Rogé 1

Nicholas Rogé

English 101.18

WA5 – Final Draft

Literacy within Humanity

Written Through a College Students Eyes

If one were to take a look at humanity as a whole, you would see that

most of humanity feels that literacy is regarded as something that must be

represented simply as being words on a page. Can literacy be so simply

defined? Moreover, there are those who feel that literacy can be defined as

something more. In a poll of thirty people who were in their early to late forties,

when asked if they felt that texting could be considered a literary art, only seven

of the thirty agreed. However, I took another poll with the same idea in mind,

except the poll focused on those in their teens. Of the thirty polled, twenty-eight

of the teenagers agreed to the statement. A powerful trend in numbers… That

being the case, could it be argued that age has an immense impact on one’s

beliefs of what is and is not literacy?

If one were to attempt to put a definition to literacy, even an abstract

definition, what would it look like? Let us go off of the idea that literacy is

anything that evokes emotion or thought for now. That being the case, would art
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be considered literacy? In some, it creates such passion that they would go so

far as to break down into tears. In others, it holds so little value that burning the

Mona Lisa would have the same impact on them as killing a fly. There are also,

of course, the written works such as Poe’s, “The Raven”, which in some can

cause chills, but in others will cause yawning. Even though it may not create any

sort of thought or emotion, in a person, however, it is almost inarguable that

anyone would consider a written work to be a form of literacy. Music is another

subject that could easily be argued for or against. Why are notes on a page

different from words in a book? Could this not be comparable to knowing only

how to read and write English but attempting to read a language like Japanese

where there are no similarities to English? Not only that, but the symphonies or

discord these notes make would be literacy as well.

Literacy as an idea, is a very abstract and opinionated thing. For every

argument that something can be considered a literary work, there is another that

argues against it.

Can it be argued then that being literate is the ability to create something

that evokes emotion or thought in another? While I don’t personally believe that

Picasso was a great artist, there are those out there that would argue against it

saying that he was. But why does it, or rather, should it really matter to them or

to me? If Picasso created his work, and felt that it was literary, who are we to

contradict or question its creator?

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As far as my personal beliefs and view on what literacy is, I believe that

literacy should be regarded as anything that is in existence, be it physical or

metaphysical. Just about everything we do in this world, can be regarded as

literacy. From driving down the street, predicting weather patterns, to, of course,

reading a book. Even the abstract concept of thought is a literary experience.