More handpicked essays just for you.
Dana gioia why literature matters summary
The importance of literature to human beings
Dana gioia why literature matters summary
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In “Why Literature Matters” the author Dana Gioia, from the start catches your attention using facts about America today. Within the first paragraph she develops the persuading argument on why reading needs to make its way back into the world.
Using logos Dana describes the surveys, helping her with the facts of literature taking a dramatic drop in the population from ages ranging from 18 years old to 24 years old. It's not just literature reading though, its all kinds of reading. This only brings more worries. “The decline in reading has consequences that go beyond literature.”
Because of the drops in reading around the world, “there is now a growing awareness of the consequences of non reading to the workplace.” This really brought pathos
Reading is on the decline and our reading skills are declining right along with the amount of reading we do. This is happening right across the board through both genders, all age groups and education levels, people are busy and they just do not have time to read books that they are not required to read for school or work. There are serious consequences to this neglect of reading that will continue to worsen if ignored. We need to take notice of what is happening to our culture and stop this situation from continuing, we must act to correct these issues that we are faced with. These things are discussed in the essay “Staying Awake’’ by Ursula K. Le Guin who uses the NEA essays “To Read or Not to Read’’ and “Reading at Risk’’ to support her argument that there is a decline in the amount of time that we are spending on reading and our ability to understand what it is that we are reading.
In “Why Literature Matters” the author, Dana Gioia, argues that literature is very important in today’s society. He talks about the decline of reading over the years and the effects it has on different companies and communities. Gioia uses many persuasive techniques, such as evidence, jingoism, and diction, to try and persuade the reader that literature is important.
Although the greater picture is that reading is fundamental, the two authors have a few different messages that they seek to communicate to their audiences. “The Joy of Reading and Writing” depicts how reading serves as a mechanism to escape the preconceived notions that constrain several groups of people from establishing themselves and achieving success in their lifetimes. “Reading to Write,” on the other hand, offers a valuable advice to aspiring writers. The author suggests that one has to read, read, and read before he or she can become a writer. Moreover, he holds an interesting opinion concerning mediocre writing. He says, “Every book you pick has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (p.221). Although these two essays differ in their contents and messages, the authors use the same rhetorical mode to write their essays. Both are process analyses, meaning that they develop their main argument and provide justification for it step by step. By employing this technique, the two authors create essays that are thoughtful, well supported, and easy to understand. In addition, Alexie and King both add a little personal touch to their writings as they include personal anecdotes. This has the effect of providing support for their arguments. Although the two essays have fairly different messages, the authors make use of anecdotes and structure their writing in a somewhat similar
Carr is worried. He confesses that he now has difficulty with the simple task of sitting down and reading a book. Absorbing the text is now belaboring, and he finds that his mind drifts off into other realms. Moreover, this phenomenon is not only limited to himself. Bruce Friedman, a pathologist at the University of Michigan Medical School, admits that he “can’t read War and Peace anymore…even a blog post of three or four paragraphs is too much,” (Carr). In addition, Scott Karp, a devoted blogger on online media and literature major, relates that he was an avid reader in college. Sadly, he observes the same trend in his focus as Carr and Friedman. Karp speculates that the loss of focus isn’t so much a change in the way he reads, but in the way he thinks (Carr).
Knowladge is the key to a happy and succsesfull life. Dana Gioia create a feeling in this exerpt by say if people don’t read they wont be succsesfull. She uses good diction to get across her point. Also corrolates how decrease in literary reading afects political and historical awarness, and how it effects the work place. Therefore Dana utalizes her logic behind effects of the decrease and uses good word chioce to prove her point.
In the passage Why Literature Matters by Dana Gioia, the author explains how literature and reading is beginning to drop. He builds an argument on how the decline of reading in america will have a negative effect on society. Dana Gioia uses facts and evidence to support his claim.
Reading and writing are fundamental to basic human life and can be enjoyable, but some people don't like to read or they are forced not to. For example in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the government is controlling society and they are not aloud to read books because books are banned. If they are found they are burned, but in Reading books is Fundamental by Charles Blow the society are not forced to read but choose not to. Ray Bradbury and Charles blow both talk about how reading and writing is important and why people need it, yet society doesn't want to read.
In the article, “Why Literature Matters” by Dana Gioia, Gioia argues that young Americans show a decreased interest in the arts—especially literature—and this severe decline will lead to considerable consequences. She believes that this drop in interest will lead to less historical and political awareness, which in turn will make the nation less informed, active, and independent-minded. Gioia convinces us of the importance of literature through her use of credibility, appeals to fear, and specific examples.
In the book Fahrenheit 451 the theme is a society/world that revolves around being basically brain washed or programmed because of the lack of people not thinking for themselves concerning the loss of knowledge, and imagination from books that don't exist to them. In such stories as the Kurt Vonnegut's "You have insulted me letter" also involving censorship to better society from vulgarity and from certain aspects of life that could be seen as disruptive to day to day society which leads to censorship of language and books. Both stories deal with censorship and by that society is destructed in a certain way by the loss of knowledge from books.
Dana Gioia informs Americans that the decline of literacy reading will have a negative impact on society. Americans will lose important knowledge that will have serious long term social and economic problems.
Ever since I was a child, I've never liked reading. Every time I was told to read, I would just sleep or do something else instead. In "A Love Affair with Books" by Bernadete Piassa tells a story about her passion for reading books. Piassa demonstrates how reading books has influenced her life. Reading her story has given me a different perspective on books. It has showed me that not only are they words written on paper, they are also feelings and expressions.
Literature has many purposes, and opens doors to unique worlds. Through Literature, we discover ourselves and world time and again.
Douglass, Frederick. “Learning to Read.” Reading the World: Ideas that Matter. Ed. Michael Austin. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. 46-52. Print.
Reading – we do it every day. In almost every aspect of our lives and often take it for granted. Reading is essential for human communication and increasing knowledge. However, because reading is so important even a small change can have a significantly large impact on our modern society. We are currently in a midst of a cultural revolution. In which the printed word is being transformed by the digital.
Nowadays, many people think reading is not necessary, since there are so many sources of information and types of entertainment, such as TV, cinema and the Internet. I believe they are wrong because reading is very beneficial in many ways.