Responding to Nowak - Jim

Coal Mountain Elementary is a book written by Nowak on the plight of coal miners living in the United States and China. However, the meaning of the book is shrouded in mystery. What is the purpose of the book? What message does Nowak wish to convey upon his readers? What is the book supposed to be visualized as? These are all questions which are sparked in the minds of the readers as they attempt to interpret Nowak’s book. However, the aspect of Nowak’s book which I will focus on is the importance of literary structure and presentation of elements that the author uses in order to elicit the proper emotional response from the reader.

The format of Coal Mountain Elementary is written in such a way as it is composed of many short stories which encompass one idea, the dangers of coal mining. Each short story is either a newspaper clipping or an eyewitness account. These are written in prose format. Some people like to speculate that Coal Mountain Elementary is a work of poetry, as an artistic masterpiece which brings together many different perspectives to tell one overarching story. However, not every work of art is poetry, and it seems to represent more of a collage rather than a poem. Nowak brings together many stories of miners in peril and supports them with relevant photographs of mining towns. He also includes a set of discussion questions given to an elementary school class to complete. These questions play a critical role in the development of Nowak’s main point. They are dispersed periodically throughout the book, in-between the stories. The reader is switched between two different points of view, between the innocent bliss of the young school children to the harsh reality of the mining communities. The questions seem to gnaw at the reader’s conscience, as they realize that neither they nor the children had any idea what was really going on in the coal mines. Nowak’s method of steadily making the questions less carefree and more serious is seen as they transition from being instructions on how to make coal flowers to research questions on the relationship between coal miners and their employers. The one question that really clicked as Nowak’s main point and the ultimate epiphany of the reader is on page 87, when the question asks, “What do you think are some of the costs associated with mining coal?” The school children will most likely calculate the profits and margins of the coal companies, along with the time put into mining the coal and the costs of transporting it throughout the nation. However, they will miss the most important cost of all: human life. Among the tales of death and destruction of people mining coal in order to keep society functioning is this one question which totally reveals Nowak’s main point, which is that coal miners absolutely must be appreciated. They are in harm’s way every second of their jobs, and they give their lives so that the rest of society can enjoy luxuries such as electricity and locomotives. People should be aware of the risks people take to provide the bare necessities of modern society, and they should fight against the oppression of the coal companies which is present not just in the United States and China, but all over the world. The way that Nowak introduced his main point was crucial in the eliciting of a strong emotional response from the reader. This supports the concept that the structure and method of presenting a thesis is just as important as the thesis itself.