Literacy In Three Metaphors Analysis

When I was young, it was always a competition to be my grandma’s favorite. There were fifteen grandchildren in the family, and being her favorite meant we were given numerous privileges. The privileges consisted of anything from being the one who gets the most money on Christmas, getting to choose the family dinner on every Friday night, or best of all we were allowed to sit next to her at church on Sunday. We were the racecar drivers in a NASCAR race, swerving, causing the cars to smash into the walls to prevent them from the checkered flag. At age four, I was in the middle of the pack, and I knew I had to find something that none of my fellow competitors knew. Luckily, I found my grandma’s passion was cooking and it was soon going to become …show more content…
I wasn’t anywhere near a chef, but I definitely become better at the task. I figured I was literate in cooking. When I first thought of this concept of being literate in something other than reading and writing I thought I was foolish because I didn’t really know what being literate was, other than being able to read and write. Sylvia Scribner helped me better understand the concept in her article “Literacy in Three Metaphors” she states, “There are too many layers of meaning, deposited over time by changes in how writing is produced and used, for the term literacy to have a single definition that capture its true essence”(Scribner 15). I think this statement alone is very powerful, because I feel it is saying there is many ways one can be literate, not just in reading and writing. Reading Sylvia Scribner’s article allowed me to form my own meaning of being literate. To me being literate is becoming better at something as you get older. Scribner mentions three metaphors describing literacy they are literacy as adaptation, literacy as power, and literacy as a state of grace (16). I believe that two of the metaphors that she lists would play a part in my story. Looking back my grandma was praised for the amazing food she creates for the family, therefore she held the power of the food. Also, before anyone would eat, the entire family would get into a circle and say a prayer. We were taught the prayer by the time we were able to talk and when were able to say it correctly, we would lead the entire family in the prayer. The hard part about this is that the youngest person had to start the prayer off and we had two prayers that needed to be memorized. They go as follows, “Bless us, Oh Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ, our Lord. Amen” and “Come Lord Jesus and be our guest and let