In the piece “Don’t you think It’s time to start thinking?”, Northrop Frye takes on a powerful yet imposing tone wherein he makes it a fact rather than a perspective that a person’s ideas and thoughts don’t exist unless expressed using proper words. The title itself questions one’s thinking mechanism. It makes the reader wonder whatever he has been thinking is any thinking at all. The essay aims at people who blindly follow the conventional method of thinking which the society enforces upon them. He also points out that the key to successful thinking lies in incorporating the thoughts into proper words.
The essay highlights the importance of verbal skills in critical thinking. Frye states that schools and teachers play an inevitable role in developing a student’s thought process. He says that a student should be taught on how to think and how to put it in words. He states that thinking is a matter of practice and everyone should take enough time to think. That is the only way in which one can articulate the thoughts, without which, it is meaningless.
I believe that the society, instead of creating highly determined individuals, forces people to be pliable so that they will get adapted to the pre-set rules and regulations. The anti-intellectual drive that exists in the society today, doesn’t give importance to verbal competency or articulation. If an individual comes up with his own ideas, it questions his own survival in the society. This is what makes people hide in the mass created by their predecessors. Frye expresses his thoughts about the importance of critical thinking and he has successfully backed up each of his statements with proper explanation and examples.
I also feel that there is an entertainment perspective in the essay, especially in paragraph 12 where Frye tries to bring in some humor to the topic. The prejudices and clichés which are put up as pretence