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Summary Of How To Tame A Wild Tongue

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In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Gloria Anzaldua describes her experiences as a self proclaimed Chicana. She uses rhetorical strategies, including anecdotes, imagery, and appeals to both ethos and pathos, to argue that language is more than just a means of communication; it is part of one’s culture, identity, and self-expression, Gloria Anzaldua opens her argument with an anecdote. The anecdote about the dentist introduces the concept of the wild tongue and how it can be taken literally and symbolically. Another effect the anecdote has is that it hooks the reader and gets them interested in the essay. Through the anecdote Anzaldua appeals to ethos, establishing the ethical ideas of her purpose with taming her wild tongue and to establish her identity as a Chicano speaker. Without the anecdote, she would not be as established in the essay. …show more content…

The imagery she uses to describe her experiences creates a story that allows the audience to better understand the author and connect with her on a deeper level; two rhetorical devices she achieves this with are personification and metaphors. She uses several poetic lines throughout her entire essay. Some are in English while some are in Spanish and others are mixed with both languages. These lines allow her to break up her essay in a unique way, causing her structure to vary. It gives Anzaldua a way to transition into her next idea and convey concepts without having to explain them making her readers contemplate the meaning of the poetic lines before continuing on in the essay. The poetic lines can help establish Anzaldua’s ethos, making her seem more knowledgeable because she has included several quoted lines from published

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In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldua argues for the permission to define her own Chicano/ Feminist voice without being hindered by stereotypes and limitations. Gloria argues that, “wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out,” but specifically argues that different accents stir up one big culture. She says “We oppress each other trying to oust Chicano each other, tying to be the “real” Chicanas, to speak like Chicanos.” meaning each Spanish is a variation of two languages, and that there’s different ways she speaks to others in certain situations like having two tongues. Gloria also argues that she shouldn’t be embarrassed by her language and accent by saying “I am my language” meaning her language is what makes her special and unique.

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What makes a piece of writing effective? A piece of writing includes many things that make it effective, such as the style that appeals to the reader and rhetorical devices used in the writing that make it much more interesting. In this piece of writing titled “ How to tame a wild tongue “ includes many of these things. Even starting with the title it makes me curious as to what the piece will be about. There are two devices Anzaldua uses effectively in her essay which are anecdotes and parallel structure.

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