Student Responses

Anzaldua disagrees with the theory that there are firm lines between English and Spanish, how one would say that they represent different universes, and that the speakers cannot share a common reality. Anzaldua said, “Chicano Spanish sprang out of the Chicanos’ need to identify ourselves as a distinct people.” In short terms she is saying that Mexican Americans tend to speak a different form of Spanish that sets them apart from everyone else. Chicano Spanish is a version of Spanish that tends to have words distorted by English and it is often frowned upon by native Spanish speakers. According to Anzaldua, Chicano Spanish is known as rebellious and is sort of a secret language.

Anzaldua has a certain style in her literacy narrative that has a larger meaning behind it. The reader may notice that in many instances, she incorporates Spanish into her mainly English narrative. The meaning behind this is to show that there are no firm lines between languages. As she put certain Spanish phrases into her writing, she puts easy to comprehend English translations next to it, and it seems to flow very well. She chose this style of writing to show that languages are just a form of communication, and that it all means the same in your own language.

Liao’s first convention for literacy narratives, the idea of change, was most apparent in Sedaris’s essay. Liao believed that in a literacy narrative, if something dosen’t change, then it is not a narrative. In Sedaris’s narrative I was confused on what the point of it was until the near end, when he finally understood french. That was the point of change. Prior to that moment, he sometimes found himself not understanding what the teacher was saying, and it came out as gibberish in his mind. One of Liao’s conventions for literacy narratives that did not see much light was the idea of a discourse community. In Sedaris’s essay, he stayed on track the whole time and shared his message throughout the writing. He did not go off of track to talk about anything else.

I believe that by the end of Manson’s essay, she felt differently then she did from the start. At the start of her essay, she felt helpless, and had a sense of confusion when it came to expressing her thoughts. At times she was often hiding her emotions because she did not want to make people think that she was sad, but she truly didn’t know what she was. Then Manson began to compare her feelings to metaphors, this helped, but did not entirely fix her situation. She used silence to address her feelings with herself too allow things to process. Throughout her whole essay she felt like nothing was enough, but by the end she finally felt like what she said to her friend was acceptable, allowing her to understand how to convey her feelings to a point where it was, enough.

 

 

Anzaldua disagrees with this idea because she grew up trying to speak both English and Spanish fluently without a foreign accent. She didn’t believe there were entirely “different universes”, she believed that as long as she could speak the language without any trouble, that she could fit in. Her only problem was trying to take pride in her language. It was hard because she felt as if she had to change her “tongue” for English speakers and accommodate their accent rather than vice versa. There was never the idea of uncommon realties between different languages. The quote I found was “I will have my serpent’s tongue- my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.” This aids in explaining why she disagrees with one of the theories of language, simply because her problem wasn’t different universes, it was different accents. 

 

While reading Anzaldua’s piece, I found it very descriptive and personal. The start of the essay includes a description of the dentist getting mad about their tongue getting in the way of cleaning their roots. The introduction ends with “How do you make it [the tongue] lie down?”. Personally, I think this style of detailed memories of the writer’s past helps the readers connect more with the writer and their story. Anzaldua is telling a story of the struggle of learning English while speaking Spanish. In this, she wants the readers to feel “closer” to her by sharing stories of her childhood and how people treated her and her lack of English. 

 

Liao’s convention of “every literacy narrative has a takeaway for the reader” was prominent in this essay. At the end of the essay, the writer states “Understanding doesn’t mean that you can suddenly speak the language.” This means that even if you are capable of translating words, there is more to understanding what people are saying than just their words. The irony in the end of this essay was that no matter how mean the teacher was, the second he understood what the teacher was saying, he wanted them to talk more and more. This is ironic because the teacher was calling him a “fool”, but he wanted to hear more words from them, even if it was bad, because he was finally understanding the language. 

 

Yes and no, I believe she feels better by the end of the essay, yet still has feelings of sadness. Manson’s essay made me feel sad while reading it because of the tone set. The piece didn’t end on a high note about the writer excelling with words and becoming a great speaker, it ended with her grandmother’s death. When reading this, you can’t help but feel bad for the events she is describing. However, just before writing about her grandmother’s death, she comes to terms with her way of expressing herself. She states, “There were times when it was important for me to verbally communicate even if I couldn’t really express myself.” She was able to recognize what would ultimately help her, yet couldn’t accomplish it.

