They cannot pay bills easily and often spend more than necessary. They also have to rely on others to know what is going on or explain things to them. Their rights are being violated as citizens because they are not fully informed; they need ask the others but some of whom are not really trustworthy. Illiterates lack the comfort of being able to even do such simple things as emergency phone numbers. In particularity, driving down a street and not knowing how to read the street sings can be scary to an illiterate person Small to big situations, such as ordering food to calling for help are all fears in the everyday life of an illiterate. The fear of not knowing, the fear of being humiliated, the fear of being insure of the rights are all sometimes more problematic than the issue at hand. Sometimes illiterates would rather suffer in silence than be humiliated by someone finding out they cannot read. Kozol uses the essay “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society” to demonstrate the effects illiteracy has on society. He shows different examples, some of which are dramatic; to portray the dangers illiteracy poses in such simple everyday life tasks. He also explains how illiteracy can have effects on society as a whole. He feels that government has neglected this issue for too long. Kozol hopes this essay can recruit the reader into an effort to get the problem of illiteracy addressed and corrected.
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