The Human Cost of an Iliterate Society Response

In The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society by Jonathan Kozol, the author uses repetition and short anecdotes throughout his essay to convey the disadvantages illiterates face in modern society. Kozol repeats ‘illiterates cannot” at least nine times in the essay, the majority at the beginning of the paragraph. It highlights the limitations of illiterate people have to circumvent in order to live a normal American life. Kozol also has numerous “illiterates do not” and “illiterates depend” to further emphasize the lack of freedom and dependency on other people’s trust and honest intentions.

Kozol also employs the use of anecdotes to emotionally appeal to the reader. From the woman who could not feed her family because she accidentally spent her money on a year’s worth of Crisco to the man who could not get home due to a combination of car troubles and his unable read the signs around him, illiterates are portrayed as those who are helpless and frozen by the fear of not knowing. He also uses his own personal dream to emphasize the emotional hardships these people face.

However the presentation of a problem without any inclination of a viable solution is distracting from Kozol’s purpose. While he is describing the hardships of illiterates, I was wondering why don’t they learn how to read or how come they were not taught to read. Why aren’t these people trying to better their lives by becoming literate? Also, the author’s diction implies that there is a substantial number of Americans who are currently illiterate. Our country has one of the highest literacy rates in the word, so it does not make any sense. The title and the introductory paragraphs also state that in order to have a “true democracy” everyone must be literate. The U.S. is not a true democracy; it is a republic. There is no society in the world that everyone will be literate. There are always one or two outliers. By not addressing these major topics, the emotional appeal is diminished. I would be much more sympathetic if there were less questionable implications.