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Shannon Blodgett
Reader
English 111-P02
13 February 2013
Critical Review Essay
Enjoying reading is questionable for some individuals. Gerald Graff can relate to
this feeling. Graff wrote an article titled, “Disliking Books at an Early Age” about
himself. Graff is an instructor for literature writing, that he developed a love for. Graff’s
desire for teaching helped him observe students to find they were more like he was; more
than he ever thought, these students tend to grow up with some sort of nonintellectual,
non-bookish personality to them. Graff lived in fear of every day of being beat up,
because he lived in an ethnically mixed neighborhood in Chicago. Many times Graff was
caught staring at pages of books. Graff’s father would make him read since only sports
magazines and comic books were his choice of readings growing up. Law, medicine and
being a business owner were not Graff’s interest. Graff majored in English. Graff
experienced several times that his college reading went unfinished and left him tonguetied and embarrassed when called on during class. Something that embraced Graff with
exposure was critical debates. For Graff this was not a single conversion experience, but
rather a gradual transformation over several years extending into his first years teaching.
It wasn’t until Graff was in college he could experience while reading a novel, the voices
running through his head and his reading experience suddenly became remarkable for
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him. It was then he felt confident in his readings and was willing to talk about them in
class. Perhaps literary-talk could give you a certain power in the real world. During
Graff’s article the organization was confusing at times. Graff wrote this article using
general language for the audience; his article is credible as it is about himself.
The organization of the article was well written, but tends to jump a bit starting
out with current times as a literature teacher and jumps quickly into his childhood and
speaks of his father this was found to be a bit difficult. He also incorporates into his
article a well respected author and instructor Mike Rose this too could be difficult to
understand if you are not familiar with Mike Rose. “Mike Rose describes how the ‘pain
and confusion’ of his working-class youth made ‘school and knowledge’ seem a savings
alternative” (112). This quote is only one example of Graff incorporating another author
into his article. Graff then moves quickly into the next paragraph of this article about his
father, “my father, a literate man, was frustrated by my refusal to read anything besides
comic books, sports magazines and the John R. Tunis and Clair Bee sports novels” (112).
This quote reiterates that Graff jumps around a bit in his article. For a large part of the
article Graff is discussing his experience with reading a book in his junior year of college
named The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, if the audience is unfamiliar with this book
the audience could be quickly confused, “But one of the first sparks I remember was a
controversy over The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (113). This quote gives the
audience a perfect example of Graff’s writing and it can be confusing at times.
The language of this article is for a general adult audience. Graff makes it easy
reading as he can relate to difficult readings from his experience. Graff writes “my most
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vivid recollections of college reading are of assigned classics I failed to finish” (113), this
quotes expresses Graff and the terminology he uses throughout the article. Graff’s article
was a well written article about himself. During Graff’s article he says, “Even when I had
done the assigned readings, I was often tongue-tied and embarrassed when called on.
What was unclear to me, was what I was supposed to say about literary works and why.
Had I been born a decade or two earlier, I might have come to college with the rudiments
of a literate vocabulary for talking about culture that some people older than I acquired
through family, high school, or church”(113). This quote is another example of the
terminology Graff chose to use to keep the audience interested and jargon in laymen’s
terms for a general adult audience to understand.
The article was credible since it was about Graff himself with personal references.
Graff writes, “It was through exposure to such critical reading and discussion over a
period of time that I came to catch the literary bug” (115), this quote is a perfect example
of Graff writing about himself and this makes this article credible. Through our own
experiences of life this quote also gives the impression that this article is credible, “the
anxieties are expressed in our romantic literary traditions, with protest against urban
forms of sophistication that, it is believed, cause us to lose touch with the innocence of
childhood and with our creative impulses” (115). Adding Graff’s own personal advice
this also makes this article credible, “to read with a sense of personal engagement that I
had not felt before reading the novel with the voices of the critics running through my
mind” (114). Thinking back it was the critical conversations that were held with
classmates that Graff could interfere with and he could contribute to the conversations
with confidence. Graff talks about his environmental up-brining, “coming at things from
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my middle-class perspective, however, I took for granted a freedom that school,
knowledge and engagement with ideas seemed only to threaten” (112), this quote proves
it is a creditable statement, since a lot of college students can relate; we have all had
something in our background that defers us from our education whether it be small town
isolation, our parents upbringing, or the small town small classroom we came from, these
are things we all take for granted. For Graff it was his father telling him he was going to
college without choice, his father wanted to go into the medical or law fields, since his
family didn’t have a business. Graff also talks about his experience as a teacher and being
only part of the conversation and debates that are taking place during class, this is an
amazing experience for him as well as the students, he also discusses the importance of
this, having this personal experience with what we call a “community” makes what Graff
is talking about credible. A non-traditional college student could find this easy to relate to
since the years between schooling are so far apart. Graff does well relating to an adult
learning audience throughout his article.
In conclusion Graff’s article was well written, inspiring to an adult learning
audience although the flow of this article was sometimes confusing, the article was still
intriguing, the general language and its credibility. Graff’s article was appealing to the
audience and easy to relate to. Graff being made to read paid off later in his life as he
writes these educated articles; though tough to understand why he had no choices for
himself, as his father made them for him when reading and college were in the picture of
his child life.
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Work Cited
Graff, Gerald. “Disliking Books at an Early Age.” Composing Knowledge: Readings for
College Writers. Ed. Rolf Norgaard. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 111118.
Print.
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