Summary for the Consequences of Rhetoric and Literacy

Everything in history always have a con, always a storm compare to the pros, compare to the sun such as literacy. Morris Young and Connie Kendall discusses and details the cons of literacy in their essay The Consequences of Rhetoric and Literacy. They believe that literacy is a threat to society, from economics, educational development to health and welfare. They label their concerns in their essay as a literacy crisis. They describe literacy as a standard or quality of cultural capital in modern nations. It is marker of membership and anyone who can demonstrate the membership gain access to the structures of power. Literacy is a complex term as seen in both essays, but while Scribner discuss how to deal with the boundaries problem in her essay Literacy in Three Metaphors, Young and Kendall discuss that the relationship between rhetoric and literacy isn’t successful but harmful to ‘literacy.’ Young and Kendall uses many articles and essays to associate with their claims. They discuss how Goody and Watt claim that literacy has the power to forge a great divide and uses the opportunity to evolve they claim and incorporate that accomplishments, relative values are dependent on the level and kind of literacy one achieve. Young and Kendall seeks out the contrast of literacy, as they discuss how a key claim on the Great Divide theory is the starting point in their discussion on the consequences of literacy. It is detailed in their essay, The Consequences of Rhetoric and Literacy, that the Great Divide function as a grand narrative of literacy but isn’t the only one, as literacy has followed the social turn and evolve with human sciences and have shifted its social significance. With works by scholars such as Harvey Graff, Brain Street incorporated in their essay they discusses the teaching of literacy and the interpretations developed by the scholars. Just as Goody and Watt argued about the consequences of literacy, Young and Kendall elaborate more on it as they say literacy has used to divide people and the truth behind ‘rhetoric of literacy’ in their essay, The Consequences of Rhetoric and Literacy.