Interwined With Other Writers Language Essay

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As Baldwin indicates in "If Black Language Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me What is?" "It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identify: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity." This concept can be readily demonstrated in Anzaldua's essay, in which the power of language is repressed by her school teachers when the author was still a school girl. "I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess -- that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler. I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for "talking back" to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name" (Anzaldua 2947). The power of language is suitably expressed in this quotation, if only for the simple fact that its evocation (particularly Spanish among decidedly non-Latino influences) leaves the speaker open to be censured -- in an attempt to "divorce one" from (in this case) her "communal identity." The power of languages is also asserted in Anyon's essay in terms of repressing students. In the following quotation, Anyon's observer records remarks that have been frequently made by teachers to those in attendance of the working class schools. "Only three times did the investigator hear a teacher in either working-class school preface a directive with an unsarcastic "please," or "let's" or "would you." Instead, the teachers said "Shut up," Shut your mouth"…" In this instance, the power of language is used to restrain -- as well as to reinforce an oppressive school environment where students, some of which are minorities, are mad e to simply follow orders and do nothing else.

It should also be noted that both Baldwin and Anyon's essays detail the denial of a people to speak their native language. Baldwin refers to this fact with the following quotation, in which he describes how Africans initially were forced into learning English during slavery.

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"Subsequently the slave was given, under the bitter eye, and the gun, of his master, Congo Square, and the Bible -- or in other words, and under these conditions, the slave began the formation of the black, and it is within this unprecedented tabernacle that black English began to be formed." This formation of black English was in direct response to the fact that slaves could not communicate with one another in their native languages since they were frequently from disparate tribes and spoke different languages. Anzaldua alludes to the concept of the prevention of people from speaking languages more endemic to their own particular culture with the following quotation. "I want you to speak English." The author's mother told her this quote when the former was a child. The significance of this quote can be found in the fact that the mother wanted her daughter to speak English in the United States, instead of speaking Spanish, which is where the official language of Mexico, from where the author's ancestry lies. The repression of language can also be found in numerous instances of Anyon's description of the school environment for the working class students. The rude directives given to children in which they were told to shut certainly allude to the fact that teachers were repressing and controlling the language of the students.

In conclusion, it can be seen that these three essays are largely demonstrative of the fact that language is used to enforce socio-economic subjugation -- which ultimately manifests itself in racial terms. Liberty, power, and the repression of native languages all reinforces the notion that there are certain ethnicities that have to deal with circumscriptions in there daily lives while there are others, who typically have a lot of money, who are bred up to control those circumstances and control everything else….....

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