The Human Cost Of An Illiterate Society Kozol Analysis

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

Taking things for granted is a very common practice in society, the ability to appreciate the smaller things in life is a trait not commonly found in many. Be it having the ability to attend a university, or having the proper use of all of one’s limbs, many don’t fully understand and appreciate the gifts they have. In his work, The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society, Johnathan Kozol relates this idea to the importance of literacy, and the implications and struggles that are imposed on society and those who lack it.

Being without the ability to read brings along many different problems. One of the most important problems is that dealing with economics. In his article to the “Vocal Point”, Mcmaster emphasizes that how illiteracy affects the nation’s economy by stating that,

Democracy has always been threatened by illiteracy. There are a few ways in which democracy has been threatened by illiteracy. These ways are, people forging a vote, not understanding instructions on medication, and traveling out to the streets. These three things are a huge problem for illiterates. In order to prevent illiteracy one must open themselves to the world and learn about democracy. As James Madison stated, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives” (Kozol 114).

Envision being limited in a world full of opportunities and advantages due to illiteracy. In this society, it is unfortunate that there are individuals who are illiterate, which ultimately affects their democratic lives. Many other citizens do not face this issue, and may not recognize the disadvantages that illiterates face. In Jonathan Kozol’s text, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society,” he discusses the various issues concerned with illiteracy, one of them being how it affects democracy. Democracy is a type of government where power, that involves human rights and values, is held by the people. According to Kozol’s text, illiteracy undermines democracy in the United States because people are oblivious of their right to equality,

Literacy plays a huge role in many people’s lives everyday, whether it is learning how to read and write for the first time or writing a five-page essay for the hundredth time. We experience literacy differently and have our very own unique stories on how it has impacted our lives and had made us who we are today. It is an essential aspect that I use in my everyday life, such as in relationships, daily interactions with others, and learning. It has become such a powerful aspect and human right in which it allows one to speak his/her mind and in some cases express their opinion to the world. My personal literacy history has shaped me into who I am today because without my experiences I would not have been able to gain the confidence and

He talks about how America is easily manipulated by images. They cannot differentiate between lies in the truth. Many people in America are illiterate or barely literate. They could read somewhere around a 6th grade level. This affects them when they have to vote since they do not make decisions off facts. Moreover, politicians are very aware of that. Their campaigns are made so they could get emotions out of the audience rather than go based off facts. “We prefer happy illusions. And it works because so much of the American electorate, including those who should know better, blindly cast ballots for slogans, smiles, the cheerful family tableaux, narratives and the perceived sincerity and the attractiveness of candidates. We confuse how we feel with knowledge” (Hedges). Politicians use the slogan such as “yes we can” and they would tell stories so we can sympathize in voting for them. They make fake that they will take care of all of your problems as healthcare, schooling, taxes and a nation united. Yet, when the candidate wins, they forget about promise that they made in the campaigns. Matt Taibbi’s article “How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable” stated, “Like the actual circus, this is a roving business. Cash flows to campaigns from people and donors; campaigns buy ads; ads pay for journalists; journalists assess candidates…Nine out of 10 times in America, the candidate who raises the most money wins. And those candidates then owe the most favors” (Taibbi). This quote shows it does not matter if people vote or not, their votes are not a key factor in the campaigns it is the donors. When the campaigns are over, the illiterate have no voice once again. Politics is not about the ideas about the ideas

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.

Jonathan Kozol’s The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society points out on the challenges citizens across the nation experience due to being illiterate. Kozol states; “over16 million adults are illiterate.” His essay is based heavily on testimonials from people who have lived or currently live as illiterates. He quotes many of their personal life experience giving the reader a well-rounded perception of how realistic and serious this condition is. “A woman in Detroit brought home a gallon of Crisco for her children’s dinner. She thought she had bought the chicken that was pictured one the label. She had enough Crisco now to last a year- but no more money to go back and buy the food for dinner” (191) this is a good example that indicates that the women who purchased the gallon of Crisco must live in poverty since a trip back to the store to buy food for dinner is not an option.

I think education is indispensable to everyone in this earth , all of people want to study to have many choices in their life . But some parts are not like to study at all , they always hide from education and after that they don’t have good futures . In this side , we going to talk about what effect does illiteracy have all around the world . And it effects a lot , they decreases industries, education and some business jobs because if we don’t have education , it means we don’t knowledge, so we cant help to improve the world’s industry . You can see in Africa , they don’t have good education so they become illiteracy , and then in Africa , they don’t have good industry because they don’t knowledge to improve that

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