Night: The Role Of Literacy In America

Dana Gioia calls out millennials and younger generations in america, to spark a conversation about the increasingly declining and destructive behavior of NOT reading! Gioia makes very many fantastic points and uses very many persuasive elements on why literacy actually is vital to to our society and the negative effects that come from this lack of literacy. She gives us factual evidence and credible sources to pull the reader into her side of the argument.

When Geraldine was a girl, about 12 years old, her mother (who she considered as a world’s cynics) advised her to read the novel, Little Women and take it with a grain salt. The Little Women has reached a great boom and it is still famous;

This book depicts the way ladies' lives were modified by dress designs, medicinal advances, principles of cleanliness, social hypotheses about sex and romance, and the steadily changing states of mind toward instruction, work, and legislative issues. While touching on a broad range of significant experiences of American women, Gail Collins still notes that bodices and uncomfortable shoes mattered a great deal as well.Collin’s choice of the book title is symbolic in it prepares the reader on what to expect in the book. Characters like Pocahontas are carelessly examined, and brief notice is given to local American ladies and their way of life. The portrayal is consistently that of a white

Unlike most other people whose definitions of reading is based on their previously interpreted basal readers, Peter Meyer, a public school teacher, imparted some of his critical notes concerning his own nuance of reading and the “reading to learn” myth in their blog Thomas B. Fordham Institute: Advancing Educational Excellence last February 11, 2012. The article entitled “Education malfeasance: the “reading to learn” myth” deliberately displays how “Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know,” one of the most recognized writings of Eric Donald Hirsch, Jr. in the world of literary critics, could influence a teacher in his chosen career with the belief that reading is different from the other macro skills for it is the core of literacy

In chapters 6-9 of her 1869 two-part novel Little Women, Louisa May Alcott shows the reader the perils and misadventures of the four Alcott sisters in their transitions from childhood to adulthood. They each have their own unique struggle as they make this transition however. It just goes to show not every woman of the 19th-century was able to conform to the society and stereotypes at the time immediately at birth. But it’s all worth it in the end.

In her 1869 2-part novel Little Women, Louisa May Alcott deals with the stereotypes of women of the 19th-century and takes them on head-on. Each of the girls has their own quirks which lead to a less-than-conventional series of events throughout the novel. This is all set up in chapter 1, when the girls are discussing how they are going to get presents for Christmas. (Alcott 1). In this chapter, we learn about who the girls are and what their personalities consist of. Some are normal and conservative for the time, while others are more non-conventional to say the least.

Reading is a skill often taken for granted by many in today’s modern society; however, low literacy is a prevalent problem among adults in the United States with potentially devastating consequences. According to Literacy INC., “a study conducted in late April 2015 by the US Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the United States can’t read above a fifth-grade level, and 19% of high school graduates can’t read” (About Us - Literacy Inc., n.d.). That means that nearly 7.6% of American adults can’t read as well as your average fifth grader. Statistically that means that out of almost every 25 people you meet 2 of them cannot read. As bad as this problem is nationally, Chicago is much worse where literacy rates are far below the norm. Literacy Chicago states that Chicago has a Literacy rate of only 53% (Cho, 2012). This data is especially alarming. Think and consider that nearly half of Chicago’s population cannot read proficiently.

In her novel Little Women, Louisa May Alcott delves into the social expectations placed on American women in the mid-nineteenth century. Alcott explores the different impacts of these expectations through the experiences of the four March sisters as they transition from childhood to adulthood. As she follows the life of the girls as they struggle to balance the new world of social elegancies with the morals ingrained in them by their mother, Alcott challenges these social expectations and highlights the dangers they present. The struggles Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth face as they attempt to integrate into society, although all different, calls into question the strict gender roles of the time and their functionality in the real world.

Women tried to break away from traditions and change the way woman they were viewed in their society. Outside the houses they attended church, clubs, and worked for little pay. The setting informs the readers with background information about what it was like to live in the late 1800s.

