Happiness

A Prayer for Listening and Reading

Reading also gave one confidence in and familiarity with language, which was a necessary tool for forming those nearly constant comments on what one had observed. Grandmother had her doubts about the radio, although she conceded that the modern world moved at such a pace that keeping up with it defied the written word; listening after all, required some effort, and the language one increasingly stumbled over in newspapers and magazines. But she drew the line at television. It took no effort to watch-it was infinitely more beneficial to the soul, and to the intelligence, to read or to listen-and what she imagined there was to watch on TV appalled her; she had, of course, only read about it (Irving 257).

The knowledgeable novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving brought up a superior topic which can be debated either way. The point Irving’s trying to get through to his readers is the significance of reading, writing, and listening as opposed to sitting and watching which takes no skills, according to Irving.

Irving bringing up the subject of reading and listening vs watching was something that never even crossed my mind. Also how it takes no effort to watch television rather than reading or listening. I think Irving’s point of reading and listening taking skills and watching television took no effort is completely truthful and correct. Over years reading among people has decreased in numbers drastically. In Charlottesville, Virginia the National Center for Education Statistics recently released a study that shows a nationwide decrease in high school seniors' reading proficiency since 1992.The study, "The Nation's Report Card," examined transcripts 21,000 high school seniors from 900 schools across the country and compared them to students' performances on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The NAEP test a broad-stroke snapshot based on what experts believe students should know and do in a particular subject. The study shows that the percentage of high school seniors reading at or above the level designated "proficient" has fallen from 40 percent in 1992 to 35 percent in 2005 (Study).

Another issue brought up was listening and Irving’s stand point on the issue it still takes some effort to listen but, Irving drew the line at television. Irving portrays his ideas also through John’s grandmother who was raised with no technology in her childhood and reading was their way of gaining knowledge and later on there might have been some radio to listen to also. Now that technology constantly improves much of the old ways such as reading in this case are becoming extinct and alienated to mankind. There have been such advancements in technology that reading will no longer be needed but, instead knowledge would be obtained from videos and reading itself would become a myth to those who don’t pass the importance of reading to later generations. Along with reading comes the understanding of the very own language you speak, which is what john’s grandmother tries to explain to john.