Considering the danger she faces, Dana commits to teaching Nigel and Carrie to read because she believes in equality. Dana is in the past time period, living in Rufus’s household with her husband, Kevin, and doesn’t like how things are being handled during this time period. Knowing how to read is a big deal during this time frame because it shows how intelligent you are. Most blacks don’t know how to read, but in unusual cases, such as Dana, blacks know how to read and write equally or maybe even better than their masters. With their masters knowing that they can read, punishments became more severe, mostly because the masters didn’t like their servants acting smarter than them. For example, Margaret Weylin doesn’t like Dana because Dana can write and read better than Margaret can. Dana …show more content…
When Dana is teaching Nigel to read, and he aces his spelling test, she tries not to compare Nigel to Rufus, and when she does, “the contrast makes her feel bitter.”(106) A small contrast comparing two of her students makes her feel bitter, so imagine how she would feel about her own people being abused, and made fun of, while the whites don’t get in trouble for anything, and don’t do any work. Dana is also reluctant at first, when Nigel asks her to teach him how to read, because she has never been beaten before, and doesn’t plan to. She asks Nigel if he knows what the consequences would be, knowing that he knew, because he has been working on the Weylin plantation for a long time. Dana believes in equality, and she wants people of her own kind to read, because she believes in equality, which is why she commits to teaching Carrie and Nigel to read, despite the possible consequences that she may face in the