Identity In Gloria Naylor's A Question About Language

Race and ethnicity come together to create a person's identity, but many would agree that ethnicity shape's a person's identity. Ethnicity determines how a person lives their life. It is a very important part of a person's identity since ethnicity is based off of what the person is. It is mostly based off of what a person values, how society views them, and their way of speaking. What a person values in their life is part of what their ethnicity is like. In Pat Mora's "Great Expectations," she emphasizes on the values that Latins have. She explains how Latins value "families, the Spanish language, [and] this country (America)."Among these values, it shaped their identity and why they act the way they behave. With the values that Latins

In Gloria Naylor's "A Question About Language," she puts emphasis on how the N-word is percieved through two different races. Naylor states how when she actually "heard" the N-word, it was from a boy who "learned it could be a way to humiliate" her. She goes on to explain how Whites used the N-word to "signify wothlessness or degradation." This is an example of how society treats black people, which is in a disrespectful manner since they were being called such a degrading name. However, in the Black community, the N-word has changed into a word that means a type of endearment to those around you. Based on their race, they have decided that this word has "nothing to do with they way they...live their lives." This signify's that although their skin color is hated by society, and society has a judgement on how they look like, they have decided to act oblivious to the true meaning of the word and use it in a positive term. Thus, showing that based on their race, it shapes their identity because race is the first thing that others would notice about a person; how light or how dark their skin color