How To Tame A Wild Tongue Essay
A tongue is one of the most important body parts, if that’s what we shall call it, that a human being has. If it was not for the tongue, it would be a very quiet world. Gloria Anzaldúa, born in 1942, near the large Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, was bound to make a difference in lives before she ever knew it. When Gloria turned eleven she started to work in the fields as a migrant worker and then started on her family’s land after the passing of her father. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s the short story, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, she describes her upbringing and growing up in a dual culture society split in two. One being her academic culture, where she is expected to speak clearly and adhere and know to the English language. Another being her Spanish Chicano culture, certain expectations and different regulations are required of her starting at a very young age, and throughout her life growing up in a Mexican-American family. Gloria’s Latino culture has brought along many challenging beliefs, even …show more content…
“If a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native tongue, she also has a low estimation of me. Often with mexicanas y Latinas we’ll speak English as a neutral language. Even among Chicanas we tend to speak English at parties or conferences. Yet, at the same time we’re afraid the other will think we’re agingadas because we don’t speak Chicano Spanish.” These sentences are mostly in English, but were oppressed by the three words “mexicanas y Latinas.” Gloria is using Spanish and English, we could also call it Spanglish, within these sentences, which is a mixture of English and Spanish. She is switching between the two explaining how Latina and Chicana’s speak Spanish and English to communicate in different ways. The languages that people speak are different to everyone even if they are speaking the same language. Language is a part of how someone identifies
Se Habla Espanol Analysis
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Summary Of How To Tame A Wild Tongue
485 Words | 2 PagesIn “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Gloria Anzaldua describes her experiences as a self proclaimed Chicana. She uses rhetorical strategies, including anecdotes, imagery, and appeals to both ethos and pathos, to argue that language is more than just a means of communication; it is part of one’s culture, identity, and self-expression, Gloria Anzaldua opens her argument with an anecdote. The anecdote about the dentist introduces the concept of the wild tongue and how it can be taken literally and symbolically. Another effect the anecdote has is that it hooks the reader and gets them interested in the essay. Through the anecdote Anzaldua appeals to ethos, establishing the ethical ideas of her purpose with taming her wild tongue and to establish her identity as a Chicano speaker.
Summary Of Taming A Wild Tongue
1543 Words | 7 PagesLike many Mexican Americans, the language Anzaldua speaks is largely influenced by both English and Spanish, and Anzaldua speaks Chicano Spanish when she talks to other Mexican Americans. However, since Chicano Spanish is different from standard Mexican- Spanish and standard Spanish, people who speaks Chicano Spanish would be repeatedly told that their language is wrong. Chicanos feel shameful about themselves when people attack their Chicano Spanish because language is part of people’s identity. Anzaldua believes that Chicano Spanish reflects Chicano’s identities, which is different from being just a Mexican or a Spanish, and should not be discriminated. Anzaldua urges Chicanos to be proud of the language they speak and be proud of themselves.
Gloria Anzaldua How To Tame A Wild Tongue Summary
1105 Words | 5 PagesEntering the world with a chip on your shoulder is a tiring, unfair way to interact with others. Anzaldua, proud to speak Chicano Spanish, is aware of the language’s illegitimacy: the “Chicanos who grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that [they] speak poor
When In Rome By Firoozeh Dumas Hot Dogs And While Geese
852 Words | 4 PagesAlvarez goes on to talk about a racism she faces as well. While the comments made were more out of ignorance than hate, it still bothers Alvarez. “We bought a house in Queens, New York, in a neighborhood that was mostly German and Irish, where we were the only ‘Hispanics.’ Actually, no one ever called us that. Our teachers and classmates at the local Catholic schools referred to us as ‘Porto Ricans’ or ‘Spanish.’
Summary Of The Myth Of Latin Women By Judith Ortiz Cofer
636 Words | 3 Pagesn the memoir,”The Myth of Latin Women: I just Met a Girl Named Maria” by Judith Ortiz Cofer the author asserts that latina women are being stereotyped as early matured and very attractive women who have hardworking (low) jobs. Cofer’s purpose is to finally have people not judge latina women based on the media, stereotypes and myths in order to appreciate others based on their actions and accomplishment but not on how they look like and who they might be. She establishes a informational tone in order to reach everyone in the United States. Cofer uses both Ethos by listing information on all her accomplishments and education and the article based on her own experience and Pathos by explaining how many times she has been humiliated in public based on how she looked like, which affects the audience by making them feel bad and rethink their choices on stereotypes.
