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Essay / Rhetorical Analysis of How to Tame a Wild Tongue
Gloria E. Anzaldúa grew up on the Texas-Mexico border, in the Rio Grande Valley, with Mexican immigrant parents. “We are afraid of what we will see there. Pena. Shame. Low self-esteem. In childhood, we are told that our language is wrong. Repeated attacks on our mother tongue diminish our self-esteem. The attacks continue throughout our lives.” These are direct words from Gloria E. Anzaldúa's 1987 passage "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Anzaldúa uses her personal experiences as a Chicana lesbian feminist to illustrate the terrorism and misogyny she experienced in her life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay Linguistic terrorism is the partisan use of language. Anzaldúa experienced this when she was “caught speaking Spanish at recess – that was worth three licks.” the joints with a sharp ruler. I remember being sent to a corner of the classroom to “talk back” to the English-speaking teacher when all I was trying to do was tell him how to pronounce my name. “If you want to be American, speak “American.” If you don't like it, go back to Mexico, where you belong. » Here, Anzaldúa uses pathos to intrigue her readers by sharing her stories of being a language minority person and the suffering that results from them. “So, if you I really want to hurt myself, talk bad about my tongue. Ethnic identity is the double skin of linguistic identity: I am my language. Until I can be proud of my language, I cannot be proud of myself. Until I can accept Chicano Texan Spanish, Tex-Mex, and all the other languages I speak as legitimate, I cannot accept my legitimacy. Until I am free to write bilingually and code switch without always having to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I prefer to speak Spanglish, and until I have to accommodate English speakers rather than to let them accommodate me. , my language will be illegitimate.” Throughout “How to Tame a Wild Language,” Anzaldúa attempts to raise awareness about people who are ashamed to speak their native language proudly, as you can see in the passage above. At a very young age, Anzaldúa was ashamed of his culture and language, feeling as if he could not be tamed. I believe this is his attempt to resort to the rhetorical appeal of pathos. It helps us empathize with her and truly feel the terrorism and mysogyny she had to endure. Throughout this play, Anzaldúa speaks to people like herself. People who have experienced alienation because of their mother tongue. Although I am a white man, she can help me empathize with her and fully understand her point of view. Anzaldúa speaks a language called “Chicano”. Chicano English is a general term for a non-standard variety of the English language influenced by the Spanish language and spoken as a native dialect by bilingual and monolingual speakers. “We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mix, the subject of your nonsense. Because we speak with tongues of fire, we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally and linguistically, somos huerfanos – we speak an orphan language. Anzaldúa learned that she spoke poor Spanish and English growing up, but her language was her “native language.” “My mother tongues are the languages I speak with my sister and my brothers, with my friends…. From school, the media and professional situations. I have.