Shuttling Between Communities And Literacies By Economy Class By Suresh Canagarajah

1138 Words5 Pages

In the autobiography, “The Fortunate Traveler: Shuttling between Communities and Literacies by Economy Class”, written by Suresh Canagarajah, he describes his academic trajectory from a child learning English to an accomplished bilingual writer. Written in chronological order, Canagarajah begins by noting the importance of English in his family. Canagarajah’s parents would use English as a form of code switching to keep secrecy between themselves; because of this he begins to learn English and was able to decipher the codes and effectively prove that being bilingual gives a person a greater advantage over being monolingual. As he begins his school life, Canagarajah begins to realize that different countries have different writing styles and that his style might not be properly understood by people of different discourse, based of the education of the reader. …show more content…

Suresh Canagarajah’s essay proves that English is a difficult language to learn, especially to those whose first language is not English (23-37). This essay centers around Canagarajah’s experiences and struggles to improve his writing as he progresses through life. From the moment he was born to when he became a successful bilingual writer, Canagarajah struggled to show the world that growing up bilingual is a life changing experience that can leave a great impact on people’s lives, Canagarajah uses evidence of personal experiences with the English language throughout the autobiography, allowing him to effectively appealed to his audience and helped him persuasively support his