Common Humanity

In class on Monday we read "On Compassion" by Barbara Ascher and that evening we were assigned to read "The Human Cosy of an Illiterate Society” by Jonathan Kozol. Though Ascher's essay was about two homeless men and Kozol's work was about the illiterate population, they actually were quite similar. Both of these authors were able to portray their message, drawing on the reader's sympathy through the use of relatable stories.

Both of these two works are reminding us that no matter how different people are through race, language, cultural, and class, we are still nonetheless equal due to our common humanity. Ascher reveals this common humanity through compassion. However, she does not believe that a person is born with it. Instead she says that people begin to acknowledge the existence of helplessness and become familiar with it enough to "begin to identify and empathize with it". To get her point across, she used the story of the two homeless men who are granted with food and some food from the bakery. By using this story, she is able to make her reader understand, because pretty much anybody has either helped out a homeless person by giving them money or seen someone else do so on the street.



In Kozol's work about illiteracy, just like Ascher, he helps his reader understand his message by making his examples relatable. It is easy to take simple things like being able to read a menu, fore granted. Personally, this essay couldn't be more relatable. Each summer I go to Taiwan and I live the life as an illiterate. There are just so many Chinese characters that I still  don't know and I constantly have to primarily rely on my speaking abilities.





However, Kozol is still able to allow people who haven't been in that position be able to understand and sympathize for the illiterate population. It is due his incorporation of examples in which people struggle with what seems to simple, that allow people to comprehend and identify the hardship. And just like what Ascher preached, once the hardship is understood, people are able to show compassion or sympathy. Kozol's work may have a more fearful tone than Ascher's, but the feeling of fear is a commonality that humanity shares. Both these essays take a play on emotions of sadness  and fear, putting the reader into a position to question what it would be like if they were put into the more unfortunate position. I'm sure Ascher would agree that once a person understands the hardship, it is no wonder why someone would reach out to help someone, whether it be through some spare change or translating a sign for an illiterate.