The Importance of Reading as Represented by 3 American Writers

Perhaps most adamant regarding the importance of reading for one’s overall self-improvement is Henry David Thoreau, who, in Walden, presents us with his idea of reading as a means toward true self-reliance. Similar to the perspective of Emerson, Thoreau believed that to become a better reader, one must become a better person, and vice versa. As we read, we are forced to expand our imaginations in order to understand the concepts presented to us; the resulting openness of mind that occurs while reading and understanding complex concepts translates into a greater openness toward life in general, as well as a step toward greater self-reliance as we learn to exercise our minds. Thoureau presents us with the model of an athlete exercising in order to build his body into a strong, efficient, capable machine; an athlete does not simply possess extraordinary strength and abilities, he must train his body until it reaches his desired strength. This takes hard work and constant practice. Just as the athlete works toward perfecting himself physically, so does the intellectual toward mental perfection. Thoreau is very careful here to mark the difference between reading for simple pleasure and reading as an exercise in self-improvement and expansion; reading for simple entertainment or self-affirmation is regarded as very base, as he says, a “corruption of language”. 
  
The type of readings to be undertaken must be sufficiently challenging as to make us question the way we view the world, if we expect to improve our minds; if someone lifts only a ten pound weight, he will not improve his physical fitness even if he does so for years and years. He must move to progressively more challenging exercises in order to avoid stagnation, and will certainly attain a much higher level of ability as he progresses. Thoreau takes us a step further by stating that reading can fundamentally change our core values, challenging or even destroying who we think we are, for, as we learn to interpret and evaluate complex ideas in books, we learn to do the same in our overall lives. Thoreau’s idea of reading as a personal revolution is a very powerful statement on not only the importance of reading, but of its absolute necessity. 
  
Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” presents us with a situation in which reading is consciously rejected, as Bartleby simply “prefers not to”. Bartleby is a scrivener, or copyist, whose job it is to spend long hours meticulously copying law documents in the time before such modern conveniences as computers and copy machines. He writes nothing truly his own, but simply rewrites the words of others, and is quite dedicated to his work, spending long hours at his desk carefully copying. Bartleby will not read, though, quite to the consternation of his employer and office-mates, even though, as the lawyer repeatedly reminds him, it is common practice for a scrivener to verify the accuracy of his copies. Bartleby will not read, and it is of no small coincidence that not only is Bartleby an absolutely static character throughout the story, he simply has no personality whatsoever. Bartleby has no beliefs of any kind, as far as Melville tells us. No beliefs, no feelings, no personality or temperament at all. He simply “prefers not to” do anything but copy the work of others, and becomes completely lost when the lawyer abandons him to a deserted office. 
  
Bartleby has no history, and he has no ambitions; he is always just there. When he cannot copy any more, the lawyer having moved his offices, Bartleby does not know what to do with himself, and simply stands around and does nothing at all. When Bartleby cannot blindly copy, he cannot function at all, because, as I stated earlier, he has no personality of his own. The deposed scrivener ultimately dies in prison, utterly anonymous. The main point here largely mirrors that of Emerson and Thoreau, that reading inspires us and challenges us to expand our minds, and consequently ourselves. Bartleby rejects reading, and so remains utterly static throughout the time we know him; since he would not read, Bartleby was doomed to always be just there. 
  
As Thoreau and Melville extol the virtues of reading as a means of personal improvement and intellectual enlightenment, Frederick Douglass presents us with a first person, literal example of how reading can free one from chains both mental and physical. Douglass was born into slavery, the child of a black slave and her master. He did not know his name, his mother, or even his own birthday, and, as was the case with most slaves, any formal education was strictly forbidden him. This is a very important point here, since Douglass’ contemporaries like Thoreau and Emerson had extensive formal educations and enjoyed relatively comfortable lifestyles; Douglass, however, was actively forbidden to learn, and lived the life of a slave for his first 20 or so years, yet he managed to become a writer and orator of remarkable skill, at the same level as the formally educated, white intellectuals writing during the same time. Sent to Baltimore as a house servant at age eight, Douglass received his first reading lessons from Sophia, the daughter of his master and assumed father. Upon his discovery of these lessons, Sophia’s husband forbade them; Douglass learned at a young age that anything forbidden by his master was something very important to seek, and so he sought to teach himself to read and write, becoming quite adept at subverting his masters’ efforts to prevent his doing so.
  
Douglass’ education eventually made his enslavement intolerable, exactly the reason it was forbidden by his masters, and, at about the age of 20, he made his escape to New Bedford with his new wife. He faced difficult times and much prejudice, but in 1841, inspired partly by William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator, he gave his first speech to a mixed-race audience, beginning his career as an orator, author, and living example of the injustices of slavery. It was reading that inspired Douglass; it made him yearn for, and eventually attain, his freedom, and it inspired him to become an author in his own right, speaking out against slavery and showing that, by exercising his mind, he was able to radically change his life.