Were people in Wall•E illiterate?

It seems like all interfaces are video and using pictographs. The very little text we see is things like RED or BnL which perhaps are more recognized as symbols than really read — I think that's referred to as functionally illiterate. And consider the pictographic nature of the credit sequence which resembles things like cave paintings where the history of people is being described with pictures rather than with words.

Answer

No

Children are taught English (of a sort) by Nanny-bots

And the Captain is clearly reading aloud (albeit with some difficulty) from his display screen

and directly from Manuel, this time with more confidence

The script notes that the Captain isn't simply working out the text from contextual clues (e.g. the pictures)

The transmission ends. The Captain examines the manual. Holds it out in front of him.

CAPTAIN: (reads; to himself) Operate... Manuel...

and the film's official novelisation gives us an indication of the state of literacy on the ship

Auto took the manual, opened it, and returned it to the Captain.

“Oh ... will you look at that!” the Captain said. It had been a long time since he had read more than a simple line or two on a video screen. It had been even longer since any human had picked up a book and actually read it. “Oooh, that’s a lot of words!”

_{^{Wall-E: Official Junior Novelisation}}

Comments

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