(Nate)Salvatore Scibona Intellectual Home

In the essay “where I learn to read” written by Salvatore Scibona published in The New York, June 13 and 20, 2011, he first draws the reader in by describing what his life was like in school. He explains how frustrating it was for him when he states: “I failed English literature, American literature, Spanish, precalculus, chemistry, physics. Once, in a fit of melancholic vanity, I burned my report card in the sink of the KFC where I worked scraping carbonized grease from the pressure cookers.” That not only explains his frustration but also uses imagery to show how unhappy he was with his performance in school. In the essay, it seems as though he felt stuck with no way out as if his future was already determined.

Salvatore, later on, talks about his way of escape, or as he called it “Back-yard rehab” which is where he would sit in his back yard and read as a way to escape the real world, despite everything reading made him happy. He stated “As long as nobody had assigned the book, I could stick with it. I didn’t know what I was reading. I didn’t really know how to read. Reading messed with my brain in an unaccountable way. It made me happy; or something.” This is then later on shown when he receives a brochure from a girl that’s brochure was from St.John college and claimed in the school there were no textbooks, no grades or tests. It was a school where you just read and learn through books Which fit him perfectly he was excited. But knew that he couldn’t afford it. But he wouldn’t let that stop him. 

After getting into college he was discovering new things, meeting new people, and being able to do something he loved, read books. After entering that college he found his intellectual home, a place that changed him for the better good. A place that seems so far but wasn’t impossible to get to.