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James Baldwin The Power Of Language Analysis

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The Power of Language James Baldwin’s idea of language being the “key to one’s identity” is a correct assessment. The manner in which a person speaks or what they say often acts as a highway leading directly to private information that creates their identity. This can reveal to a person’s audience their level of education, level of confidence, and how they may fit in with those surrounding them. With taking these factors into consideration, it can be understood that your language defines who you are. Often times how one speaks can reflect a personal level of intelligence or education. Ben Carson, a highly respected, well-educated, legendary brain surgeon, is easily read as being brilliant when he speaks. His word choice, sentence structures, and good manners compile together to convey his degree of intelligence. If you were to meet someone who used improper grammar, profane or inappropriate language, and was uncivilized, it could be inferred that they were uneducated and lacked deference. Educational background is interpreted through use of grammar and proper or improper word choice. The content of your speech and how one goes about projecting those ideas can reveal self-esteem levels to those listening. Donald Trump, a successful …show more content…

In the 1930s and 40s, the Holocaust era, if you spoke like a Jew, it was easily understood that you did not belong and were, more often times than not, punished for it. How the Jews spoke, their language or accents, defined them, caused them discrimination, ridicule, and torture. Around the time of 9/11, and even currently, if someone had an Arabic accent, many would immediately develop a negative view of that person. Instances such as these are prime examples of how a person’s accent or vernacular can instantly place them into a corner of society, which they may not necessarily fit into, or do not deserve to be subjected

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Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help uses imagery to help the reader better comprehend the meaning of the passage. As the reader reads along in the passage reading about little Miss Skeeter, “Munching on peanuts, sorting through the pieces spread out on the table, a storm [raging] outside (Stockett 77). Through this imagery that the author provides the reader is instantly transformed into the world of little Miss Skeeter as she is sitting down by Constantine on a dark stormy night doing a puzzle. The reader can hear the crunch of the peanuts and smell the rain coming from outside as they read the passage. Stockett also uses diction to contribute to the imagery of the passage.

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577 Words | 3 Pages

David Foster Wallace starts his speech with the use of anecdote through his quick narrative about two young fish. Wallace tells the story of two fish who encounter an older fish who asks “How’s the water?”, which prompts one of the younger fish to later ask “What the hell is water?”, indirectly describing the idea of a link between immaturity and a lack of understanding of surrounding environment. While this anecdote serves as a simple thought provoking prelude to Wallace’s speech, it’s actual purpose is to open the minds of Wallace’s audience to better perceive their surroundings by demonstrating that some of the most obvious realities in life are the hardest to observe. Wallace uses the strategy of anecdote to illustrate this principle and build the foundation for the life lessons later detailed in the body of his speech.

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1037 Words | 5 Pages

Education is Power The Civil Rights Movement took place during the mid-1950s and late 1960s where African Americans protested against the injustice of not receiving the same civil liberties as white Americans. Activists who took part in the Civil Rights Movement, used a non-violent approach to protesting such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Greensboro sit-ins, and the march from Selma to Montgomery in order to bring about equality. African Americans began to receive equality as shown by the implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. In Malcolm X’s, “Learning to Read”, he encourages his audience to learn from his mistakes through stories of his background that reflect his beliefs that under-educated people need to become aware of the less than positive history of the oppression of African Americans if they plan on attaining their freedom.

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153 Words | 1 Pages

Bryce‘s responses in the reading comprehension unit demonstrate his ability to read and understand both fiction and non-fiction material at grade level. He was able to use a variety of comprehension strategies to make sense of unfamiliar text. Bryce‘s narrative piece entitled Blackout, demonstrates his ability to write grade level text for a variety of purposes and audiences. He is able to organize his writing effectively by including details to support his main idea. Bryce used language intentionally and edited his work for spelling, punctuation and grammar.

