Gender and race may make literacy acquisition much harder for those who are in the minority. Victim and outsider narratives could take this into account. Alexander writes “Outsider narratives portray a literate self who does not fit in and looks in on the literate activities in which others seem to participate as part of the norm…[the victim, rebel, and outsider] narratives demonstrate that anguish, loss, and hopelessness are also parts of the journey toward literacy” (627). This is true with the story of Dora and Raymond. Dora was “looking in” on the ease of life that Raymond had. Brandt writes, “For Raymond Branch, a university town in the 1970s and 1980s provided an information-rich, resource-rich learning environment in which to pursue his literacy development, but for Dora Lopez, a female member of a culturally unsubsidized ethnic minority, the same town at the same time was information and resource-poor” (561). Raymond and Dora lived the same town as each other yet had two totally different experiences with literacy acquisition. Though Dora has a harder time than Raymond, she was able to benefit from her experiences. Dora could be seen as a “victim” or “outsider” when compared to Raymond and people of his sort. She did not have the best experiences with literacy, she did not fit in. Though these people go through more struggle than normal, they can actually end up coming out on top. Dora was able to overcome her struggles and was able to get a job that actually required high literacy skills in two languages, not even just one.

Can you really be your own sponsor? Gee says that in order to enter a Discourse, one must “apprentice” someone who is already in that Discourse. This means, that in order to become an apprentice, one needs a master. “By enculturation (“apprenticeship”) into social practices through scaffolded and supported interaction with people who have already mastered the Discourse” (7). Gee believes that in order to be welcomed into a Discourse of some sort, you must almost be trained like you would at a new job. You must learn how to be just like the people in the Discourse. Gee’s ideas on apprenticing with a master could directly correlate to Brandt’s ideas of sponsors. Brandt says that sponsors “enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy… sponsors nevertheless set the terms for access to literacy and wield powerful incentives for compliance and loyalty” (556). From what Brandt explains what a sponsor is, sponsors sound much like the masters of a Discourse. The masters (and sponsors) are the ones who decide if you are welcomed into the Discourse (with sponsors, the Discourse of literacy). They are almost like gatekeepers, they are the ones who decide who and what can acquire what they have. Though these two types of people are the ones who hold the key, is there a way to sneak in?

Do you really need anyone else to help you acquire literacy? Brandt says that sponsors of literacy are “the causes into which people’s literacy usually gets recruited” (556). Brandt believes that the true way to true literacy acquisition involves having a sponsor. But what if you did not have to have a sponsor or a master? Well, in Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction, James Paul Gee talks about something called “mushfake”. Mushfake is used in prison culture, being used to describe someone making do with what they have. Gee describes “mushfake Discourse” as the “partial acquisition coupled with meta-knowledge and strategies to ‘make do’” (13). Many students within the Rising Cairn page write about how they were supposedly able to acquire literacy on their own, not needing the help of others (or sponsor). Though Brandt argues that one requires the use of a sponsor on their literacy journey, it could also be argued that a lot of these students from the Rising Cairn narratives just “mushfaked” their way through their literacy experience; they were able to make it on their own. So is it really true that you cannot make it on your own? That you really need to have a sponsor or master?