Dana Gioia's Why Literature Matters

In the passage “Why Literature Matters” by Dana Gioia, Gioia states that the decline of interest in reading in America is decreasing. She then claims that this lack of interest will hold negative effects on the future of our society. Gioia uses facts and evidence to support her claim.

When Amy Tan opens her essay with "I am not a scholar of English or literature" and then later continues to say "I am a writer", she is expressing her modesty, despite that she has written numerous nationally acclaimed novels. Her opening also sets up the audience's expectations for the rest of the essay by undermining her own influence and inviting the reader to reflect on their own opinion on the difference between a literary scholar and a

Mike Bunn’s article, “How To Read Like a Writer”, simply does what the name implies: it is trying to encourage readers, students for the most part, to ‘read like a writer’. Bunn briefly reveals how he came acquainted with ‘reading like a writer’, and then goes on to explain to his audience how to ‘read like a writer’ themselves. From the opening sentence, to the closing statement, Bunn is encouraging students to analyze how a certain texts were written and why they were written that way. Bunn claims that by using this way of reading, you not only understand the text better, but you also become a better writer as you learn and develop the skills you analyze. Bunn is hoping that, after reading his article and adopting his methods, students will

Prose assumes that most high school students do not read on their own and that students do not enjoy the literature they read in school; she also assumes that many students stop reading in their adult life and that what books students read in high school affect them for the rest of their lives.

In the fourteenth chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster depicts all the elements found in a Christlike character. To begin, a simple fact is stated; “we live in a Christian culture” (124). Foster declares this to establish the fact that Christianity is a predominant religion on Earth, and it greatly impacts it’s surrounding civilizations. “Culture is so influenced by it’s dominant religious systems” that religion may sneak into a writer's work, no matter their personal beliefs on the religion (125). While knowledge of religion is helpful - especially to a reader - too many religious beliefs can lead problems. Foster articulates that intelligent readers possess a diverse knowledge in multiple religions,

I chose this scene because it puts emphasis on the importance of cultural legacy, and how these cultural legacies can either hinder or facilitates us at what we do. These are not innate characteristics. They are legacies of the cultures we are born into, and heavily influence the way we think and behave. Take Klotz for example. His plane is about crash, but he is trapped in his role as a subordinate. His failure to communicate with his captain is not through any fault of his own but of his hierarchical background. He is obligated to be respectful towards his superiors in a way that is not expected of people in America. This scene also helps conveys Gladwell’s idea that we have to go back much further than looking at an example of one person

Dana Giona persuades his audience on how the decline of reading in America will impact society negatively by incorporating a precise set of diction usage and including irony in his article.

In Thomas Foster’s book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, it is written that there are five aspects of a quest: “the quester; a place to go; a stated reason to go there; challenges and trials en route; a real reason to go there” (Foster 3). In the book Siddhartha, Siddhartha is the quester who is specifically in search for enlightenment through his wanderings. During his quest, he constantly endures internal unrest. Although Siddhartha searched for enlightenment, he really wanted all of his unsettled questions about his life answered.

　　In the essay “Reading and Thought”, Dwight MacDonlad talked about the kind of poor reading people are attached to in modern society. MacDonald believed reading materials such as Times and New York Times are too overwhelming for the readers. Readers tend to skim through the reading materials because most of the reading do not have any connections with their daily lives. Moreover, MacDoanld claimed that the readings people do these days are not thoughtful. The readings are rather irrelevant toward the readers. It is because the journalists to produce dull pieces of readings which are meant to be skimmed through without having too much thoughts involved. As the journalists do not have much consideration of the materials they produced. To the journalists the readings they produce are just a series of news that should be read driftly and left behind with no thoughful idea needed to be informed. These effects caused modern society to have a poor reading habits because people do not reflect and give time to think about the readings they did. Readers casually accept the readings even though they do not have provide any resourceful information for the readers.

Thomas C. Foster’s book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, tackles the process of uncovering the underlying complexities and symbols that authors incorporate into their literary works. In its most lucid form, Foster’s message is that, when reading a work of literary merit, anything you may postulate has a deeper meaning most likely does, since skilled authors do not include items and occurrences just to include them. The dystopian literature novels 1984, Animal Farm, and Brave New World follow this trend as they interpolate different motifs with deeper political and symbolic context; however, Foster’s statements do not only apply to written literature. The movie V For Vendetta, released in 2005, connects to How to Read Literature Like

"Like most – maybe all – writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books” - Francine Prose, Reading Like A Writer.

Having a family bond is important to the structure of society because people crave attention and the feeling of being cared for. In the novels Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Oryx and Crake by Margot Atwood, the importance of strong family ties is massively irrelevant due to the fact that the characters in each novel are given the illusion of actual feelings and relationships. Both stories show that family is not important to have a happy life. In Fahrenheit 451, the story takes place in a dystopian society where firemen instead of putting out fire, makes fire by burning books. The main character Montag is a fireman and meets a girl named Clarisse and made him start to question his life. In Oryx and Crake, the story takes place in a society where technology runs society. The main character Jimmy learns to live life the hard way and met a person named Crake who becomes the smarts of society. Jimmy and Crake met a girl named Oryx through technology and their life becomes unraveled when they graduate from college. Technology affects family ties by promoting ways to separate people away from their family.

Dana Gioia author of “Why Literature Matters” builds an argument to persuade his audience that the decline of reading in America will have a negative effect on society. Gioia builds up an argument by using multiple forms of persuasions. This includes him using evidence, such as fact or examples, to help support his main claims. Dana Gioia also uses logos and pathos to help express his writing which eventually leads to persuasion. He eventually establishes his claim the decline in of reading in America will have a negative effect on society.

LIterature matters because it’s used more in society and helps more than people think. Americans have had a decline in the Arts. Dana Gioia believes that the decline of reading in American will have a negative effect on society. Dana uses data from surveys to let people know of the fast decline of reading. Which makes him persuasive because this shows he’s not just saying that Americans don't read, he is showing that this is the truth. Now people will actually believe what he is saying. Dana also uses quotes from other people. This is important because it’s not only Dana saying these things now it’s other people. His audience can see that this is actually a growing negative effect on society. Dana shows that even in workplaces they would like

In the article “Reading Literature makes us Smarter and Nicer” written by Annie Murphy Paul discusses many different opinions about the effects that reading has on you as a person. For example some psychologist are saying that reading does improve your mind and ability to comprehend things, and it also will improve your behavior, moods.