Ronnie Ricker
Term Paper
English 304, Children/Young Adult Lit.
Knowledge is Power. This is a phrase all of us have heard before. But what is knowledge? Where does it come from? And what is it about knowledge that gives us this power?
In our world, the power of knowledge comes from literacy. The ability to read changes the way we look at the world around us. It organizes our thoughts, putting things into proper boxes so we may study them at leisure. But perhaps the most powerful thing it does is to put ourselves into a box, to study, to poke at, to prod at, to compare ourselves to others. The ability to look at our own nature, understand it, and change it as needed. To look at those around us and put them into boxes. We can than share these boxes with others who are literate. That is what gives literacy power, the ability to look around oneself in an organized fashion that can easily be shared with others, even if they are oceans away from us.
In the book Marvelous Wonders, Greenblatt explores the idea of literacy in the New World. He proposes that literacy is what made it possible for the Europeans to so casually push the Natives aside and take over their land. One particular passage called out to me. When Columbus claims the new land, he does it by sticking the Spanish flag into the earth. When he tells the Natives that they are now under the rule of the Spanish kingdom, they do not argue. It doesn’t matter that they could not understand the new foreign language. By writing it down into his journal and than giving it to the queen, Columbus claimed the New World for Spain. While all of Spain knew of this development through the power of literacy, the Natives had not a clue. They could not even comprehend the power of pen and paper, because they had never encountered a force so powerful. Because once you are literate, literacy is truth. And the truth for Spain was that the Natives and their land had been put into a little box labeled MINE.
Another example of power through literacy can be seen in Frederick Douglas’ autobiography. After his mistress is caught teaching him to read, Douglass’ master gives a speech about what happens when you teach a slave to read. He explains that they become unhappy, and ‘impossible to keep.’ Little does his master know, even though Douglass lost a teacher and friend from that speech, he gained something far better:
“I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty – to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I least expected it. Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read (Lauter, p1902).”
Douglass had the astonishing realization that it was not physical force that kept slaves in their positions, but the enforced ignorance that their master’s put upon them. And so, he saw the path to his freedom: literacy. So Douglass taught himself to read. And from that moment on, he saw himself not as a slave, but as a man. This revelation eventually led to his escape to freedom, and then to his being one of the most eloquent speakers for civil rights of his time.
You may ask, what does this have to do with children’s literature? I will answer: everything, of course. Not only is a child’s book her pathway to literacy, but it is also a window into the power literacy gives a person.
Taking a look at ‘His Dark Materials,’ we see a child with much more power and insight than not only other children, but all the adults around her. How did she achieve what she did? She had a power of knowledge that the people she worked against did not possess. The alethiometer, meaning literally ‘measure of truth’ was in her possession. More importantly, she was the only person in all the worlds she traveled through who could read it so effortlessly. With this power in her hands, she was able to achieve things others thought not possible. Lyra was able to lead the gyptians on a rescue mission to save the children from the soul ripping Gobblers. She traveled to the world of the dead and freed all of humanity’s souls from the suffering they were enduring.
From the moment we see little Lyra pick up that alethiometer, we watch her slowly gain wisdom. Not only from the answers the alethiometer gave her, but from the questions she learned to ask. Lyra discovered something profound. It is not always about the answers, but instead about the questions we ask. What are the important things to know? And why do we want to know them? Lyra also discovers that knowledge is not as clear cut as it may seem. Lyra understands that the alethiometer is telling her that she is bringing something to her father that he wants, but she assumes that it is the alethiometer. In reality, her father was waiting for a child to sever from his daemon, and use the energy released to rip a hole between worlds. That child was Robert, the person for whom Lyra originally came North to rescue. Her misinterpretation of knowledge led to the death of her best friend.
We must ask the question, was Lyra enslaved as well as empowered by her ability to read the alethiometer? From the beginning, the alethiometer has a purpose in mind for Lyra. It gives her answers that are uniquely aimed at her, so as to push her in the direction Dust would like her to go. She has a destiny, and that is to save Dust, or humanity, however you would like to look at it. It is no coincidence that Dust was the writer of her literacy.
Literacy pushes us into a direction and a way of thinking, and Lyra was not immune to this. Those whom we receive knowledge from have a purpose for sharing it. By picking up a book, we inevitably are pushed into a direction that we cannot turn away from. Frederick Douglass became free, but first he suffered for years as a man treated as an animal, and had no ignorance buffer the pain for him. Without literacy, the Europeans may never have been able to dethrone the natives from their lands. Lyra would not have found the love of her life only to lose him. On the other side of the coin, however, Frederick Douglass would not have been there to fight towards the abolition of slavery, America would not exist, and Dust would be gone from the Universe forever, leaving a false Authority to reign.
There is always a sacrifice we must make when we accept literacy into our lives. While we gain shared knowledge, we also lose the ability to see things outside of a labeled box. Is this the elusive answer to what could be the difference between childhood and adulthood? Are children unrestrained by the box that surrounds the literate? Or is the box always there, but the child cannot see it until it is pointed out to her?
Work Cited
Lauter, Paul. Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume B. Hougton Mifflin Company.
Pullman, Philip. His Dark Materials.Random House, New York.
Greenblatt. Marvelous Wonders.