 

The theory of language used in the question states that people who speak different languages cannot share a common reality. Anzaldua disagrees with this theory. In her story/literacy narrative, she talks about how the language/variant of Spanish that she knows is influenced by English colonization. An example : “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.”

To me, Anzaldua wrote her literacy narrative with a lot of personal connections. The way she told her story felt like a tale out of a history book, lined with facts and opinions. She also included her own personal scenarios while facing discrimination for the language she speaks. An example: “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.”

At the beginning of Manson’s essay, she talks about how her silence is described by others as sadness. She then explains how she is not actually sad, and being sad is expressed differently, but she just has a hard time getting her thoughts out. By the end of the essay, she learns that her silence is actually a good thing, as it helped her cope with things she learned while exploring history. For example: “Silence helped me cope with the truly unspeakable. It allowed me connect to myself and to those around me.”

In Sedaris’ essay, the most prominent Literacy Narrative I found was the explanation of an event through personal experiences. The essay also goes in line with the literacy narratives used to connect others through discourses. Sedaris explains in the essay how he felt scared and threatened by his French teacher in France, which is a discourse he shared with other students. However, he did not really seem to care about connecting it to a larger meaning or message, like Manson’s for example.

Anzaldua clearly disagrees with this statement after describing how there is another language she speaks called Pachuco. She describes it as a “language of rebellion, both against Standard Spanish and Standard English” (Page 72). This language consists of different slang terms and phrases from both English and Spanish, combining the two worlds together. As a result, this language eliminates the “firm line” described as a border between English and Spanish. Other examples like Pachuco is the common hybrid language Spanglish where a person would mix the two languages. 

A style of writing I have noticed by Anzaldua was her constant use of Spanish phrases every now and then to support her idea of using both languages as a bridge to a greater understanding of language. She uses Chicano Spanish terms to explain how it is different from a standard Spanish that is taught in most schools. “We leave out initial syllables, saying tar for estar, toy for estoy, hora for ahora” (Page 72). By doing this, she is able to give the reader a better understanding of how not every person of Spanish origin speaks the same type of Spanish. 

One of the conventions for a literacy narrative Liao describes is how they begin with a moment the writer experiences whether it is a cultural tradition or a particular discourse community that the narrator joined. In this case, Sedaris recounts how his first day of French class was and the diverse community he is surrounded by. However, Sedaris didn’t provide any takeaways for the reader that is clear. It almost seems like he intentionally did this for the reader to draw their own conclusion.

I believe that Manson can still relate to this quote towards the end of the essay however, only to a certain extent. While she did start to improve her vocabulary by working on herself as she states on page 86, she later added that when she lost her grandmother she became silent again. She states, “I feel something, but I don’t know what it is,” thus implying that even though she improved on her communication skills, she still couldn’t address her emotions which were a completely different problem. 

1.  In the essay How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldúa, she disagrees that their are firm lines between different languages and people that speak different languages.  “Chicano Spanish is not incorrect, it is a living language”. This line demonstrates that, while various people speak different languages, the goal of language is to communicate and connect with one another. She also demonstrates that even if she speaks different languages, there may be a shared reality, because she speaks different languages and communicates in different languages.

2. Anzaldua is a persuasive writer in my opinion because she takes a stand for what she really believes in. She chose to base her literary narrative on the difficulties she has faced throughout her life in a different language. Her writing is virtually contradictory, if not outright defiant. Her entire essay is about her inability to express herself in the way she desired, despite the fact that it is written bilingually. As the reader learns about her inability to change languages, Anzaldua demonstrated in her work that she was able to rise above all of the criticism and drift towards success, inspiring inspiration.

3. Liao’s literacy narrative conventions are most visible in Sedaris’ essay, as they both learn a new language from not knowing to know, from confusion to fluency. However, Sedaris believes that the convention that Liao mentioned is that “Literacy narratives both show and tell.” and must illustrate ideas about things as a result of one’s own experiences. However, in Sedaris’ essay, It appears like she’s complaining about her French teacher’s harshness in the classroom, but she didn’t elaborate on how she improved her French comprehension. Instead, she simply asserts that she understands the teacher’s final remarks. 

4. By the end of her piece, I don’t believe Manson feels the same way she did at the beginning. The situation wasn’t totally solved, but she tried her best and was satisfied with the outcome. “Even if my thoughts were incomplete, I stated what I had to say.” There was more to it. You may count on me for the rest of your days! My words were not enough, but I did the best I could” (Manson, 88). Without being self-conscious, she accepts that she has a problem with vocabulary as well as the ability to express her thoughts.