Analysis Of The Human Cost Of An Illiterate Society By Jonathan Kozol

Imagine waking up to an unfamiliar world. A world that only may seem familiar due to years spent breathing, but not living. In this unfamiliar world, one can only imagine the panic and frustrations illiterates face each day as they coexist. An expert on this issue, Jonathan Kozol, wrote a book that deals with his theories of illiterates in America. He mentions how democracy is sacrificed from lack of acknowledgement of this issue. While focusing on chapter four in his novel, Kozol highlights real life hardships for illiterates and defends that their freedoms are nonexistent. In Jonathan Kozol’s essay, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society”, he presents the major costs and dangers from illiterates that impact our society as a whole and that our nation fails to address.

In “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society”, a chapter from book called Illiterate America (1985), the author Jonathan Kozol highlights that society cannot continue to sustain if we all neglect 60 million Americans who suffer from illiteracy. Kozol develops his claim by utilizing logos and pathos on describing the hardships that illiterates experience on a daily basis including their political rights. His purpose is to inform non-illiterates about the kind of life that illiterates go through, in order to bring the awareness on illiteracy. Kozol establishes sympathy relationship towards illiteracy and intended audience are two types of non-illiterate Americans who are not aware on suffering of illiterates and who blames illiterates without

Instead of diving straight into a depiction of the hellish existence that is an illiterate lifestyle, Kozol quotes Founding Father James Madison, saying that “A people who mean to be their own governors… must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both” (Madison 114). A country under the rule by the people who can’t go as far to even rule the information presented to themselves seems much more Anarchic than Democratic. By quoting James Madison, Kozol presents his idea that education in the written word is integral to the foundations of a prosperous and free society, and that this was even recognized by the Founding Fathers. Following his assertion that literacy is key to an effective Democracy wherein policy and leaders are elected by an educated populace, Kozol gives a depiction of a Democracy wherein herd mentality is

By this fact, it can be seen that there is a relation to the decline in America’s economy and the percentage of illiterate people. The ability to read affects our nations money spending as well as, “it costs an estimated $100-200 billion per year in unemployment, welfare, health care, and incarceration costs” (Sachwitz). This fact can be proven in Larry Roberts’ article saying that 44 million out of the 191 million adults in America do not have the ability to fill out a job

One way democracy is threatened by illiteracy is people forging a signature to vote because one is not aware of their rights. Not having the knowledge of what was signed could lead to choosing the wrong president to benefit the government. As quoted, “The number of illiterate adult exceeds 16 million the entire vote cast..more frequently, the vote for a face, a smile, or style, not for mind or character or body of beliefs”(Kozol 115). It is unbelieveable almost half of the world is not able to distinguish that

The word literacy is defined as a person’s ability to read and write in a sentence. According to the article “Adolescent Literacy”, the literacy problem is getting serious in America because the students feel frustrated and discouraged to read and write when they are in school. Students without a diploma, they will face problems in getting a limited job or promotion to a higher level. The authors, Jimmy Santiago Baca and Malcolm X were having an illiteracy problem when they were in prison. Jimmy Santiago Baca is born in New Mexico and grow up without a proper family. Baca was caught and sentenced to prison for dealing with drugs when he was in his early twenties. He also gave free readings and speeches about his experiences within the country.

Kozol argues that, “The number of illiterate adults exceeds by 16 million the entire vote cast for the winner in the 1980 presidential contest. Even if one third of all illiterates could vote in their self-interest, Ronald Reagan would not likely have been chosen president”(Kozol 149). When illiterate people choose a political figure to represent their views they do not know they are affecting themselves, as well as everyone else in the united states. Their vote impacts the United States because it determines who will make the important decisions, and create new policies. To be represented in what goes on in the surrounding community is a crucial aspect in democracy for illiterate people.

While more Americans could read than their counterparts in the Old World, many citizens were still illiterate. In

“How would you feel if you were a slave and were not allowed to learn reading and writing?” Frederick Douglass is one of millions victims in slavery; moreover, he is one of few influential African-American abolitionists. He illustrates how he successfully overcomes tremendous difficulties to become literate in his essay, “Learning to Read and Write.” He believes that education is the key to freedom for slaves. Similarly, non-English speaking immigrants regard education as the essential to get rid of struggles in English in the United States.

This critique will be of chapter one of the book Literacy in American Lives. The author of this book is Dr. Deborah Brandt, a professor of English at Wisconsin Madison University and her main focus in Literacy in American Lives is to study about how people have learned to read, how they use their ability to read, and how literacy learning changes with time. In this first chapter “Literacy, Opportunity, and Economic Change”, Brandt focuses on how economic change can affect the value of literacy, and the impact that this change in the value of literacy has in the lives of two farm women from Wisconsin.

In the essay, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” written by Jonathan Kozol and originally published in the book, “Illiterate America”, is a bundle of examples of how people who are illiterate live every day. It showcases the hardships they go through, and how much of a problem it is. He had quotes from various interviews with people who are illiterate, and how many become distrustful of people trying to explain what the written document or form says, for they can never know if they are telling the truth. Kozol heavily uses rhetorical strategies, mostly pathos related, to showcase these struggles and make us take notice of this problem. Overall, he uses the strategies of logos, ethos, and pathos to push his point across.

Knowledge is an effective factor in which human society relies on. Throughout history, those who were knowledgeable were well-respected, honored and revered. Author Jonathan Kozol writes his essay, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society,” to project the importance of knowledge and to explain that without it, one can suffer disastrous repercussions. He highlights real-life examples of how people suffer as a result of chronic illiteracy, and his entire essay is an advocacy for knowledge and literacy. Other authors such as Frederick Douglass and Richard Wright would use their personal experiences in completely different settings to highlight the power of knowledge. Douglass, a man born into slavery, and Wright, a man living through

Statistically, based on reports from 2003, 99% of the total population ages 15 and over can read and write (CIA Library). Thus, one can conclude illiteracy is not a crisis. However, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” by Jonathan Kozol, implies something different. Kozol emphasizes the hardship of an illiterate, and briefly explains the importance of helping an illiterate without providing much of a solution, while Kozol’s essay was ineffective overall because of the lack of factual evidence and flawed conclusions, his strategic use of tone, repetition and rhetorical questioning provided some strength to his argument.

The high rate of illiteracy is a major problem in the United States. Although there have been programs and initiatives started to eradicate this problem, illiteracy still plagues millions of Americans. Out of all ethnic groups, African Americans have a higher illiteracy rate. Within this project, the causes of illiteracy are revealed and viable solutions to this on-going problem will be discussed. Illiteracy Among African-Americans

In today’s society illiterate people are looked at as “half-citizens” (Kozol 190). They are dependent on literate people to function daily. Think