Summary Of The Perfect Voice

It is harder to create a new identity that conflicts with the fixed set of morals of the society a person is in, because of language/dialect expectations, first impressions/stereotyping, and religious pressures. If someone lives in a country that predominantly speaks a certain way, that person is considered “weird” if their vernacular is different from the culture’s. In “The Perfect Voice,” Carl Elliott explains that a person that speaks a certain language or with a certain dialect is automatically stereotyped in certain regions of the world. For example, to many Northerners, anyone that speaks with a Southern accent is automatically considered a “Hick” (Elliott 4-5). This problem with different dialects is just as present as if a person spoke Greek while living in Mexico. As the next presidential election approaches, this issue of immigration brings up the situations of
Another example of this would be how many people refuse to go to nail salons employed by Asian workers, because of the employees openly speaking another language for ease of communication. Narcissism coupled with a little bit of xenophobia makes a society, which prides itself on being a “melting pot,” demand that its citizens speak one language or get out. Or, as many of the potential candidates put it, “if you live in America, you need to speak English.” This mindset poisons the younger generation by thinking that, if they were born into another culture, they must conform to the American society to be happy. This is evident in Elizabeth Wong’s “The Struggle to be an All-American Girl.” In this article, Wong and her brother are so brainwashed by the idea of American culture that they attempt to alter their