Illiteracy: an Aviodable Affliction

932 Words4 Pages
Illiteracy: An Avoidable Affliction In the investigative report “The Homeless and Their Children” by Jonathon Kozol taken from “Rachel and Her Children” (1988), Kozol tries to raise illiteracy awareness by investigating the correlation between illiteracy and homelessness. More specifically he focuses on one woman, “Laura”, and her four children, and her struggles with everyday life due to illiteracy. Kozol describes the disheveled conditions of the Martinique Hotel, a New York City welfare hotel, where Laura and four hundred other homeless families live. Kozol starts his writing having just met a broken illiterate woman he refers to as “Laura”. She has lived on the seventh floor of the Martinique for two years. When introduced the first thing Laura asks of Kozol is that he read her a letter from the hospital. The letter, which is weeks old, states her eldest son has tested positive for lead poisoning, and she should bring him to the hospital for treatment immediately. Laura had left the letter in a pile of unreadable papers. Laura’s room at the Martinique is almost unlivable. There is sewage on the floor due to the bathroom plumbing overflowing. A radiator valve is broken, and as Kozol states, “every now and then releases a spray of scalding steam at the eye level of a child.” (p. 252) The crib, which the hotel provides, is unsafe for her infant daughter. The paint on the walls is chipping leaving lead based chips on the ground for the children to eat. This is where her eldest son contracted lead poisoning. These maladies have been brought to the attention of the management, with no results. If that wasn’t enough, to make matters worse Laura was unable to read a document sent by her welfare office. This resulted in her not getting her benefits for that week. Due to it being the
Open Document