Little Women in 1868 is considered by many critics as a gender specific piece of fiction, written by an American nineteenth century novelist, Louisa May Alcott. "She's best known as the intrepid author of Little Women, a Yankee woman who drew on her life experiences to create one of literature's gutsiest and most lovable heroines, Jo March" (Blakemore, 2016). As the author was commissioned to write the story for girls, thus the text had to be instructive. On the surface level, the novel trains young girls the proper methods and norms to reach adulthood safely. However, on the rise of feminism, critics reevaluate it in the light of the feminist perspective. They discover that little women are subversive text that explores the dilemma of the individual during the nineteenth century whether man or woman. Alcott who was considered in the nineteenth century as a writer, who called both her characters and readers to submit to the social as well as cultural norms, is the seen by the twentieth century critics as subversive writer. This essay discusses Alcott's novel Little Women and analyzes the writer's attitude whether she has feminist agenda, or she defends all individuals' rights.

Ever since I was a small first grader, reading was something that was never my favorite thing in the world. Sure, I would sit with the rest of the class on the carpet and listen to my first grade teacher read a story, but I’d always look forward to it being over. For a while, reading was a subject that I respected, but I never had a desire for it. The journey I’ve made from sitting on that rug with my first-grade class to now is something that I’m really proud of, and I’m proud of my understanding of literacy as well.

Facebook, texting, TV, sport and club activities, jobs, family obligations, schoolwork, and hanging out with friends -- these are the activities that make up a teenager’s world today. Add sleeping time into this mix, and the once popular leisure activity called reading ranks among most teenagers’ lowest priorities. In the high-tech, high-speed 21st century, reading proficiency is an essential tool to compete in today’s global marketplace. Yet numerous study results show a continual decline in students’ reading performance. The 2007 reading study by the National Endowment for the Arts noted that “reading has slipped to a mere eight minutes per day for 18-24-year-olds” (To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence, p. 10). A

Periodicals such as the 1819 Ladies’ Visitor and the 1860 Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine reveal through various forms of literature and illustrations how women fit into society and how ideology surrounding women contradicts itself throughout the nineteenth century. These accounts of American ideology support simple, Republican values with Romantic literature as well Liberal values of individuality with Realism. Although these values oppose one another, they intertwine to depict the ever-changing view of womanhood and women’s work. Women’s work continued to be confined to domestic work such as cooking, cleaning, sewing, and child rearing but domesticity began to be defined as skills inherent to women’s nature that were essential to pass onto children and work that could benefit greater society. Moreover, literature geared towards women, such as these periodicals, was an essential means for women to obtain the knowledge necessary for achieving domestic expertise and instructing future generations to become active members of society.

Little Women considers the place of women in society by presenting the portraiture of several very different but equally praiseworthy women. As we read the novel, we experience their different interpretations of femininity, and we see a range of different possibilities for incorporating women into society. Because the novel was written in the mid-nineteenth century, historical setting places limits on what women can do. However, modern readers may be pleasantly astonished by the novel 's tendency to push the boundaries of women 's traditional roles. This book insists that women have a great deal to contribute, certainly to the home and domestic sphere, but also to literature, art, and an honorable society.

Independence and freedom are some of the greatest qualities for which many races, nationalities, and genders have been able to thank America for. It took several centuries for our country to be at the forefront of equality, while most nations have only recently started to develop this type of thinking in their culture. However, America was not always this way. At the beginning of the 20th century, women held very few roles within society. With the husbands traditionally being the sole income earners during this time, the wives were left with the expectation to stay at home, raise the children and keep the house in order. As a result, women had an insufficient amount of time and focused little if any amount of such time on themselves, while the husbands did not help with any of the “women’s work.” With high expectations and undoubtedly little reward for their hard work at home, women often found themselves feeling trapped and forced to lead an unfulfilling lifestyle. Yearning for a sense of self, there were luxuries which these women were not allowed to indulge in, as they were not allowed a sense of freedom apart from their husbands. Furthermore, these wives and mothers would fantasize about a time where they could and would be free, to indulge and take part in niceties, even if it was only to go buy a pair of silk stockings. For over two hundred years in America, women did not have a place in literature, both as major characters and as writers. Kate