The Role Of Literacy In The Bondwoman's Narrative

Literacy is often taken for granted by those who have attained it. It seems inseparable from all other parts of life. So many small parts of a daily routine have the necessity of this education ingrained into them. For instance, reading street signs or a map. Illiteracy is not just a small annoyance when obtaining directions, however. The key to oppressing any group of people is by depriving them of education and literature. Women and minorities have been oppressed since the beginning of time. They have no way to combat this oppression without proper education, which is exactly why those in power strategically deprive them of it. The root of all oppression is through the denial of education, including the deprival of literacy and one cannot
be truly free without these tools. One of the obstacles to freedom is shown in The Bondwoman’s Narrative.
This novel is an example of keeping the victims of slavery illiterate in order to keep them stagnant, and unable to escape or fight their oppression. It is important to note that literacy is one of the basic building blocks of education. Without knowing how to read it was very difficult, if not impossible, to learn math, science, or history. Without this knowledge of the world you were limited to what you could see. For instance, if you have grown up on a plantation, that is your whole world. This was dangerous because it provided slaveowners a way to further control the slaves; they were less likely to attempt to escape or revolt because they were uneducated. “Most people have heard the phrase ‘knowledge is power.’ Slave owners certainly understood the concept. And since their goal was to render slaves powerless and portray themselves as all powerful, prohibiting slaves from gaining knowledge was critically important. Recognizing that slaves’ ignorance was a valuable control mechanism, many slave owners strictly enforced illiteracy (Paige, Witty & Rod
83).” Hannah is a house slave. She knows how to read simply because she was lucky. A kind old women at the Cosgrove plantation taught her how to read before she was discovered and reprimanded. One could argue that Hannah was simply at the right place in the right time. Had she been at another plantation, she may have never had this opportunity. Furthermore, she was born with a lighter complexion, which lead to her being a house slave as opposed to working in the field. Because of this, she was able to live in a house with books to read and sharpen her reading skills. Her mistress also requested that she write letters for her, which made it possible for her to improve her writing skills. This is not to say that she was properly educated, as exemplified by her novel which is riddled with misspellings and grammatical errors. This is also not to say that she wasn’t deeply effected by an inadequate education. One of the most damaging and oppressing effects of withholding education on people is the damage it can do to the human spirit. We can see how this has influenced Hannah in the first page of the book; “I am neither clever, nor learned, nor talented. When a child they used to scold and find fault with me because they said I was dull and stupid (Craft 5).” An oppressor allowing the oppressed some education for their own benefit, like Hannah writing letters for her mistress, is not an isolated event. In The Fair Sex: White Women and Racial Patriarchy in the Early American Republic, the argument of educating women for the benefit of men is explained. The claim is that by allowing women to receive a small education, they will be more worthy of their husbands, provide better conversation, and do their domestic tasks with more enthusiasm (Schloesser 179). Whether it was a stroke of luck, or divine intervention, the important thing is that Hannah could read. Because of this, she was able to share her story with the world. This is one of the many examples of the amazing things the oppressed are able to achieve with education. Although slavery is in the past, Americans of color still face social injustice today. An example of this is the striking amount of minorities that are functionally illiterate. This is not the same illiteracy slaves faced, but it is still detrimental and often hidden. Functional illiteracy is defined reading and writing skills that are inadequate to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills beyond a basic level. In the same sense that slaves were oppressed by illiteracy, this functional illiteracy limits workplace opportunities and therefore income of black Americans. Moreover, it makes functioning in society more difficult which is an inherent disadvantage to minorities and the problem creates a cycle when a child’s parents are unable to help them learn to read and write at home. According to The Department of Justice, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure,” and there are numbers to prove it. 70 percent of inmates in America's prisons can’t read above a fourth grade level and two thirds of students who can’t read proficiently in elementary school will end up in jail or on welfare. Is it a coincidence that, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men in america can expect to go to prison in their lifetime? The answer is no. African Americans and other minorities have been strategically deprived equal education opportunities since the era of slavery, through separate but equal, and today. Reading Lolita in Tehran touches on the subject of taboo books. Banned books oppress not only writers but also the people that reside in a society, because they lack all of the available resources for education. When books are banned, it is an example of the authority only allowing you to see what they deem acceptable. In turn, you are only exposed to on aspect of certain arguments and are more susceptible to manipulation. This is another example of shrinking your world, much like what was done to slaves. You only have opinions about thing you know about. How can a group of people argue with you if they don’t know what the opposing argument is? By starting the book club, Azar Nafisi creates an outlet to explore controversial literature and escape the turmoil and oppression in Iran. Each book allows her to make connections to her own life, and to make decisions accordingly. Without her exposure to this literature she may not have decided to emigrate. She explains the importance of reading books by using The Great Gatsby as an example; “You don't read Gatsby, I said, to learn whether adultery is good or bad but to learn about how complicated issues such as adultery and fidelity and marriage are. A great novel heightens your senses and sensitivity to the complexities of life and of individuals, and prevents you from the self-righteousness that sees morality in fixed formulas about good and evil (Nafisi 129).” Although Azar feel oppressed by having to wear a head scarf in order to teach at the university, there is a sense of freedom in her being able to learn these complexities about life from literature. Nafisi’s home country of Iran neighbors Afghanistan, where enforced illiteracy oppresses women.
Fatima Gailani, head of Afghanistan’s Red Cross sees the importance of educating the women to gain freedom. “Educate us because whatever I see today, the misery in this country, and I mean it with all my heart, that it is because we are illiterate. We don't know; we don't know our rights because we are not aware.” This is another important part of how illiteracy oppresses people; without the skills to read, you don’t know what your rights are. Banning books is an ongoing problem. According to people for the American Way, between 1990 and 2000, there were 6,364 challenged books reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom. Recently the Tucson-Unified School District banned all “ethnic” literature from their schools. Including all Mexican-American works and even The Tempest, this school district is shaping young minds without diversity in mind. They are also not including the history of oppression minorities have faced in the U.S., and as we all know if you don’t learn from history it is doomed to repeat
itself. In conclusion, there are numerous examples of oppression of women and minorities throughout time, including present-day situations. The problem is world wide, and it is a burden we all should bear. The most common strategy for keeping a group of people from rising up is by keeping them uneducated and illiterate. This is often done by banning books and enforcing illiteracy and can be observed by the denial of social justice, the manipulation of history, and the correlation between illiteracy and incarceration. Our country and our world will not be truly free until each person has the tools and opportunities to learn, regardless of their gender, sex, or race.