How illiteracy influences people’s life Essay

In the movie, â€Å"The Reader,† Kate Winslet played the role of Hanna Schmitz, an illiterate train conductor who was sent to jail without even understanding what she has done wrong. When Hanna said the line, â€Å"I would rather listen to you†¦ ,† I was moved because these few words allowed me to empathize with people who are illiterate. It gave me a glimpse of the feelings of helplessness and frustration they must encounter in their everyday life. The movie also showed me how illiteracy can affect a person’s life. Because of the fact that they do not have access to the information the rest of the world has, they end up being enslaved by the opinions of the literate. It is impossible for them to construct opinions as they do lack the details needed to create one. At the same time, they are forced to be dependent on people who can provide them with this information. They are also under the mercy of people who have knowledge in the written law. The movie also showed me how humbling it must be not to be able to read or write. At the start of the movie, she had an affair with a man half her age. And, whenever the man would read for her, her seniority faded away because of the way she would act like a child waiting for her father to read her a bed time story. Hanna’s story shows how important being literate is. It plays an important role in a person’s life as it can change his or her destiny. In this essay, I would like to talk about the changes and effects of literacy to a person’s mind and life. I would like to show how literacy can give intellect and power to a person by going through the works of Staple, Douglass and Kozel which they created in order to emphasize the importance of literacy in the democratic world. Brent Staple, an author and editorial writer for the New York Times, recounted the way his grandfather changed his life by learning how to read. In one of his articles, he wrote: Name of Author – 2- â€Å"Nevertheless, the ability to read and write gave them a vantage point on their circumstances and protected them from swindlers who regularly stripped illiterate people of land and other assets. † (p. 1) Staple’s grandfather was able to gain his independence by learning how to read and write. He also learned how to distinguish what is good from what is bad, what can benefit him and what can ruin his life. He also found himself with the power to think and give his opinion as he now has a better grasp of the issues around him. Armed with the knowledge he was able to acquire from reading, he found the power to make his own decisions and fight for his rights. He was able to free himself from the prison of other people’s thoughts. Another writer, Frederick Douglass, who is famous for his line: â€Å"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong,† wrote an article that is parallel to Staple’s article in the way that he talked about the way literacy influenced his life and his thinking. Douglass’ story, however, is quite different from that of Staple’s grandfather. In his story, he recounted that he learned how to read in secret with the fear of being beaten. Being born a slave, Douglass was passed on from one owner to another. The wife of one his owners taught him the alphabet even though she knew that there was a law against teaching slaves how to read. Her husband obviously disapproved about this when he found out. He believed that a slave who gains literacy will be unsatisfied with his condition and yearn for freedom. Even with the threat of being caught and beaten up, Douglass learned how to read with the help of the white children in the neighborhood. He also did his best to observe the way the order white men would write. His perspective changed after he has attained literacy. Douglas realized that black men are not brutes or savages who should be limited to working as a slave, Name of Author – 3 – they have the right to be educated and respected. As his master predicted, he yearned for the freedom that the white people have. As he continues to learn how to read and write, Douglass’ attitude to life is gradually transformed by literacy. Douglass mentions in the article: â€Å"I read them over and over again with unabated interest. They give tongue to interesting thought of my own soul†¦. The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder. † (p. 45) By learning how to read and write, Douglass learned not only the meaning of words and sentences, but the power of knowledge. He slowly became aware of his rights as a human being and how unfairly the black people have been treated. He also realized that illiteracy is the reason why the white people were able to enslave his race for so long. Not only did illiteracy keep them unaware of their rights, it also made them unable to think for themselves, to distinguish from right and wrong, what is harmful and what is not. It also stopped them from acquiring the knowledge that they need to pursue their freedom. Hence, they were influenced by the white people to believe that their only purpose in life was to work for them. With his newfound knowledge, he was able to change his life and gain his freedom. At the same time, having appreciated the value of literacy, he passed on the knowledge to other slaves, giving them the opportunity to change their own lives. In Kozol’s article, he focuses on how illiteracy can threaten a person’s way of life and thinking. He believes that one will never really have ability to protect himself if he is illiterate because he is always unaware of what’s going on. He can’t read the strange signs on the street that warns him of danger or tells him that he is breaking the law. Neither can he read legal documents, making him vulnerable to being swindled. He is also unaware of his rights. Kozol Name of Author – 4 – says, â€Å" They do not know what rights they have, what deadlines and requirements they face, what option they might choose to exercise. They are half-citizens. Their right exist I print but not in fact. † (52-53) They cannot protect their own rights since they don’t know what their rights are. Neither can they apply their rights or make a choice because they do not know what their options are. The same points were tackled by Douglas in his article when he said that black people were treated like slaves because they were not literate and were not given the chance to know that they do not have to limit themselves to such a status. They just thought that would go through this nightmare for the rest of their lives because no one could save them. What they didn’t know was they could’ve saved themselves had they known that they had rights to fight for. If they had been literate, they would have realized that they are not slaves and they have right to be educated and respected because they are humans. Illiteracy, however, has exiled them to such an nightmarish existence where their destiny is dictated by their masters. Now literacy still plays the most important role in society. If you are not able to read and write, it would be really hard for you to live. You wouldn’t know how to deal with a lot of things. You wouldn’t know what is right or wrong, what would benefit you and what would harm you. Because of the numerous things that you do not know, your lack of knowledge can bring you harm. At the same time, your lack of knowledge, stops you from having your own beliefs or opinions. And, since you have know access to the options you can choose from, you end up believing that there are none and the only thing you can do is follow what the other people are doing or to have the same opinion as they do. Without literacy, all the people can do is follow and obey, allowing other people to take charge of their own lives. If a country is filled with illiterate people then democracy is useless since the mindless majority can be controlled by the Name of Author – 5- government and the votes of those who are literate and have their own minds can be surpassed by those who aren’t. If that is the case, then the government can become a dictator in the guise of democracy. Hence, it is safe to say that without the presence of literacy, there is no knowledge. Without knowledge, there are no choices. And, without knowledge, there is no freedom which is the very essence of democracy.