In the essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez. The author uses his memoir to show how he has fought through his childhood to understand English and how the english language had formed his identity. To him, Spanish was a private language, spoken only at home and in the comforting presence of his family. The Spanish language allowed him to connect with his parents because that was all they knew. However, After he was somewhat forced to speak English by the public, he became an outsider to his own culture, unable to speak Spanish, but still able to understand it as it states “we remained a loving family, but one greatly changed.
This is a problem that may be passed unnoticed because many of us may believe that this is no longer a problem in our society but sadly keeps happening today. Through her use of pathos, by telling her story, the author is persuading people not to discriminate based on the language others speak. Her purpose is to inform the reader about this issue and hopefully help prevent it from continuing to happen. Anzaldua adopts a declamatory tone in order to help her
The power of language We all have some form of language limitations, no matter where we come from and what our background is. “Mother tongue” by Amy Tan and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua both share similar themes in their stories that demonstrate how they both deal with how different forms of the same language are portrayed in society. In both stories they speak about what society declares the right way of speech and having to face prejudgment, the two authors share their personal experiences of how they’ve dealt with it.
Rhetorical Precis #4: “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan Amy Tan’s purpose in her article “Mother Tongue” is to show the influence of her mother’s style of english. She also relates this to a more broad topic of the idea that there are many different types of english that people speak that are tailored to whoever they are speaking to. She begins this piece by stating plainly that she is not an english scholar. Instead of decreasing her credibility it actually increases it and paints this piece as a more personal set of observations rather than a bland overview of the entire language.
‘He probably began to see me as a series of dos and don’ts’ (Page 265) Alice feels that her relationship with her parents impacts her relationships with others and this is again seen as a barrier her culture creates. ‘Don’t you feel frustrated sometimes?’ (Page 239) Alice observes the views Michael has of her relationship and she sees it to be different.
Throughout generations cultural traditions have been passed down, alongside these traditions came language. The language of ancestors, which soon began to be molded by the tongue of newer generations, was inherited. Though language is an everlasting changing part of the world, it is a representation of one’s identity, not only in a cultural way but from an environmental standpoint as well. One’s identity is revealed through language from an environmental point of view because the world that one is surrounded with can cause them to have their own definitions of words, an accent, etc. With newer generations, comes newer forms of languages.
Like the narrator’s father, he notices the family’s cultural identity is slowly dying. His wife, a native Malaysian, is adopting a new identity as a “sales clerk at [Woodworks]” (340) in Canada. In marriage, a couple is supposed to share the responsibility to raise their children and support each other. However, she may have given up on the teaching responsibility from the moment the language “never came easily to [the daughter]” (340). Ultimately, the father is solely responsible handing down his family’s cultural and social roots to his children.
The Haymarket affair is one most important events in Chicago’s labor protest is questionably still unknown to many of high school kids and down. At this mark in Chicago history several horrifying, and great events happened. Industrial workers were getting fed up with the intense hours and wanted change from their shady bosses. People associated with all the industrial works started to arrange private meeting to talk about what’s wrong within the industries. Soon several of the bosses found out about these meeting and paid the police to eliminate these meetings.
Amy Tan's goal has changed slightly. While the Author wants to show the effect language has on one's daily life and how we perceive others who are different, she also wants to show how the language barrier affects our society overall. The first key point I identified after active reading was the sentence beneath the title. "Don't judge a book by its over, or intelligence by her English".
In this article, Tan 's argue that her mother 's "Broken English" has caused unfairness, disinterest, and limitations throughout their life. Tan 's mother was discriminated a lot throughout her life, all because of her "Broken English". Growing up speaking "Broken English" has caused Tan 's mother to be treated unfairly. For example, in one body paragraph, Tan talks about her mother having her to call people on the phone pretending to be her.
Lera Boroditsky, a professor at Stanford, introduces readers to the question of whether a person’s language can shape their thought processes and views of the world around them through her research conducted at Stanford and MIT. Boroditsky explores further into the questioning about a language’s influence in her article “Lost in Translation”. Boroditsky proves to an audience of broad audience of scholars and people interested in cultural psychology that a person’s language not only influences the way a person thinks but can change a person’s perception of the world and media around them. Lera Boroditsky, through her use of rhetorical questions, comparisons, and addressing the counterargument achieves her purpose of proving that language does
The 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.
Our identity is a place upon many attributes of a human being. Whether the person is someone who goes on promoting themselves to the world or not, and it shows how people communicate to others around them. Language is one of the main components that unveils the person’s identity in their everyday life, and they are many different ways to approach a person’s language. Relating to the article of Yiyun Li, “To Speak is to Blunder,” she knows two languages that has its positive and negative outcomes in her life. I to relate to her understanding of language, but a different view of what language means to me.
The difference in language leads to miscommunication but the overlying consequence of it is lack of understanding and empathy for one another which leads to conflict. “Language takes on a metonymic relation to culture in Tan's portrayal of the gap between the mothers and daughters in The Joy Luck Club.” (Hamilton). The language barriers between the daughters and the mothers create the cultural barriers. Language barriers emphasize and directly influences cultural barriers.
The usage of the right type of language is extremely crucial while writing. If used correctly, it sets the mood of the storyline, it causes readers to get lost in the pages of the writing. Language is an extremely powerful weapon authors use to get into a reader’s mind. Like so, Yann Martel, the author of “Life of Pi” uses a beautiful form of language to tell us about Pi’s journey to survive alongside a Bengali tiger in the Pacific Ocean. The theme of this story is that Man’s inner evil, although buried deep within, often surfaces in moments of desperation.
