An illiterate person can be successful and live a productive life, a high school dropout can earn a respectable salary, a college-educated person can be underemployed and many people with unemployed doctoral students. Literary arts do not guarantee success and money. What the literary arts offer a person are tools that facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom, both during and after formal education. Acquiring this knowledge and wisdom offers other tools that facilitate success, whatever that may be. Whether and how these tools (acquired through the literary arts) are used depends entirely on the individual. Communication is the way we exchange information between people. Three main things that the literary arts teach us are how to read, write and speak, how to communicate. In the essay “The Banking Concept” of education,” Paulo Freire states, “only through communication can human life have meaning” (322). Literary arts are not necessary for communication; however, they can make communication easier and more effective. We learn to speak at an early age well before we learn to read and write, but children's communication skills are less refined. Children will make sentences using the important words and skip others. They are able to get their point across with phrases like "I'm hungry." They use body language, but with their limited communication skills they are not always able to express their feelings and emotions. Young children will get frustrated easily because they are unable to express their feelings, even before they know what feelings and frustrations are. The literary arts provide us with tools that help us better understand what we are reading. They can teach us to bet... middle of paper... achieve greater knowledge and wisdom. How and whether tools are used ultimately depends on the individual. Works Cited Freire, Paulo. "The 'banking' concept of education." Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. 318-28. Print.Miller, Richard E. “The Dark Night of the Soul.” Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. 420-42. Print.Pratt, Mary Louise. “Contact Zone Arts.” Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. 485-97. Print.Rodriguez, Richard. “The fulfillment of a wish”. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. 515-32. Press.