Lu and Rose's essays..

After reading both essays I believe they are similar in many ways. Both essays talk about how they view literacy and how important it is. They both say that you make up what literacy is yourself. Literacy is what you make of it. Just like Williams said that you make your culture how you want it.
Although the essays are similar in many ways, they are different. Rose was working with many different age groups. These people in Rose’s essay were called “America’s educational underclass.” Rose talks about how your literacy is affected by your economic status. Rose tells us the people whom he was working with lost their jobs because of their illiteracy. But as we learn from the essay, these people are not illiterate. They can figure out problems is they are just given some instruction.
In Lu’s the age group was different. It was based on her school experience with her peers. Lu’s essay concentrated on how Lu struggled to understand all the differences in the many languages she was learning. Lu did not have it easy in life. She was faced with many challenges everyday in school and at home. Although Lu’s life was difficult at times, and she was classified in the lower class because of her English she still followed her beliefs and how she was raised.