Analysis Of Wendell Berry's In Defense Of Literacy

The essay we chose is untitled “Learning to read” and was written by Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist activist from the ninetieth century. In the essay he tells us the struggles he had gone through to learn how to read, something that would be considered today as normal. In the following paragraphs, we will argue whether, his essay could be used as credible and useful source for an academic research paper. Frederick Douglass is a public figure well known in the world for his contribution to the abolitionist movement in the ninetieth century.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. At the age of 25, King earned a sociology degree and completed his Ph.D (A&E Networks Television). King’s charismatic and strong attitude helped him become a successful minister and the most famous civil-rights activists. On the day of August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his inspirational speech, I Have a Dream. Approximately 200,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to watch King personally.

Dismemberment, a short story written by Wendell Berry, highlights the physical and emotional hardships of Andy, the protagonist, when he loses his hand to a corn picker. The story follows Andy’s emotions, relationships, and struggles when adjusting to living with one hand. The tone throughout is uncertain, which mirrors Andy’s feelings on changing his lifestyle to fit his new ailment. Wendell Berry himself, a farmer who views industrialization as a threat to the “simple life,” based a lot of this story off of his own personal thoughts on the mechanizing world.

“An Entrance to the Woods” is an essay by Wendell Berry about the serenity and importance of nature in his life. In this essay, the author uses tone shifts from dark to light to convey his idea of finding rebirth and rejuvenation through nature. In the beginning of the essay, Berry has left civilization for the first time in a while, and finds himself missing human company and feeling “inexplicably sad” (671). This feeling of sadness is in part from the woods itself, and partly due to Berry leaving the hustle and bustle of normal life in the cities, and the violent change from constant noise to silence causes him to feel lonely in the woods. As a result of feeling alone in the woods, the tone of the essay is dark and brooding, as seen through Berry’s somber diction and mood, as seen on page 671: “And then a heavy feeling of melancholy and lonesomeness comes over me.

Upon being imprisoned for marching Dr Martin Luther King wrote a letter to the fellow clergymen of Birmingham, addressing his reasons as to why he committed his “crime”, This letter was widely known as “The Letter of Birmingham”. This letter was very influential and paramount to the cause of civil rights as it spurred up future events that would play essential roles in ending racial segregation in America. Throughout his whole letter, King used Ethos, logos, and pathos to firmly get his message across while adding rhetorical devices such as repetition, metaphors, and biblical references.

Neil Postman and Wendell Berry state that twentieth-century Americans are losing literacy and the ability to read and write, which weakens our ability to think for ourselves. Reading, writing, and thinking are connected through everyday life and as English speakers, it is our responsibility to preserve and correctly exercise the truth and validity of the English language. With the dependency on technology, relaxed educational standards, and even potential government control, we become stripped of our independence of thinking. With no free will to think, we are vulnerable to dominance and corruption, inability to argue complexly, oversimplification, and conformity. Neil Postman sets the scene of his essay, The Typographic Mind, by opening with an explanation of the famous Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential leaders of his time and played a crucial role in the African-American Civil Rights movement. Luther was a charismatic leader who took a firm stand against the oppressive and racist regime of the United States (US), devoting much of his life towards uniting the segregated African-American community of the US. His efforts to consolidate and harmonise the US into one country for all is reflected in many of his writings and speeches spanning his career. As a leader of his people, King took the stand to take radical measures to overcome the false promises of the sovereign government that had been addressing the issues of racial segregation through unimplemented transparent laws that did nothing to change the grim realities of the society. Hence, King’s works always had the recurring theme of the unity and strength of combined willpower.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister who became well known through his involvement and leadership in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the 1960s. On April 12, 1963, eight clergymen from Alabama issued and signed a statement that included subtle accusations of hatred and violence by civil rights supporters and activists. Criticisms such as demonstrations being “unwise and untimely”(King 1), were made and directed towards Martin Luther King Jr.’s actions although he was a pacifist and valued peace. In response to the criticisms, King composed one of the most significant documents in American history which was an extensive letter addressed to the clergymen while he was spending time in a jail cell at the Birmingham

Serving the Audience Lazy, entitled, and narcissistic are just some of many cataloged adjectives used to describe the most recent generation of students. Clive Thompson, a well-credentialed journalist, makes a casual attempt at removing these damaging preconceived views that the young people of today face and challenge daily. However, the succinctness of his piece, “On the New Literacy,” allows the writing to unravel quickly, pulling apart at both ends by committing logical faux pas. Thompson pleads his case based on the study of a Stanford University professor of writing, Andrea Lunsford, titled “The Stanford Study of Writing.”

In the essays, “Reading to Write” by Stephen King, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, “Learning to Read” Malcolm X, and “Learning to Write” by Frederick Douglas have three things in common. In each essay Reading has contributed towards the authors life leading to benefit from learning to read, allowing them to leave a legacy behind. In each essay the authors has thought their self how unlike Frederick Douglass. For Stephen King, reading has done a lot for him. King stated, “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (221).

Education, a life-altering event that involves the development of being more open- minded. When one’s horizons expand they begin to have a shift of perception. The process of becoming knowledgeable through education can differ from the individual or situation. It can also have one acquire gratitude for their change of insight. Two passages, “Learning to Read” by Malcom X and “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, each contain an individual who goes through the path of gaining wisdom.

It’s how people connect, whether it is being able to read, write or being able to do construction. Everyone is literate in some area of a subject. I am also literate in music. I can read music notes because I sing and play the viola. Just like everything else in the world that you expect to get better at, it is important to practice.

Society has taught me what different words and symbols mean, affecting the way that I communicate on a daily

Seeing as language is a way of one expressing itself we can connect language to identity. As in order for one to demonstrate itself we have to be able to express our feelings and emotions and we do so through communication. Some characteristics of language is that it's dynamic, meaning that it changes constantly for example, the English people speak now is not the same English that people used to speak hundreds of years before. Language changes and modernizes itself in order to evolve and has many variations through dialects. Different language communities have certain ways of talking that will set them apart from others and those differences are known as dialects.

Although it is important to learn new things, the new material learned is not as important as the process of learning itself. In the process of learning, one’s mind is transformed and engaged. They will be introduced to new things and their ideas and thinking will be changed forever. When learning new things, seeing the value of things become