Morgan Castle

Professor Musselman
ENGW 1111
20 February 2015
The Concentration of Reading in an Unequal Society
Ursula Le Guin, a well-known author, writes in her 2008 essay Staying Awake about
the folly in thinking reading a lost art. I also want to question the assumption, writes Le Guin,
that books are on the way out. I think theyre here to stay (Le Guin 34). Le Guin rationalizes
this by saying that some groups of people, usually the powerful ones, have always read more
than others (Le Guin 34). This has been true since the dawn of written word and is still true
today, 7 years after Le Guins essay was published. People still read just like they used to in what
Le Guin calls the century of the book.
First I want talk about exactly what it is that Im trying to prove that people still do: read.
By the Merriam-Webster definition, to read is to look at and understand the meaning of letters,
words, symbols, etc. (Webster). This definition of reading is by no means all encompassing.
This sort of reading is superficial and only scratches the surface of what literacy actually means.
True, deep reading only happens when a reader understands the idea behind what theyre
reading, and is able to comprehend the text and make inferences.
A clear and objective measure of how well a population thoroughly reads is the SAT
Critical Reading section. Every US student that attends Northeastern University took the SAT, so
the average score range of 660-740 out of 800 is indicative of the average Northeastern students
ability to read and comprehend (Northeastern University 1). Meaningful, deep reading is

definitely not dying, at least not here at Northeastern. Comprehension is absolutely necessary for
reading books, whether the books are textbooks about physics or romance novels, they all require
the ability to read and comprehend. At Northeastern, I am absolutely positive that everyone has
this ability. I pass people every day around campus that are reading in the library, in the
dining halls, in classrooms, and even while walking through campus. I can talk about Jane Eyre
or The Grapes of Wrath in everyday conversation with confidence that nearly everyone read it in
high school.
In Ursula Le Guins essay, Staying Awake, she insists that reading is absolutely not
lost. She writes, For most of human history, most people could not read at all. Literacy was not
only a demarcator between the powerful and the powerless; it was power itself (Le Guin 34).
This suggests that maybe reading isnt lost at all, its just concentrated within certain groups of
people. Instead of everyone enjoying reading and doing it all the time, people who are more
powerful or wealthy read more than those who are not as powerful, wealthy, or privileged. Le
Guin also pointed out that not many people ever read, so its not really different now than it was
in ancient times. She says, Its just that not all that many people ever did read [books]. Why
should we think everybody ought to now? (Le Guin 34).
Northeastern University is a top tier, (very expensive) university. Nearly everyone Ive
met in college comes from a middle-upper class family that lives in a nice suburb and probably
half the people I know in Northeastern received a private school education. Lets face it:
Northeastern students are privileged. According to the College Board, for the class of 2013, the
national average score for the SAT Critical Reading portion is only a 497 (SAT Average Scores
1). If the average SAT score is at all indicative of the entire US population, then the average,

middle of the road NU student beats the average person by 42% of their score. However, the SAT
isnt a complete measure of the reading comprehension ability of an average American 17 or 18
year old. A lot of people, mostly those who wont continue on to college or have already dropped
out of high school, dont take the SAT. If absolutely everyone in the US was evaluated at age 18,
Im sure the average score would be much lower than a 500 out of 800. So, clearly, Northeastern
students are not the national average when it comes to their ability to read and comprehend.
Northeastern students are also not the national average when it comes to family income,
which can play a big factor in students education and their love and desire to read. According to
the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2013), the average employed American makes $46,440 per
year (May 2013Wage Estimates 1). The Northeastern Financial Services website lists the
estimated resident Freshman annual cost at $57,134, not including indirect costs like textbooks
and airfare (Financial Planning 1). The kind of people sending their children to Northeastern
make enough money to pay for the cost of an elite private university as well as pay for the basic
cost of living, which adds up to much more than the average Americans annual salary. My own
family income is more than 3 times the national average, and I definitely wouldnt consider
myself to be among the most wealthy (or even more wealthy) students at Northeastern.
By pointing out that Northeastern students enjoy reading, but theyre also privileged, I
am in no way saying that underprivileged people dont enjoy reading. What Im trying to point
out is that those who are privileged have so much access to reading we have our smartphones,
laptops, Amazon, e-readers, a beautiful, well-stocked campus library, and the time to spend on
what were interested in reading. In other places, like Roxbury, MA, which is only across the
street from many Northeastern residence halls, including International Village, people dont have

this sort of access. I have volunteered in Roxbury, and I am fully aware of how much a lack of
good education and access to things like the internet can really dampen a persons potential as
well as their desire to read. I feel like in order to be a good reader and to be interested in reading,
one has to be taught to love reading from an early age. Quality educations like those received in
wealthy areas and private schools teach students a love of reading, so a much higher percentage
of students come out of school with the ability and desire to read.
Less privileged areas may not receive the same gentle push towards loving reading, yet I
still see children that have a love for reading. When I volunteered at Yawkey Boys and Girls
Club, there was often one child there that had a book practically attached to her. I noticed in her
exactly what Ursula Le Guin was talking about when she said, Some kids come out of even the
worst schools clutching a book to their heart (Le Guin 37). Even without the privileges that
come with having a wealthy family that lives in a nice neighborhood, some people are just born
readers, and will always love to read.
Ursula Le Guins paper, Staying Awake, argues against the claims that reading is on the
decline and will soon die out. She points out that books were never accessible to everyone, so
our modern expectation that everyone should read is almost unattainable. At Northeastern, it
seems to me that everyone can really read and enjoys reading, but I realize the Northeastern isnt
at all a representative microcosm of the United States. Instead, an elite university like
Northeastern contains the people who received excellent educations their entire lives, people
who loved reading and wanted to continue learning, people whose families earn a significant
amount more than the average American.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my first draft peer reviewers, Will Cisneros and DJ Richardson,
who gave me some constructive comments that helped me make a better paper.
I would also like to thank Jameson OReilly and Simone Grant for their help on editing
my introduction paragraph.
In addition, I have to thank Professor Musselman for her comments on my second draft,
as well as for her additional instructions o how to make the paper more of what she was asking
for.
Finally, a thank you goes out to Aiden Wolfe for proofreading my final draft before I
handed it in.

Works Cited
Financial Planning Tools and Calculators. Northeastern University Student Financial
Services. Northeastern University, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
Le Guin, Ursula K. "Staying Awake." Harpers Magazine. Feb. 2008. Web. 23 Jan. 2015.
"May 2013 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates." U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, last modified 1 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
"Northeastern University." The Princeton Review. TPR Education IP Holdings, LLC, n.d. Web.
19 Feb. 2015.
"SAT Average Scores." College Board, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
Webster, Noah. "Read." New Collegiate Dictionary. A Merriam-Webster. Springfield, MA: G. &
C. Merriam, 1953. Print.