Critiquing High School Literature: Prose's Perspective

725 Words2 Pages

Francine Prose is a mother, a writer, a book reviewer, and most importantly, a massive critic of the type of literature that is demanded of children to read in American high schools. In a very defensive essay, Prose discusses a variety of books that she believes are a wast of actual literature. She uses a variety of rhetoric to attract the reader’s attention, and uses it to also persuade her readers to see things the way she does. Throughout the essay it becomes more apparent that the author makes multiple inferences of what she believes will happen to the generations that will entire a corrupt educational system. In the essay that Prose writes, she explains that the lack of eloquent literature is causing a demise to the education of teenagers …show more content…

By using words such as “mediocre,” and other words, Prose shows that in her own reasoning, the literature is not so much literature, but a waste of time that is taking attention away from actual good books that have content will instill a love for reading. Prose destroys the idea that the books provided to the students in the educational system should be deemed best sellers because she explains that the only reason this books are so well know, is because of the fact that they are forced down the throats of innocent teenagers. She also explains that teenagers are incapable of reading such stories because of the “overuse” of metaphors, and that we cannot read line for line books. If we cannot read a book line for line, than what should we …show more content…

She explains the economy and even politics are greatly affected because we all read “How to Kill a Mocking Bird.” Not only is every aspect of our lives a lie, we put sanctions on our imagination, which causes a negative living cycle for everyone. She chooses to argue, through using 20 dollar words, that money is something that is affected by a couple of books that no one really cared that much about. She also chooses to argue that even writers live with a false hope that literature will survive, when it doesn’t

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