Gloria Naylor The Meanings Of A Word Summary

I believe that Gloria Naylor’s article, “The Meanings of a Word” opens up the topic of personal experiences and how families will create their own meanings of words. The article stresses that as an adult, responsibility is to show children how to be kind and respectful through words and actions. If this responsibility is not fulfilled however, a child can become ill-mannered and begin to hurt others. For example, whatever way an adult says a word is how the child will interpret and use it and in today’s politically correct world that may cause some serious issues. I know a family with two children and unfortunately one of which is mentally handicapped therefore, this family is very against the use of the word retarded outside of its medical