The Importance Of Literacy In The Story 'See How They Run'

The Importance of Literacy During the time of slavery, literacy was not a given right to African American slaves. The idea of slaves learning to read and write deemed impossible by their white owners. As a result many African Americans were seen as illiterate and inferior. The willingness in wanting to learn and the ability to self teach were the start of a new journey to being literate for slaves. Literacy is of importance because it increases one’s knowledge, open doors for opportunities to progress, and it eradicates racial prejudice. As literacy was not made available to African Americans, their spoken language was nonstandard dialects, which would be considered as a defect of the English Language. This was a setback for blacks because the others who spoke the standard “proper” English found it difficult to understand or the saw that person as backward and inferior. In the story “See How They Run”, pictures a classroom of children who all had different circumstances. There was a boy called C.T. Young who spoke only nonstandard English and as a result, his previous teachers saw him as an …show more content…
They attended schools to better their education, which resulted with many African Americans becoming leaders, activists, and writers. In the story of “The Wife of His Youth”, Mr. Ryder was once a slave who became free. Freedom was his opportunity to better himself and gain a higher education and status. His success led him to become a top member of the Blue Veins group. The Blue Veins in the “The Wife of His Youth”, their principle was known for “its purpose was to establish and maintain correct social standards among a people whose social condition presented almost unlimited room for improvement”. In other words, to maintain correct and improve social standards, literacy was the resource needed for betterment. It brought empowerment and greater opportunities to succeed like Mr.