Caged Bird Cannot Read By Francine Prose

In Francine Prose’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read her purpose is to inform the audience that books presented to high school and college students are not to study the language, words, and value of a text, but to study and bring up discussion on other topics such as racial discrimination and human nature. She does this through the use of long sentences, which are separated by commas and dashes, and appositives. Prose effectively achieves rhetoric because she appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos.
Prose appeals to ethos by stating her role in life and displaying a large list of texts in her essay. In the first paragraph she makes sure to state that she is a parent in a long sentence that is divided by many commas and includes an

appositive. This is shown when she states, “I find myself, each September, increasingly appalled by the dismal lists of texts that my sons are doomed to waste a school year reading” (para.1). Prose also appeals to ethos by including many texts, quotes, and lists in the essay. The large amount of research she did adds credibility to her essay. Her research is shown when she says, “In the hope of finding out that my children and my friends’ children were exceptionally unfortunate, I recently collected eighty or so reading lists from high schools around the country” (para.7). Prose’s essay contains a significant amount of credibility because she is a parent and she includes a large amount of researched information in her essay.
Prose appeals to pathos by using strong words and tone. Throughout the essay she blatantly displays her dislike towards the teaching of literature to high school and college students. She shows this by using many words that have negative connotations. In the first paragraph alone the words, “appalled,” “doomed,” and “dreariness,” are used, evidently showing her strong feelings towards the books that are suggested. The audience will continue reading because of their curiosity concerning Prose’s display of negative opinions towards the texts high schools and college students are told to read.
The strongest element of rhetoric that is present in Prose’s essay is logos. She includes a large amount of quotes and examples in her essay that show how teaching is not focused on language or the understanding of a text, but how it brings up discussion on certain views. This is shown when she states, “A motion passed by the San Francisco Board of Education in March 1998 mandates that “works of literature read in class in grades nine to eleven by each high school student must include works by writers of color’”(para.19). This shows that schools are more concerned about teaching books that have a variety of different races and culture than the literary value of a text. The reasoning for Prose’s dislike towards the reading lists given to high school students is shown through the many pieces of evidence she provides.
Therefore, Prose’s essential purpose in I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read is to inform the audience that books presented to high school and college students is merely to enforce ideas onto students, such as racism is bad or those who are mentally disabled are to be looked at as equals. The books required to be read by high school students also doesn’t help in developing a student’s ability to dissect complicated texts, instead it raises a generation that doesn't ask questions, causing them to listen to what they are told without thought to it. Francine Prose effectively achieves rhetoric by appealing to ethos, pathos, and logos through the use of long sentences and appositives.