Personal Narrative-Identif Anzaldúa's Dual Identity
1018 Words | 5 PagesAnzaldúa explains her split feelings, “for a people who cannot entirely identify with either standard... They can connect their identity to, one capable of communicating the realities and values true to themselves- a language with terms that are neither español ni inglés, but both. We speak a patois, a forked tongue, a variation of two languages” (1987, p. 2948). The imagery of the forked tongue, like a serpent, has a negative connotation and could be linked to the serpent or the devil from the Garden of Eden. This idea further develops the negativity surrounding Anzaldúa’s split identity.
Rhetorical Analysis Of How To Tame A Wild Tongue
1343 Words | 6 PagesWritten by Gloria Anzaldua, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, is an opinion easy , a retrospection of her past and a story about identity and recognition of a wild tongue. The following is a rhetorical analysis and personal response of this easy . My analysis will be divided into 4 separate parts including intended audience, main claim, purpose and situation. (a) Intended audience : The first thing that anyone who even skims through this easy would notice is Anzaldua’s multi-lingual language use.
Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Jamila Lyiscott
553 Words | 3 PagesThe United States is made up of some of the most diverse and interesting cultures in the world. Jamila Lyiscott proves this by showing her different dialects and how they are all equally important. Lyiscott believes that the way she speaks towards her parents, towards her friends, and towards her colleagues are all one in the same. Throughout the entirety of her speech, Lyiscott changes up her vocal patterns and dialects so that the audience can understand first hand what each of these dialects are. When she talks about her father, Lyiscott uses her native tongue, when she talks to her fellow neighbors and close friends she switches it up to a more urbanized dialect, and when she is in school she masks the other two dialects with a professional sounding language.
The Myth Of The Latin Woman Analysis
1045 Words | 5 Pages“The common denominator all Latinos have is that we want some respect. That 's what we 're all fighting for” - Cristina Saralegui. Judith Ortiz Cofer published the article, “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” where she expresses her anger towards stereotypes, inequality, and degradation of Latin Americans. Cofer explains the origins of these perceived views and proceeds to empower Latin American women to champion over them. Cofer establishes her credibility as a Latin American woman with personal anecdotes that emphasize her frustration of the unfair depiction of Latinos in society.
The Myth Of The Latina Woman Analysis
608 Words | 3 PagesEven after this, she would not let it get to her as she believes Latina women are works of God. Cofer’s purpose for writing this essay was to show that Latina women are victimized even though “they make good domestics” (Cofer). She also explicitly states that her “personal goal in [her] public life is to try to replace the old persuasive stereotypes and myths about Latinas with a much more interesting set of realities”
Aria A Memoir Of A Bilingual Childhood Analysis
716 Words | 3 PagesRichard Rodriguez, author of “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” grew up speaking Spanish at home for the beginning of his life, and having the great connection with family that most hope for during their lifetime. This all suddenly changed when he entered school. Starting at a young age, Richard was surrounded by all English-speaking people that he could not communicate well with. The only instances where English would be would have been during public outings, and interaction with others. At home, his parents also struggled to speak English making the situation even harder on Richard.
Autoethnography Between Pratt And Anzaldua
1037 Words | 5 Pages“Chicano Spanish is a border tongue which developed naturally. Being Chicana, herself, and growing up in Texas, Anzaldua was forced to learn English. Because their heritage and the language is a mixture of many, Chicanos are susceptible to judgement by people of other ethnicities and other Chicanos. In order to fit in with the rest of the school population, chicano students were forced to take speech classes to rid them of their accents.(26) Without speaking Spanish, some people viewed them as less Chicano, like they were not being true to themselves. The dilemma Anzaldua was faced with was that she was being made the other by two competing groups.
Similarities Between Aria And How To Tame A Wild Tongue
939 Words | 4 Pages… Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out,” (Anzaldúa, 474). Gloria describes her encounters as a Spanish-speaker in the United States, such as being punished for speaking Spanish at school, not being respected as a Chicana, and the pride she takes in her heritage, culture, and language. Her tongue is a part of what makes her who she is, without it she wouldn’t have found her identity. She also asserts the importance and impact that different Spanish variations have on society, although many don’t recognize these languages as valid or respectable. She also goes on to describe how people of color have an American side and a native side, “Chicanos and other people of color suffer economically for not acculturating.
Power Of Language
719 Words | 3 PagesIn today's society multiple people experience oppression, the cause of that is those individuals interpret and express their power of language differently. For example, if two Spanish speaking students were in a classroom filled with English speaking students they are simulated to speak English. Those two Spanish speaking students lose their power of language to fulfill the expectation of the English speaking students. “I know that speaking Spanish with someone in a room full of Americans can seem rude to them because they don't understand. I know that at school some teachers have told others not to speak Spanish”.
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