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Taming A Wild Tongue Analysis

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The topic of this critical analysis us is the article ‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue,’ by Gloria Anzaldua. She talks about the attitude of the Americans have towards the ways Chicano Spanish people speak, and the negative effect of this attitude on the people who live in the borderlands. She argues in her article, that people from the borderlands lose their identity in a process to be acceptable to the English speaking American society. To prove her point, she states various examples, and observations which would make it easy for people with different cultural identities to connect to her experiences, and understand the criticism she has faced in the process of “taming her wild tongue”. Anzaldua is a well-known advocate for art, and spirituality which she …show more content…

She emphasizes on how she disagrees with these norms, which is the reason why people ridicule her minority status. She states the fact that women of minority status within America are the ones who are disregarded to a great extent. While describing her attempts to fit in the society, she also mentions the conflicts she faces with the people from her own culture, who criticize her for using “Spanglish”. Through her essay, Anzaldua is trying to connect to everyone who suffers from contrasting identities. Her article begins with a metaphor from her childhood, when she once visited a doctor who commented on her accent which made her feel uncomfortable.She further evaluates on the incident with the dentist where his remarks made her uncomfortable. The dentist did not mean to comment on her accent, but the fact that she thought it was directed to her culture, proves that she felt insecure when it comes to her heritage, and her mother tongue. She seems to consider her accent, an important, and noteworthy part of her identity, yet still feels conscious about what other people think about the difference in the dialect that she speaks. Gloria furthers her point

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