Imagine a world where democracy is in ruin. Freedom is limited and our culture has become stale and boring with no variety in the daily activities. Seems unlikely to happen, right? Well, unfortunately, we might be closer to that reality than most may think. The decrease in reading in the U.S. may lead to negative side-effects in our society. The effects could range from people not wanting to participate in sport to people not wanting to vote, as stated by Caleb Crain in the passage “Twilight of the Books” (line 16). Both “Reading for Fun Is in Painful Decline” and “Twilight of the Books” explore how the decrease in independent reading could possibly affect our world. However, the author’s use of sufficient evidence and valid reasoning in “Twilight of the Books” outshines the author of “Reading for Fun Is in Painful Decline”, Stephen Carter, making his claims well…show more content… Twelfth graders seem to be on the same path as their elders when it comes to reading. As stated in the passage, “Their reading scores fell an average of six points between 1992 and 2005…” (line 27) Twelfth graders proficient in reading also slipped from forty percent to thirty-five (line 28). Using these statistics, Crain predicts that these children will follow the trend of non-reading in which the adults have set into motion. This valid reasoning is backed by a great deal of evidence.
While Crian uses research and statistics to backup his claims, Carter uses impactful language to express the urgency of this matter. Carter believes that the more reading decreases, then the closer we become to the world in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 (line 31). In that world, books are censored and reading is basically illegal. The people suffer intellectually and, in turn, society suffers structurally. By using this analogy, Carter pushes an urgent agenda that we, as a country, need to work towards increasing reading
