Francine Prose wrote "I Know Why the Caged Bird Can't Read" to describe that American high school students are taught to hate literature partly because they are asked to read mediocre things, easy novels. She supports this claim using examples from her sons' experiences with their school system and reading lists she has collected from around the country. These two pieces of evidence help him develop an argument that is very difficult to refute. In the final paragraphs, she proposes an alternative solution to this problem and explains it. His solution is to tell students that books are a work of art. The goal of Prose is to inspire high school students to want to appreciate real literature. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essayProse uses evidence from his sons' experiences in high school to establish credibility and show the wide range of people affected by the school system American. . She is raising her "two own sons" and discusses their reading repertoire in public and private schools. She says: “I have never heard a teacher suggest that he read Kaftka…No instructor has ever asked my sons to read Alice Munro. » which shows the lack of diversity in instructors' book choices. She mentions that they were forced to drool through To Kill a Mockingbird and "John Steinbeck's weaker novels", evoking the idea of ​​mediocre and easy novels. She emphasizes at the beginning that "first encounters with literature leave such indelible impressions", which leads to the fact that her sons "repeatedly fought in...manipulative melodramas". She shows that her sons were never taught to appreciate books as an art form, but rather as something they were forced to read and analyze. Prose analyzes playlists from several high schools across the country to highlight that it's not just about her kids and those around her are struggling with this issue. She concluded that "what emerges from these photocopied pages... is a numbing sameness, unaffected by geography, region, or community size." Children are forced to read these boring novels and are never allowed to truly express their opinions about them. Questions are asked such as: How does this novel describe racism? In what ways can you relate to this novel?. These questions force students to conform to a single line of thinking. Students forced to think about packaged questions like these learn to hate literature. They don't look forward to reading a book because they are already told what they need to understand in the novel. Prose supports his claim using evidence like this and then offers an alternative solution. Prose's solution is to force students to believe that books are a work of art. She says we must "[produce] and [become] a nation of eager readers of serious literature," meaning that we must teach today's students to appreciate literature and acquire a desire to read. She highlights the importance of this by saying "it should be noted that books are among the few forms of entertainment that are not supported by advertising interest and are not intended to promote it", meaning that no one is trying to sell you anything, and the text is not affected by anything. It's pure and simple, no media involved. Young adults who don't like..