The essay “Mother Tongue” describes a writer who grew up with a mother of Asian origin and the limitations created by her mother’s speech. The author, Amy Tan, defines her mother’s English as “broken” and that it created communication barriers. For example, when Tan’s mother would need to call her boss about work, she would rely on her daughter to make the phone call and use proper english. When Tan decided to go into English in college, it seemed foolish since she was more skilled in math and science. The author also mentions how not everyone’s speech is the same, but that is not a bad thing. Tan decided to start writing fiction, and write a book in a way her mother would comprehend. Though the writing was harshly critiqued, Tan knew she…
In "Nancy's Bedroom" from Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Capote tries to reveal the femininity and innocence of Nancy Clutter. He uses this as an example to reveal the greater truth that conclusions can be drawn about one's character from a small piece of information about one's personal space and activities.…
Finally, Las Casas uses figurative language as a rhetorical appeal. For instance, Las Casas uses figurative language when describing the Spaniards treatment towards the natives. In the preface it says, “the Spaniards fell like ravening wolves upon the fold, or like tigers and savage lions who have not eaten meat for days”(11). Las Casas describes Spaniards as horrifying individuals. In particular, Las Casas describes the Spaniards as animals. The figurative language has the possibility to create an image in your mind. Second of all, Las Casas use figurative language when describing Spaniards treatment towards natives. In one part Las Casas got into depth as to how Spaniards treated natives. His usage of words put into perspective the…
Second, Cisneros also uses metaphors to explain how her great-grandmother becomes an independent woman. After she is forced to marry this man she becomes independent because she had to do something she never wanted to do which was marry. An example of a metaphor from the text that was used to show her independence is,”She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many so many women sit their sadness on an elbow”(Cisneros). This quote explains how unlike any other women Esperanza’s great-grandmother stared out a window her whole life to pass her sadness by while other girls would just hold their head up with their arm.…
In Taylor’s “Dead White Writer on The Floor” Pocahontas’ specific language choice provides a critique against the stereotype of the dependent native woman that she finds herself constructed as.…
Language helps us share other people’s experience. In the play the Shoe Horn Sonata by John Misto, the use of symbolism, stage directions and dialogue enables the audience to feel empathy for the character as does the language used in the film Apocolyto and in the painting “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” by Holly Wong.…
This essay can relate best with reader from a Hispanic background, being that they come from a different country and they are not fluent English speakers. They can also relate to Cisneros’s family experiences. In contrast, Tan’s audience is Asian-Americans, because they can identify to the type of speech or fragmented or “broken language” like Tan mentions in “Mother Tongue.” The simplification of certain concepts that Tan practices in her writing allows her writing to be grasped by a wide range of readers. However, both pieces of writing deal with two female writers that are writing to immigrants from whom English is a second…
Jack Davis shows different techniques of spoken language to maintain the identity of Aboriginal people. The mixture of Nyoongah has effectively used to show the white people how the aboriginal people hold on to their own unique culture, even though their society has been overtaken by whites, and their customs and traditions have been influenced and combined with the new society.…
Language, in itself, is exceptionally powerful. Language has the power to stop wars, to solve conflicts; however, perhaps one of the most important forces of language is the power to create emotion, to create meaning. The words an author elects to use can effectively impact one’s own reality. In the event that language is effectively utilized, it can evoke deep emotion from the reader and induce extensive thought in order to connect the words to the meaning. An author can manipulate language to convey their message by their choice of diction throughout a passage or by further applying various forms of figurative language to create imagery.…
In native american museums gorgeous Indian traditional outfits, instrument, and food are being showcased, but the gorgeous tribes do not exist anymore. Their cultures were taken endlessly by the people who built the museums. In the story “Museum Indians” and the poem “evolution”, Susan Power and Sherman Alexie wrote about the tragedy of Native American culture and the sorrowness inside the remaining Indians by using negative connotation and figurative language . The story Museum Indians was written from an Indian girl’s point of view, the author used a lot of connotations and figurative languages. The connotations and figurative languages indicated the mother and the little girl’s feeling towards Indian culture and how it got taken away. The…
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 there are those who defend the cause of language; those who attempt to destroy the value of words and those who are victims of the abuse of power over language and thought, wielded by the government. The fireman, Montag, attempts to use language as weapon against the entrenched ignorance of his dystopian world. Conversely, the Fire Chief Beatty, uses the power of language as a weapon against those who would free humanity from the tyranny of ignorance. In the scene where Montag reads poetry to ‘the ladies’, their subconscious response to the poem ‘Dover Beach’ reveals the capacity of imagery to transform a listener. Mildred Montag and her “bunch” of ladies are victims of the systematic debasement of language and values instituted by the government. Finally, the scene in which Beatty confounds Montag, with his encyclopaedic knowledge of contradictory quotations, demonstrates the destructive potential of language.…
In the novel The Handmaids Tale, author Atwood creates a world where access to all forms of language is a privilege. The oppressive society of Gilead strips women of their engagement in forms of language such as, reading, writing and even restricts how they speak. Which, naturally made language a desire by women, because it's degrading to not have freedom of speech. Atwood utilizes literary elements point of view, dialogue and diction, to convey how powerful language is in this world.…
Toni Morrison’s Nobel lecture centered on the power of language. Her speech was memorable in that it brought awareness to the degradation of language today. The common man is using language today to oppress others, whether it is through a sexist, racist, or theistic language. Morison mentions the nefarious uses of language, as there are “rousing language to keep citizens armed, diplomatic language to mask the pity and waste of needless death, or seductive language to throttle women.” I thought this was powerful because it made readers realize that language along with its positive uses can be used to hurt others and obscure the horrors of terrible events in the world.…
One can know how they are represented to the world through their overall culture. It is upon the person to embody the ideologies and perspectives they were given in their culture to navigate their lives with these gifts. Jackson and Geurts shows us how two different cultures are able to embody sensory experience and racial subjectivity to navigate throughout the word. They put us in their shoes to see what the world is like from the perspective of the Anlo-Ewe people and the Harlemites. Readers are nor aware of how different cultures view life and how that can help us in our own…
In the text “Can English be dethroned?”, Roland Breton(2000) points that English is one of the most widespread use of languages in the world. He believes that the growth of economic globalization affects the use of English. In addition, he thinks that cultural imperialism has a great impact on “language wars”. Breton also states, “the best way to kill off a language is to teach another one”. I partially agree with the writer. I think that the writer makes a relevant point when he says the economic globalization is closely related to the widespread use of English and cultural imperialism is much more subtle than economic imperialism. However, in my opinion teaching another language cannot be a part of killing off a language.…