Good Trash Essay

In the article, “Why Literature Matters,” Dana Gioia predominantly focuses on the use of logos, logical fact-based evidence and stimulating, emotional-based language to entice the audience. Gioia elaborates on the theme of correlation between young adult Americans and the decline of literature in this age group. He continues his argument with the consequences with the decline of literature in the lives of these Americans.

Some might claim the YA genre has grown to be too dark for its target audience. Meghan Gurdon, a firm believer of this idea, explains why she believes this in her article, “Darkness Too Visible”. Gurdon describes the experience of a mother of three in a bookstore looking to purchase a YA novel for one of her children, when she found herself leaving the bookstore empty-handed due to the content of the teen books. While teen books decades ago contained less violent/corrupted material, times have changed along with the genre. She is concerned that these books could have an effect on these young readers’ brains as they are merely transferring from childhood to adulthood. Gurdon still has faith that YA books would sell just as well and connect with young readers today without all of the dark subject matters discussed in them these days.

‘...now we are in a place more beautiful than creation.’ (p.202) At the end of ‘Trash’, Raphael, Gardo and Rat begin a new life. Describe the qualities of each character and how their friendship helped them overcome their hardships.

She does not understand why the older and well-known authors are not being read in high school. Prose uses a personal experience from her son’s sophomore English class. He had to read a “weeper and former bestseller by Judith Guest” (424), about a dysfunctional family dealing with a teenage son’s suicide attempt. “No instructor has ever asked my sons to read Alice Munro, who writes so lucidly and beautifully about the hypersensitivity that makes adolescence a hell,”(424). She again mentions books she approves of that should be read in English classes.

In her speech, and the article, titled “The Case for Good Taste in Children’s Books,” Meghan Cox Gurdon addresses the controversy on Young Adult Literature. Throughout her speech at Hillsdale College she labels this current category of fiction as gaudy, inappropriate, and sacrilegious. Gurdon’s claim on the content of YA, for Young Adult, books obtains effectiveness through her ability to incorporate real world examples, the claim made by the opposing view, and a moral push.

Meghan Cox Gurdon’s article has many varying points of attack, while Sherman focuses all of his resources on one point; young adult (YA) literature isn’t detrimental. Gurdon contends the argument that youths being exposed to darker themes makes the themes less effective and ultimately undermines the intensity of the subjects, as well as spread them. She states this as “Self-destructive adolescent behaviors are observably infectious and have periods of vogue. That is not to discount the real suffering that some young people endure; it is an argument for taking care” (par. 13). Gurdon says young adult literature takes away a child’s innocence and negatively affects moral development (par. 6). In contrast, Sherman believes that YA books help people dealing with those troubles to overcome and accept them. He states, “... Does she believe that a YA novel about murder and rape will somehow schock a teenage

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 Dana Gioia’s article titled “Why Literature Matters”, he explains about the decline of reading literature for young Americans. Although “income rose to unforeseen levels, college attendance ballooned, and access of information increased enormously” he states, “the interest young Americans showed in the arts… diminished”. In his article, Gioia uses surveys, articles, studies, and statistics to persuade his audience that the decline of reading in America can have a negative effect on society.

Interviewing these millennials the conclusion that ethos, pathos and logos had an effect to which puts them off of reading for fun. However, if the book was on a topic that they like, then they wouldn’t have a problem with reading it, for example Brad. Brad was one of the five millennials that i had interview and got to know a little more about his reading habits. Brad, 24, is a high school graduate who hasn’t attended college and works full time at his family store, Gordon’s Bait & Tackle. I had asked Brad if i could interview him about his reading habits and throughout the interview, he states that he never reads, and that the only time he read was when his teacher assigned the class a book, and “even then I usually never read them” he said.

Gioia starts his piece with an explanation of the problem at hand. “The interest young Americans showed in the arts - and especially literature - actually diminished,” he informed us in paragraph one. By clearly identifying his topic and issue of choice, we know exactly what to expect from the rest of the essay. His first piece of factual evidence, found in paragraph 2, tells us that “arts participation by Americans has declined for eight of the nine major forms that are measured,” but he focuses his concerns on “the declining percentage of americans, …, reading literature.” These statistics are true and accurate,

She claims initially that.” The declines have been most severe among younger adults (ages 18–24).” She sets a very clear age range to add credibility to her stands. Her target audience is clearly stated to be Americans older than the ages 18-24 so that they can agree that the loss of interest in the Arts can be logical especially because the age range are of individuals that are not so mature yet and have different interests. She then proceeds to add,” As more Americans lose this capability, our nation becomes less informed, active, and independent-minded.” Gioia presents her audience the complicated situation that has risen with the loss of reading. She motivates the reader to understand that not one individual but the nation is tragically being affected in several ways. Finally, she adds,” Author Daniel Pink states… When asked what kind of talents they like to see in management positions, business leaders consistently set imagination, creativity, and higher-order thinking at the top.” Dana makes the argument even more intense by presenting her audience how not only the young are in danger of the consequences yet them too. Her audience in engaged even more when they realize that due to poor reading habits they might be in danger of losing their higher paying job opportunities. This is a very effective strategy to do her part because that

Education is nonexistent, feeding the people facts only to keep them satisfied. While this situation seems to be only possible in the realm of fiction, the ugly truth is that this degradation of thought is happening every day. For example, instead of doing summer reading, many students choose to read SparkNotes© or watch the movie. They choose to simply not think, as that would take a deeper plane of understanding that they are too lazy to reach. As a strong advocate of reading, I continue to wonder how people choose to lose the beauty of words for a mere plot outline. Although to the work laden student this seems to be no large issue, it reflects a society that refuses to think more than it needs to or wants to.

In the article, “Why Literature Matters”, the author, Dana Gioia, states how reading is taking a turn downhill as young adults are not reading literature. Gioia addresses that in order to fix the issue, politicians and business communities need to try and fix the problems. Dana Gioia uses a series of logical appeals to show how the decrease in literature is affecting the society.

It is easy to dismiss teenagers; it is even easier to dismiss teen literature. Someone asked me once why I liked reading young adult fiction and I said that it is within this genre that I am able to read and explore that which most people do not like to talk about. It is this genuinely truthful nature behind the genre that I believe would create a class where students could explore and question the world and the lives people live.

We’re in the 21st century, and right now there is such a huge variety of contemporary literature that encourages young adults to look beyond Australian stereotypes. In this speech I will discuss why I agree with contemporary literature encouraging young readers to look beyond