Analysis Of In Defense Of Literacy, By Wendell Berry

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In “In Defense of Literacy,” Wendell Berry explains literacy is a requirement, not an embellishment. Literacy is more than the ability to just read and write; it's also the ability to understand what a person is reading and make sense in what a person is writing. While some people may think that achieving literacy requires hard work and gets little outcome, I think that literacy makes people more ambitious, confident, more attentive, and more prosperous in life than those who are not literate. Joining in on conversations and voicing ones philosophies is easier if people are literate and educated, and people feel worthy of themselves when they have the ability to do so. People are more determined in life, whether it is with their professions …show more content…

Having an understanding will determine whether or not one will have an indulgent of language. As Berry states, “illiteracy is both a personal and a public danger. Think how constantly "the average American" is surrounded by premeditated language, in newspapers and magazines, on signs and billboards, on TV and forever being asked to buy or believe somebody else's line of goods.” If a person reads a newspaper and can’t understand what’s written, it’s definitely going to be a personal danger. Now when that person is asked a question about the news spread or what a product does that is shown in a magazine, if one can’t understand what’s scripted that same person won’t able to clarify it and that’s public danger. Even if the product looks good in a magazine or billboard, but if one can’t understand what the product does than he or she won’t be able to purchase the item. Majority of the Americans watch debates on TV and if one person doesn’t understand anything that the candidates are saying, then that person will have a hard time conversing with family members or even colleagues. Being illiterate will have a toll in a person’s ordinary ambiance, but having knowledge will make it easier for a person to have discussions about their understandings on what’s written, seen, read, or …show more content…

As Berry explains, “But whereas specialization is of the nature of the applied sciences, it is a perversion of the disciplines of language and literature. When we understand and teach these as specialties, we submit willy-nilly to the assumption of the "practical men" of business, and also apparently of education, that literacy is no more than an ornament: when one has become an efficient integer of the economy, then it is permissible, even desirable, to be able to talk about the latest novels. After all, the disciples of "practicality" may someday find themselves stuck in conversation with an English teacher.” For example I don’t like biology, but having knowledge in biology won’t hurt it’ll only make the conversation much easier if I meet some one who’s in the medical field. No one wants to look senseless being stuck in a dialogue. Opening up books and having a basic literacy in all areas or subjects will benefit in ones personal and professional existence, so being practical won’t do

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