialogue in Chapter 3, Freire presents his theory of how oppressors and revolutionaries can reject (or employ) dialogue to affect their societies and cultures. In the process, he talks about revolution as an important form of radical social change, and lays out the characteristics of an effective revolution. To act in solidarity with oppressed people, Freire says that revolutionaries should show “witness”—or express that they are committed to liberation and willing to partner with the oppressed. He repeats several aspects of dialogue (humility, love, courage) here to show that a meaningful revolution must be rooted in dialogue Dolorem et q
Prior to the emergence of the people there is no manipulation (precisely speaking), but rather total suppression. When the oppressed are almost completely submerged in reality, it is unnecessary to manipulate them. In the antidialogical theory of action, manipulation is the response of the oppressor to the new concrete conditions of the historical process.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Freire defines manipulation as a method oppressors use to prevent the oppressed from resisting, a kind of “anti-dialogical” cultural action. However, according to Freire, oppressors mainly use manipulation as a reaction rather than a preventative measure. If the oppressed are not aware that they are being oppressed, then the oppressors do not have to mislead them. They are much more likely to use manipulation when oppressed people begin to realize that their conditions are unfair. Freire suggests that oppressors do this through deceitful myths about how society works, and through formal agreements (or pacts) that do not hold the oppressors Dolorem et qu
In cultural invasion it is essential that those who are invaded come to see their reality with the outlook of the invaders rather than their own; for the more they mimic the invaders, the more stable the position of the latter becomes.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
A key aspect of Freire’s cultural action theory is cultural invasion, a tactic that oppressors use to gain and preserve power. Cultural invasion is less tangible than other forms of oppressive action (like conquest or manipulation), because it involves oppressors imposing their worldview onto the oppressed. When cultural invasion occurs, the oppressed begin to see the invaders’ culture as superior and as an example to be followed. This benefits the oppressors because it makes their culture more stable, while oppressed people have to change their culture and beliefs to fit the oppressive system. This discussion recalls Freire’s assertion in Chapter Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidu
The role of revolutionary leadership…is to consider seriously, even as they act, the reasons for any attitude of mistrust on the part of the people, and to seek out true avenues of communion with them, ways of helping the people to help themselves critically perceive the reality which oppresses them.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Before delving into the methods revolutionaries can use to change society, Freire lays out the characteristics of a good revolutionary. One important point he makes is that revolutionary leaders must account for how oppression has shaped people’s perceptions of the world and of others. Oppressed people may not trust a revolutionary leader at first, and a good leader will work with the people to find out why and to help them understand oppression. When this happens, leaders can sometimes fall back on oppressive tactics to gain support (like manipulation or coercion)—but Freire argues that liberation achieved through these methods will Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem no
...Organization requires authority, so it cannot be authoritarian; it requires freedom, so it cannot be licentious. Organization is, rather, a highly educational process in which leaders and people together experience true authority and freedom, which they then seek to establish in society by transforming the society which mediates them.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In his section on organization, a method of “dialogical” action that revolutionaries can use, Freire says that it naturally proceeds from two other methods: cooperation and unity. When people begin to come together and see their struggles as similar, radical leaders can begin to bring them into a formal group that can fight for liberation as a common goal. It’s significant that Freire talks about organization in educational terms: he often uses similar vocabulary for education and revolution, and he believes that educators and revolutionaries have similar roles in fighting for freedom with the oppressed. Within a formal group, oppressed Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. A
