Adapted from Dana Gioia Why Literature Matters 2005 by The New York Times Company Originally published April 10 2005 A strange thing has happened in the American arts during the past quarter century While income rose to unforeseen levels college attendanc

“Why Literature Matters”, is an article written by Dana Gioia. She persuades everyone that the decline of reading in America would have a negative effect on today, and future’s society. Gioia uses 3 main ideas to support her claim. She uses quotes and appeals to emotion.
Gioia uses quotes to help her audience to see how the decline of reading in America would not be beneficial to our society. She supports her reasoning on quotes when she states, “The decline of reading is also taking its toll in the civic sphere....A 2003 study of 15- to 26-year-old’ civic knowledge by the National Conference of State Legislatures concluded, ‘Young people do not understand the ideals of citizenship… and their appreciation and support of American democracy is limited.””(Gioia 7) This piece of evidence shows how Gioia uses quotes, from other pieces of text, to support her claim. This quote tells us how today’s society is blocking younger people to know the ideals of citizenship. This helps us as an audience to know what Gioria is coming at.

Secondly, Gioia appeals to emotions to help her show us what she thinks. She states in her article, "That individuals at a time of crucial intellectual and emotional development bypass the joys and challenges of literature is a troubling trend.” (Gioria 3) This evidence, shows us that Gioria is coming at us, with using emotions, from literature is of greater joy and other emotions than of anything else. She shows us that literature can give us a bigger range of emotions than anything of modern society.

Gioia writes her article, to convince people of how reading would be beneficial in many parts of society. She uses appeal to emotions and quotes from other texts to help her explain. Overall, Gioia teaches everyone to read, and the result would always be good, and she tells everyone to help her in the movement of bringing reading back into popularity.