Lucie Barber
asked:
Question to Hannah secret which caused me the biggest disappointment in the book- not how it is written, it is written and brought into the story beautifully and the layers as it comes to light are just magnificently plant and opening one by one, BUT the secret itself, the illiteracy is for me very unrealistic and I would love to know how it is that someone born on 21.10.1922 was illiterate?could it be it realistic ?
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Joanne Rosenzweig
I think the author (a judge) used illiteracy so as to muddy the waters philosophically/morally? speaking about whether an illiterate person should have been blamed for the deaths of people because she had locked them in a church which was later bombed and caught fire and they all died.
Susan_sunflower
Even in the late 1980's, where I worked in Los Angeles, it was discovered that several (around 6) employees were illiterate and more surprisingly (or not) they were long term employees of 20+ years, including two line-supervisors (who relied on long-term aides to do their reading and writing for them).
They were "outed" when OHSA demanded written competency tests for dealing with hazardous chemicals (most of which were cleaning solutions) and these employees were unable to read well enough to take the test.
It's not really surprising given the dual issues of poverty in rural communities (where children were allowed to be pulled from school to help at home) and the shame "poor learners" -- competent in other realms --
experience in the classrom. My dyslexic brother can read, but began a long history of truancy in elementary school due to that sort of shaming. In a girl child, whose expectations are little beyond wife/mother, it's of little consequence, although the war apparently pushed many women out of their low expectations and their nests, like Hanna, into drudgery when there was no "home" to return to.
It would have been nice to know more of Hanna's story. She was -- as it appeared and was confirmed by her "will" -- all alone in the word, doing the best she could, with little opportunity to improve her lot.
The cognitive limitations -- in terms understanding the larger world -- of illiteracy are many ... imagine not being able to consult a family recipe or read instructions or directions.
(I think Hanna's depth of illiteracy is a bit extreme in the absence of a profound learning disability -- she must have been able to do sums and to recognize the route numbers of the rail lines she worked on... not to mention the vagaries of various travel passes... It appeared she had no interest in politics "more romances!!" ... but, nuf.)
They were "outed" when OHSA demanded written competency tests for dealing with hazardous chemicals (most of which were cleaning solutions) and these employees were unable to read well enough to take the test.
It's not really surprising given the dual issues of poverty in rural communities (where children were allowed to be pulled from school to help at home) and the shame "poor learners" -- competent in other realms --
experience in the classrom. My dyslexic brother can read, but began a long history of truancy in elementary school due to that sort of shaming. In a girl child, whose expectations are little beyond wife/mother, it's of little consequence, although the war apparently pushed many women out of their low expectations and their nests, like Hanna, into drudgery when there was no "home" to return to.
It would have been nice to know more of Hanna's story. She was -- as it appeared and was confirmed by her "will" -- all alone in the word, doing the best she could, with little opportunity to improve her lot.
The cognitive limitations -- in terms understanding the larger world -- of illiteracy are many ... imagine not being able to consult a family recipe or read instructions or directions.
(I think Hanna's depth of illiteracy is a bit extreme in the absence of a profound learning disability -- she must have been able to do sums and to recognize the route numbers of the rail lines she worked on... not to mention the vagaries of various travel passes... It appeared she had no interest in politics "more romances!!" ... but, nuf.)
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