The Essay and Education Expansion
MARCH 2016
The American Essay mirrors an image of the society at the time which it is produced. Essayist Henry Seidel Canby creates this idea into a metaphor in which the essay is a barometer, reflecting the changing circumstances of its surroundings as they vary in time (Canby 1). The essay reflects growth and development in many social realms within America (e.g., politics, current events, popular trends, etc). However, one realm that the essay has truly grown alongside is education from the mid 1950s to contemporary times. Richard Ohmann, in Origins of Mass Culture, suggests this education is gained due to an increase of mass media evolution. In contrast, Tom Reynolds, a cultural theorist implies it is due to accessibility to college. Nonetheless, both imply overtime education and literacy have exponentially grown. Yet, this growth of the essay and education has made the circle of elite essay writers disappear, along with the forms of production of the past. This evolution of education and literacy has left a window for the individualized writer and new digital writing platforms to arise. These new concepts are shown through the barometer of the essay swinging from past to present depicting the essay seen today.
One of the first glimpses into the contemporary published American essay took form in Life magazine. In Life, the combination of ads, images, and visual appeal created by an elite editorial staff cultivated a national image which embodied, “...nationalism, capitalism, and classlessness, a sense of confidence, optimism, and exceptionalism, and the belief the the American way was the way of the world” (Doss 11). This rose colored “single point of view” depicted by Life was created by a specialist of mass media with an eye for empiricism, as the country faced war and was unfocused on education (Doss 16). This lack of a literacy and education focused society allowed room for these specialist to control a model for what the essay in publication should reflect, not only in format but also in content. This control is why the essay as a barometer at this time reflected a single vantage point in formal settings such as Life.
The single vantage point expands as education is broadened through its accessibility to the middle class. Tom Reynolds, a cultural theorist, expounds upon this broadening of education in, “Selling College Literacy,” exposing how the magazines helps expand literacy “possibly making it more meaningful” and promoting colleges as institutions which are desirable for young people (Reynolds 167,170). These new facets of educational availability gave the opportunity to those who were seen as a “common man,” a chance to reach an elite, or specialist level of literacy. The introduction of college specifically increased the literacy level, “…making the middle class feel that they belonged in a social arena that had formerly been occupied mostly by the well to do…” (Reynolds 173). Today this progression into this “social arena” is continuing, people are transcending via the tool of education into essay writing- replacing the once elite.
Simultaneously, the platforms in which people produce mass media essays mirrors the time which they are written. As literacy and education increase, no longer is the essay limited to the bindings of magazines and formal production, but now portrayed in open forums in the digital world. Continual growth of education has allowed individuals to form segregated opinions from what was once the “rose colored” single point of view seen in Life (Doss). Thessaly La Force, a contributing journalist to The New Yorker, refers to this generational digital forum as a result of “contemporary literacy” (La Force 1). This contemporary literacy is the barometer’s forecast of the essay in contemporary times. As a result, the essay has developed from a once isolated, privileged work into a no longer controllable composition. It has become attainable to numerous social spheres to voice their different attitudes, and introduce differing social niches. An example of these individualized opinionated writings are seen through new public media outlets such as Buzzfeed, The Onion, and self proclaimed blogs. Possibly alarming to some, these outlets may invite the notion that anyone can be an essayist in the modern day. Nonetheless, the result is the mutual expansions of education and the new accessibility to the American essay mirrored throughout generational changes.
In modern day, the essay acts as a barometer forecasting a society in which embraces the common individual writer (Canby 1). However, it can be seen that the essay was once not in this state. When looking at the progression from the time of Life to today a definite inference can be made that education is a catalyst to the essay. Therefore, as Canby discusses a barometer is constantly changing, and the essay may regress or progress transforming overtime. For this reason, as society furthers into “contemporary literacy,” modern education, and digital platforms- the essay will alter in conjunction with them. This implies that the American essay is unpredictable and perpetually changing, yet inseparable from transformations of education.
Works Cited
Canby, Henry Seidel. Saturday Review of Literature. “The Essay as a Barometer.” The Saturday Review, 1935. Print.
Doss, Erika. Looking at Life Magazine. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2001. Print.
La Force, Thessaly. "A New Literacy? - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 01 Sept. 2009. Web.
Ohmann, Richard M. Selling Culture: Magazines, Markets, and Class at the Turn of the Century. New York;London;: Verso, 1996. Web.
Reynolds, Tom. "Selling College Literacy: The Mass-Market Magazine as Early 20th Century
Literacy Sponsor." American Periodicals 15.2 (2005): 163-77. Web.