Laura Donaghey

November 7, 2018

Literacy Narrative Analysis

English 110- Section I

Literacy Narratives are stories about one's experiences with literacy. There are several

types of literacy narratives; success. hero, child prodigy, literacy winner, victim, outsider, and

rebel. Reading and writing is a skill that is essential to being successful, such as making it

by Kara Poe Alexander, “Sponsors of Literacy”

by Deborah Brandt

and the lastly

by Bronwyn T.

Williams. When studying and breaking down the concept behind each type of literacy narratives,

I found that hero narratives jumped out to me.

From reading and studying Kara Alexanders' scholarly article about literacy narratives, I

discovered that examined the "master" and "little" cultural narratives that students perform in

literacy narratives. Master cultural narratives have the unfortunate result of overgeneralization;

examples of these are in textbooks. Little cultural narratives allow glimpses of our lives of have

sometimes been overlooked. These are narratives where one feels as though they can rant about

whatever they want. Alexander studied which narratives were most popular among students and

she found that success, victim, and hero narratives were most popular. From this she concluded,

“these findings make obvious that students see their literacy path as a journey to success.”(616).

Most literacy narratives end with a lesson learned, whether it was positive or negative. In hero

narratives, “students portrayed themselves as the supreme or superwoman who overcame

challenges and struggles to become more literate.”(Alexander 618). It is human nature to learn

and grow from experiences that occur in our lives and hero narratives really show the growth and

learning: older relatives teachers, priests, supervisors, military officers, editors, influential

authors.” (Brandt 32). Sponsorship from others leads to the growth and learning experiences

related to literacy narratives written with a focus on the cultural narrative hero.

How students identify themselves in their literacy narratives is huge signal to determine

exactly where and how the reason behind their narrative has come to be. In Bronwyn T.

he

discusses literacy narratives, issues and identities, shifting identities, and useful exercises related

to literacy narratives. Under the topic Issues and Identity, Williams discusses how researches

Carpenter and Falbo noted how their first year writing students often portrayed themselves as the

heroes of their stories.

While examining how hero narratives are portrayed by students, it is proven that students

liked to show the learning process and progression through their experiences. I looked deeper

into what exactly these literacy narratives consisted of and I discovered the thought process

behind writing about traumatic brain injuries, considering her brother suffered from one. Because

example of how Williams’ relates how Carpenter and Falbos’ study showed and example of how

“They often write of the demanding language arts assignment that had to be unlocked, and of the

physical and emotional terrains of the educational system that had to be navigated.(343). Hero

narratives often confront and address difficult challenges in a students life, mostly focusing on

victim narratives. Victim narratives are stories where one feels like they were victimized in some

sort of way and learned from it. Sponsorship is a leading cause of victim narratives which

sometimes relate back to hero narratives. Learning something from a victimized situation can

cause someone to become a hero. It is sometimes hard for students to write about these times in

their lives, but they always learn some kind of lesson.

Another example of a hero narrative that showed these attributes was about a student who

encountered addiction in a way. This was called “Senior Year Project” by Noel Dakin. He wrote

about a time in his life where someone or something shaped him into the person he is today.

Addiction, in this case was the sponsor, was a topic he was not comfortable talking about with

others but when his friends sat him down and convinced him to write about it, he thought deeply

about this time on his way home from school and it was a lot easier to write about this tough

time. Through this process, he learned that it was okay to talk about this difficult time in his life

called “My Mom Prepared Me for the World” by Alexis Ouellette, the sponsorship of this young

girls mom shaped her into the person she is today. Together they would read books, one of

. In the story, a young girl passes away while trying

to sell matches to people on the streets but finds her way to Heaven. For Alexis, this was

something unimaginable for her to ever go through, but she felt so drawn to it because it was so

different from her life. As she got older, she experienced loss in her family multiple times and

she related her life to the story in way that helped her cope with these losses by thinking about

Heaven and how it is a warm, safe place. She learned to love reading because of the sponsorship

her mother gave her. “The concept of sponsors helps to explain… a range of human relationships

and ideological pressures that turn up at the scenes of literacy learning — from benign sharing

between adults and youths…” (Brandt 556). Brandt talks about the importance of sponsorship in

a youths’ life and it is proven just how important it is through Alexis’ literacy narrative. Hero

narratives are so much more than a writing style.

Hero literacy narratives emphasize the individual rather than literacy acquisition. Often,

literacy success is thought of just as understanding the material and how well literacy

performance is when really there is a deeper meaning being literacy acquisition. Superiors have a

learning: older relatives, teachers, priests, supervisors..."(Brandt 32). By understanding how

someone can influence another life, it can open the door to the motives behind positive and

negative experiences.

Works Cited

Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” College Composition and Communication

2, 1998, p. 165.

Poe Alexander, Kara. “Successes, Victims, and Prodigies: ‘Master’ and ‘Little’ Cultural

Narratives in the Literacy Narrative Genre.” Journal of Research in Education