Walter Jankowski Assignment 1B Rhetorical Reflection Section HB McGough September 18, 2013 E.B.

. Whites Comment Imagine a world where literacy is a rare commodity. Individuals lucky enough to possess this talent would be invaluable to society thus granting them opportunity as distinguished leaders of organizations and universities. During World War II E.B. White, along with many others, believed technology to be an imminent threat to reading; even today his comments hold weight as relevance to the college students who read his comment (Convergences 60). Whites comment was released just a year after World War II had started, which was a turning point for the United States. Our nation was advancing technologically more rapidly due to the advantages new technology gave us in the war. Entertainment was changing as fewer people were reading and more people were going to the movies or listening to the radio. Due to the efforts for the war the economy was finally booming, creating extra jobs for the American people. This meant people had more money to spend on modern conveniences. The individuals who would have recognized the potential disaster of this drastic change in American society would have been those of higher education. Whites comment mentions a college president who proclaimed in fifty years only five per cent of the people will be reading (Convergences 60). Whites comment has been reproduced in a college level text book which brings it to a contemporary audience with an unspoiled eye. College students are old enough to understand the meaning of the quote but are young enough to allow it to mean something different than an older individual. Being reproduced in a college textbook, Whites comment still has the same value to the contemporary audience as those who read it in the 40s due to those who read it are educated and realize the value of reading. With all the tremendous advancements in technology that have occurred during the average college students lifetime, they have a greater understanding of how easily reading could become a thing of the past. The meaning of Whites quote is the same to a contemporary audience as to the people who read it years ago. With advancements in technology continually occurring, reading could still become obsolete, just not in the fifty-year time frame originally predicted by the college president in the quote. Within the lifetimes of the contemporary audience, young individuals could observe reading become a lost talent.

Works Cited "1940's Business and the Economy." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. "1940s News, Events, Popular Culture and Prices." What Happened in the 1940s Featuring News, Popular Culture, Prices and Technology. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. "E.B. White Biography." E. B. White Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. "Pop Culture Goes to War in the 1940s." Pop Culture Goes to War in the 1940s. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. White, E.B. Comment. Convergences: Themes, Texts, and Images for Composition. Ed. Robert Atwan. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2009. 60.