Up From Slavery
by Booker T. Washington

Up From Slavery: Foil 1 key example

Key Examples in Up From Slavery

Chapter 2: Boyhood Days
Explanation and Analysis—Washington's Parents:

As Washington’s two caregivers with conflicting desires for their son, Washington’s mother and stepfather act as foils to each other in the early chapters of Up from Slavery. As Washington establishes early in the book, his mother was always supportive of his desire to get an education:

In all my efforts to learn to read my mother shared fully my ambition, and sympathized with me and aided me in every way that she could. Though she was totally ignorant, so far as mere book knowledge was concerned, she had high ambitions for her children, and a large fund of good, hard, common sense which seemed to enable her to meet and master every situation.