Comparing Standard American English And African-American Vernacular English

The Common Core, in the United States education system, dictates certain key concepts which must be taught to students at a certain period in their school careers. Though debated, one undeniable point can be seen: US students must be unified in a single culture. The “formal English” which the standards reference in CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.6, however, is Standard American English (SAE). This excludes the many other dialects in this nation, including New England English, Hawaiian Creole English, and African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). This is an unfortunate fact in modern-day society. In order for a nation to stand as a collective group of unified individuals, as some believe, the language and its official dialect must be solidified.

From the onset of the piece, the as-of-yet unnamed narrator separates herself from her teacher by describing her as a lady “with nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup.” Of course, she only describes herself as “the only [one] just right,” along with her friend Sugar, so not much in-depth characterization is available there. Because, however, Sylvia continues to narrate the story, a deep window is opened into her social class. The innumerable cases of her vernacular, as reflected in the diction (eg. “puredee” for “pretty”) and in the syntax (eg. “white folks crazy”), indicate to the readers not a lack of education—many often surmise that—, but a unique place in society. Specifically, it contrasts with Miss Moore’s more “correct”, SAE sentence structure and word choice (eg. “let’s look in the windows before we go in”). Bambara was aware that readers would see the difference, and accordingly accentuated it so as to illustrate the different societies to which these two characters belong. They do both live in the same area, but Miss Moore is seen as distinguished since she had “been to college,” while Sylvia is seen as just one of many. The speech patterns of the protagonist and antagonist are clearly stratified, and therefore depict the stratification of society in 1970s-era

Bambara makes a fascinating point as to the state of the nation at the time of her writing—that those oppressed by poverty often remained impoverished due to lack of a strong movement, similar to the one which Miss Moore seems to advocate for (“poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the pie”). The claim, as this essay depicts, is largely supported by the diction and syntax utilized by the narrator and the antagonist. By creating the conflict between SAE-indoctrination and AAVE in the vernaculars the characters employ, Bambara reflects the conflict between “America, Land of Opportunity and Freedom” and “America, Land of Capitalism.” The narrator, Sylvia, is even made to alternate between using these two dialects so that she might further emphasize this disjunction. This story, this commentary on society by way of contrasting dictions, begs its readers to question their nation’s values, and their own, through the glaring differences it