E 121 Week 2 - Assignment Critical Essay Outline

Wendell Berry’s article “Kentucky Writers in Kentucky” published in the Appalachian Heritage journal insightfully looks into the culture of literacy, wherein he reminds the writers of Kentucky the literacy is communal. The author lays the background of the status of Kentucky, highlighting the fragmentation of the area. He emphasizes on the need of public dialogue, further citing the public silence that hovers around Kentucky on issues of public interest. Drawing from his own personal experiences, Berry speaks to great lengths on the fact that while Kentucky has sufficient writers and books, it does not have a sustainable human culture and consequently urges writers to form friendships and alliances among themselves. He makes a powerful observation, specifically noting that “My point is that in 1964, for a young writer in Kentucky and in need of sustenance, sustenance was here…..My further point is that in 2015, for an old writer in Kentucky and in need of sustenance, sustenance is here” (Berry, 2015). The author sees the area as with much potential as long as writers can spark discussions among themselves and the community to ensure a viable heritage.

While all of the parts of the SQ3R method were resourceful, I found the “Question” and “Review” parts most critical to my understanding. The “Question part” allowed me to interrogate the author’s point of view and understand his main ideas. The “Review” part afforded me the chance to relook into my initial observations and unearth aspects that I had not initially noticed.

Make connections between what you read about community and other knowledge/ experience/ observations you have had about your own community

With Berry’s main idea being that literacy is communal, I especially reflected on the observation that while communities might have the resource of writers, they might not really be able to change public discourse in the way that they should. This is something I have seen in my own community, which boasts of a great deal of well-known writers but there is nothing much to show when looking at the community in and of itself. Thus, I can say that Berry gave me insight on what the cause of the disconnection could be. I was especially keen on the essence of friendships among writers from the community and how, in turn, these friendships can be leveraged to spark essential conversations within the community. Berry’s article built my body of knowledge regarding the fact that writing, as an art, goes over and beyond individual writers, books, and publishers.

Articulate any questions/curiosities/predictions/challenges you have based on the reading and use examples from the essay to explain those

While I do agree with Berry that building a literacy community would be pivotal to the state of Kentucky and many others defined by similar circumstances, I am still curious as to how writing alliances will be able to move past the diversity and fragmentation that characterizes the state. Berry makes his concern over the lack of a literacy community very clear when he says, “My worries begin when I think of the literary life of Kentucky in the context of the state of Kentucky: a commonwealth enriched by a diversity of regions, but gravely and lastingly fragmented by divisions that are economic, social, cultural, and institutional” (Berry, 2015). However, what remains an ambiguity to me as a reader is how, beyond creating a sustainable human culture, the coming together of writers for a common cause would cut through and reverse the fragmentation in Kentucky. These are questions that I still had by the end of the article.