Summary

In Literacy: A Lineage, the author, Melanie Luken, describes how she progresses as a child
under her father's inspiration and tutelage, not realizing and fully understanding the extent of
French and English language and literature, to become a French and English major at The Ohio
State University (132) at the time she writes this article.
Her passion for literature is instilled in her at a young age by her father's love for English
literature with frequent quotes from literary giants like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, T. S.
Eliot, Herman Melville, Louisa May Alcott, and others. To truly understand literature and
appreciate nature for her, it is the frequent bike trips to nearby Carillon Park while reciting
poems and the public libraries that imbue the author to pursue her enthusiasm for reading and
creative writing. It is through this family tradition from her father that she likes to write
creatively especially poetry during her high school years for our high school literary magazine
(134).
It is her father who is the constant in my literacy narrative (135) that encourages her to
become a French literature major in college. However, even though she studies French long and
hard (135), there is no tradition in the French culture in her family for her to truly appreciate
French literature; thus, the author's definition of of literacy is: the ability to read, write and
understand within a tradition (135). It is that tradition that she inherits from her father. In her
own view, the love for reading and writing literature is much more valuable inheritance than any
material thing that her father can give to her.

Analysis
In conclusion, the author's purpose in this essay is to show how she develops her keen interest in
literature and she convincingly describes a historical narrative on how she develops that
fascination for reading and writing. The author's audience is exactly high school and college ages
students who are taking or struggling with English reading or writing classes. Interest in English
literature must be developed at an early through young adulthood to continue long into life with a
good mentor or tutor. The language and literary examples the author uses are typical high school
and college English literature class materials. Her writing style is a narrative from early age to
young adult; her language is natural and descriptive without a lot of formality and academic
jargon. The key message is certainly that to be able to read and write well in English, one has to
keep an avid habit for reading and writing in order to be adept and good at it.