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259 Words | 2 Pages

This article is talking about human trafficking in Cambodia and Myanmar centered in south East Asia off the boarder of Thailand. It broadens the horizon for human trafficking in the aspects that it is not only sex trafficking that is occurring, but also labor trafficking and trafficking of human beings for body parts. I plan to use this article in my essay to broaden the horizon of human trafficking and to link human trafficking back to slavery. Quoting from the author he/she states “Captives from Myanmar and Cambodia are sold to captains on Thai fishing boats to work for months or even years on the boats with little or no payment, with long working days up to 20 hours a day under grave conditions.” The author of this article uses diction such

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According to Lemony Snicket, “[You should] never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them” and writer Stephen King presumably would agree. In On Writing, pages one forty-seven through one fifty, King uses diction, critical and ardent tones and figurative language, to highlight the significance of reading and how it benefits a writer. King utilizes diction to persuade aspiring writers to read regularly. He writes, “I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in.” (147) “Waiting rooms were made for books—of course!

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Upton Sinclair developed his thoughts on the plight of immigrants into Chicago extremely well throughout his novel, The Jungle. Through the portrayal of the Lithuanian family's struggles and hardships, Sinclairs tells the truths of the corruption and immigrant experience in Chicago in the early 1900s. The gruesome details of the meat packaging industry show how truly unjust and disturbing the working conditions were during these times. Upton goes on to depict the unfair living conditions of the Lithuanian immigrants as well as the immigrants before and after their time in Packington. After Sinclair released the serial form of his novel in a Socialist newspaper in 1905, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was soon to follow.

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This also connects back to what Seed mentions in his book that humans associated language with life and it being a characteristic of human nature. If we find something to connect us with someone or something, we can feel more comfortable with our

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Language is used to convey a message as well as connect people to a particular culture or ethnicity he or she identifies with. People who share the same language share a bond and pass their history through language. In chapter one of The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom Joanne Kilgour Dowdy speak about growing up in Trinidad and her mother insisting on her speaking in the colonizer's language rather than her native Trinidadian language. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy felt as if her identity was being pushed to the side when she was forced to speak “Colonized English” when she was at school or around the social elite of her community, and felt ridiculed from her peers for speaking proper as if she was white or of the elite social class. Dowdy major concern was how to have the freedom to go back and forth from home, language to the public language without feeling judged from both sides of her

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572 Words | 3 Pages

Baldwin shows children and adults the value of having a language in which one is able to communicate one's own experience is essential to everyday life.

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553 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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828 Words | 4 Pages

In Lera Boroditsky 's "How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think" the purpose of the essay is apparent from the second paragraph. "Language is a uniquely human gift central to our experience of being human" she explains, so that the reader understands how language affects ones thoughts and day to day lives (2). Boroditsky 's use of empirical evidence, factual information, organizational structure, understanding and construction upon thoughts that disprove her purpose, and light tone all aide in accomplishing her purpose. Each of these methods help convince the audience that, " Language is central to our experience of being human, and the languages we speak profoundly shapes the way we think, the way we see the world, the way we live our lives" (Boroditsky 10).

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441 Words | 2 Pages

Before the group discussion, I believed that in Amy Tan’s narrative essay “Mother Tongue” she brings up the power of language a lot. Tan writes “I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language—the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth” (P1). This is a very direct example because Tan tells the reader some of the ways language has power. Another direct example is when Tan says, “That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world” (P2). This example shows how language shapes the way we think and the power the language we use has over what we think.

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2297 Words | 10 Pages

Paul B. Garette Introduction Language imparts an identity to its speaker. To those who speak the lingua franca (English), it is easy to take monolingualism for granted. However, to those who speak the minority language in a multilingual and multi-ethnic nation, language is an integral part of their identity. Inevitably, constant tension and struggle exist between speakers of different languages.

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1097 Words | 5 Pages

Language is a social fact which also controls the individual. An individual is born in a society where a certain language is spoken this is how language is external to him. He is made to learn that language in order to communicate with others. Language exerts a constrain on the individual and communication because of vocabulary. According to the Swiss linguist and semiotician Saussure all languages are social facts.

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