Analysis Of Letter To The Illiterate: Analyzing Language Across Generations

Karen Li

GSWS 0002

March 1, 2023

Letter to the Illiterate: Analyzing Language Across Generations There is a certain irony in writing a letter able to be read by nearly everyone except the person to whom it is addressed. In Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, the premise of the narrator writing a letter account of his life to his illiterate mother, who will never be able to read its contents, marks language as a significant theme throughout the text. This paradoxical letter follows the life of Vietnamese American “Little Dog” in a nonlinear format and details his family history, romantic relationships, and coming of age story. In particular, the novel examines the power of storytelling and language, not only on a meta level through

The fact that Little Dog “code switched” and “took off” his own language in order to wear “English, like a mask” indicates tension between the English and Vietnamese languages, which seem to be mutually exclusive in his life. Regardless, his choice to use English as a tool to his and his mother’s advantage, so that the world can see his mother’s “face” in addition to his own, demonstrates the role of language, as a means to communicate with broader society, as a source of power for Little

The use of a single word to establish and enforce this worker-client hierarchy likely stems in part from the lack of English vocabulary of the nail salon workers, who may share similar experiences of a stunted education with