1. Anzaldua clearly disagrees with the theory in question. The theory states that every language has firm lines and are in their own entirely different universe. She states in her literacy narrative, “The pocho is an anglicized Mexican or American of Mexican origin who speaks Spanish with an accent characteristic of North Americans and who distorts and reconstructs the language according to the influence of English.” Which describes the mix of the two ”universes”. She speaks on this mentioning how a form of Spanish she speaks is actually influenced by English colonization.
2. After reading Anzaldua’s literacy narrative I noticed she was very personal. The style of writing she showed is mostly using personal experiences to help her with her argument and to bring about new arguments.”“Pocho, cultural traitor, you’re speaking the oppressor’s language by speaking English, you’re ruining the Spanish language,” I have been accused by various Latinos and Latinas. Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish.” Here she is describing how the form of Spanish she uses is looked down upon and uses a personal experience to strengthen that argument.
3. One of Liao’s conventions that was definitely present was ”journey from confusion to fluency”. In both narratives, you can see that both Liao and Sedaris have trouble learning new languages that they eventually understand and get a hang of. One convention that didn’t seem to appear was ”discourse community”. Throughout the essay, Sedaris was focusing on one point and does not mention anything relating to ”discourse community”. That is why it seems like the least important of Liao’s conventions to Sideris.
4. After reading Manson’s essay, I saw that there was some change in her, but she still showed signs of sadness. At the beginning of her essay, she was locked up in her mind and couldn’t communicate or express her thoughts. She then mentioned how this weighed on her social and family life poorly damaging her relationships with others. She just never knew what to say because she never knew how to put how she felt into words. Towards the end of the essay, she used a technique of comparing to portray how she felt so others will understand. She grew a lot from beginning to end, even after the death of her grandmother she was able to somewhat communicate. She was able to explain how she felt and have people understand her emotions.
Hi James,
I completely agree with your answer on how both Liao and Sedaris used the theme of “journey from confusion to fluency” in both of their writings. Sedaris did mention a discourse community of students disliking their French teacher, however, he did not tie it back to a main or general idea, and therefore, Liao interpreted the use of discourse communities much more prominently.
I agree with your answer for question #4. There definitely was a change in her mannerism. Although, she still showed various signs of sadness, she had found other ways to cope with it. Therefore, she was able to show how she felt and communicate with others to some extent to make them understand her feelings.