I, Pencil by Leonard E. Read

Summary

In the article know as I, Pencil by Leonard Read is based of the point of view of a actual pencil. In the beginning of the article the pencil tells of how much work is put into the fabrications of every detail in which the pencil is made from. The pencil explain in many details the exact components of each part of its final structure and its ancestral background of his final structure. He explains how much labor of people and skills were involved in the process of making the pencil such as the lead, the wood, the label, the eraser. The pencil keeps provoking the fact that even know he is made from such a complex process, know one really knows how the pencil was made. For example, workers who make the lead of the pencil don't even know the process of the other components of the pencil such as the wood or eraser. Near the end of the atricle the pencil speaks of freedom, the "mastermind", and the "invisible hand". When speaking of freedom, the pencil mentions that the people needed the freedom of feeling free to try new things and creating new things. The freedom of creativity, without creativity the pencil or any other product would not be possible. As the "mastermind", there is none. The pencil explains how even though there is such a complex process of making the pencil and how much the pencil is used by everyday people there is no real mastermind (or person) that thought of the real core of his creation. The pencil's creation was through the process of man kinds creativity and the need for necessities. The last point he makes is the "invisible hand" which is nothing physical but the direction in which life flows. The main lesson the pencil wants to teach is to let creativity be free to everyone and be willing to let creativity flow and let the "invisible hand" guide is to the right direction.

Quotes to support Summary

1) "Think of all the persons and the numberless skills that went into fabrication; the mining of ore, the making of steel and its refinement into saws, axes, motors; the growing of hemp and bringing it through all the stages to heavy and strong rope; the logging camps with their beds and mess halls, the cookery and the raising of all foods.""Para 6, pg 1
2)"There is a fact still more astounding: The absence of the master mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these countless actions which bring me into being. No trace of such a person can be found. Instead, we find the Invisible Hand at work. This is a mystery to which I earlier refereed." Para 4, pg 2
3) "I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles; a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. but to these miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative hum energies." Para 6, pg 2
4)"The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in harmony with the lesson. Let society's legal apparatus remove obstacles the best it can Permit these creative know- hows freely to flow. Have faith that free men and women will respond to the Invisible Hand." Para 4, pg 4

Analysis
In most of the article the Pencil keeps provoking the fact that know one knows how complicated it is in order to make the the pencil itself. Then he goes through each process and how much work and people it is needed in order to produce the final structure of the pencil and throughout that whole description I think the author was in some sort of way trying to show the ignorance of people. Many people use the pencil every day of their lives yet most of the time people do not value the pencil for what it was made for or the fact that it was made in the first place. It even says in the article that "I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background.", this quote indicating that many people do not really value the every day items that they have. People don't really look at every day items such as a pencil i think "oh, i wonder what was the process in which this pencil's structure was made from?", this is definitely not a common thought. Although, looking at all the process the Pencil explain in making each part of itself such as the eraser, the wood, etc. and how much chemical components and lobor is put into making something as simple as a pencil makes me think of how much money it must have taken to produce this product. Most likely much more then of how much we buy it for in stores. I think that is one of the reason why the author makes the article in the point of view of a pencil, to give it some feeling of being "human". It gives a feeling as if it was an acutally person with feelings to try and make readers feel that the pencil's process was so much work and to actually value its process. And it helps show the author's real main idea that he wanted to provoke which is "Leave all creative energies uninhibited". This kind of tells me how without creativitity and the knowledge people are unable to really invent and make all these products around us. Ive always felt that the more needy people are in the world and the more nessesities everyone is always wanting is a waste, its just being selfish is some sort of way the the author kind of opens up the fact that without the wants for nessities and items there would really be nothing to be invented, the items around us wouldn't exist because they were made from people who wanted more. For example things that make our lives easier such as transportation, computers, stoves, etc. would not exist without someone's creativity to invent something that makes our lives easier.