An Orchestra of Voices:
Zadie Smith’s use and explanation of voice in “Speaking in Tongues”. Every language, every culture, and every person has their own voice. Some people may have multiple voices, some people may have one. But we all have a voice. Our voice changes with us as we grow, experience new things, and essentially just move throughout our lives. Our voices don’t have to stay strictly the same forever, and these experiences are also ways we can develop new and additional voices. In the article (based on a lecture given at the New York Public Library in December 2008) “Speaking in Tongues”, Zadie Smith explains how sometimes we as people will change our voice as time goes on based on who we associate ourselves with, and in Smith’s
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I had read the article multiple times before I listened to it, and while I did catch on to a lot of Smith’s tone and voice, listening to it made a huge difference for me. Smith stated, “to be honest I’m not sure that it is a lecture, it’s more like an orchestra of voices that I’ll try to conduct the best I can.” She defines the “orchestra of voices” as her using examples of voice from Eliza Doolitle, her own brothers, President Barack Obama, Joyce the Tragic Mullato, Macbeth, Stephen Greenblatt, Lord Thomas Macaulay, and Frank O’Hara. Each of these crucial instruments to her lecture, she explained what voice meant to her, and how to find your voice, and how to use your voice to define who you …show more content…
This lecture was given one month into his first term in office as the President of the United States, and she uses a lot of examples of how he used his voice during his campaign and how he would shift his language and vocabulary in a very non-manipulative way. He wasn’t changing his opinion on his political stances, only in a way that he could connect to his current audience. As you read on into the lecture, it gives an example of President Obama on 60 Minutes shortly after he had won the 2008 election. President Obama said, “Hey, I’m not stupid, man, that’s why I’m president,” and we saw him shift into the voice of his childhood. Smith speaks of a Dream City and describes it as “a place of many voices, were the unified singular self is an illusion”, a place that Obama was naturally born into. She explains that Dream City citizens rarely use the pronoun “I”, but rather focus more on using “we”. She notes how Obama used this throughout his campaign, and he used it to draw his audiences together. He never wanted to them to feel as though he was singling them out and away from him, but instead that they were working together for his goals of his hopeful presidency of the United States of
Speaking in Tongues, written by ZZ Packer, is a short story about a young girl who demonstrates extreme character change throughout the story. Tia Townsend starts out as an innocent, conservative church-going girl who grows and evolves into a rebellious teen. Through tone, setting, and a variety of metaphors, we are able to see how the different aspects of Tia’s life contribute to the overall plot. By connecting with the reader, Packer truly demonstrates how the struggles and experiences Tia went through ultimately shaped her as a character.
It is interesting for Lisa Kanae to use three different voices in her book, Sista Tongue. The structure of Sista Tongue is different from standard books as if to make her words flow and become active. Her message still holds truth in today’s society. In many homes, younger generations face the inadequacy of being unable to understand their mother tongues while their parents struggle with learning English. Code-switching is natural for bilingual people and those that speak to other sub-cultures. Lisa Kanae’s different voices are similar to
He implements this emotional appeal into his speech to involve all Americans—people living in the United States of America, regardless of their ethnicity, race, or culture, and to acknowledge that the American people have endured this together, and that they will continue to advance after this event with stronger resolve, stronger than ever. In addition, he implements personification to motivate and empower the American people. “Our nation, this generation, will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future” (Bush, 2001). “This generation”, again a synonym for the American people, with its unwavering resolve, will fight for its freedom persistently. He intimates that the future of America and of democratic freedom is in the hands of the American people; that the American people have the power to control their fate.
Once more, President Obama presented the annual State of the Union Address to the American people. For the most part, Mr. Obama focused on the issues of immigration and health care reform, wages, energy, infrastructure and education; all the while particularly stressing the value of hard work. Like any other discourse, his speech employs various rhetorical devices as well as the elements of the “rhetorical triangle”: ethos, pathos and logos. Thus, in order to gauge the effectiveness of Mr. Obama’s address, one must examine the speech wholly on a rhetorical level, making sure to ignore any personal political views and notions of inaccuracy. Arguably, it also seems that of his various methods, the President’s most effective strategy was to mention personal anecdotes of people planted within his audience. Basically, it appears that the various rhetorical strategies utilized by President Obama in his address were mostly effective; while still, of course, holding some notable flaws.
The president’s inaugural address allows the president to lay out his plans and intentions to excite and motivate people across the country. Since the main reason for his sermon is to inspire rather than educate, Kennedy rarely uses any logical pleads. Yet, Kennedy adequately uses passionate dialect to make the people sense their involvement in what the President says. Kennedy composes the assignment to bring back tranquility and good-wealth as not only his aim, but of the public as well.
President Obama’s Inaugural Speech: Rhetorical Analysis. Barrack Obama’s inauguration speech successfully accomplished his goal by using rhetoric to ensure our nation that we will be in safe hands. The speech is similar to ideas obtained from the founding documents and Martin Luther King’s speech to establish ‘our’ goal to get together and take some action on the problems our country is now facing. As President Barack Obama starts his speech, he keeps himself from using ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’ and replacing it with ‘we’, ‘us’, and ‘together’ to achieve his ethos.
Roy Peter Clark, author of “A More Perfect Union”: Why It Worked, takes a stance on President Barack Obama’s speech while analyzing it. President Barack Obama delivered a speech titled “A More Perfect Union.” His speech focused on the prominent issue of racism in America. In this article, Clark talks about President Obama’s known power and brilliance. Clark makes references and comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and W.EB. DuBois. “A More Perfect Union” features writing techniques that makes the message more defined and effective. President Obama utilizes four closely related rhetorical strategies. Clark broadly explains the purpose of the rhetorical strategies. Allusion, parallelism, two-ness, and autobiography helped to shape President Obama’s speech that that was meant to create
At the time of this speech, Barack Obama is running for the Democratic Presidential candidate as well as being called into question when his former pastor publicly accused the government of committing hateful acts against black Americans. He addresses the American public then tries to persuade them to recognize that he understands both the white Americans and the black Americans. He uses ‘we’ and ‘us’ to show that he truly views the people as one as opposed to various separate groups, “… we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction…” He wants to move past the racial segregation and move towards a truly unified country, and he uses pathos by talking about his upbringing. The use of the descriptions of his youth with a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas shows that he can relate to the common person seeing as he had to adjust to both sides of his families as well as the stigmas that both sides had. The urgency in which Obama answered the accusations of being similar to Wright,
There are two forms of languages; public and private. The "private" language only spoken with family and close intimate relationships. The "public" language used in society, work, and school. Both of these help form two identities, that help us connect and communicate with one another. In the essay “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan and also in the article “Speech Communities” by Paul Roberts ,we will see how both private and public language demonstrate how we view, and grow from each language.
An overwhelming message that Obama mentions throughout the book is the idea that America can offer hope to anyone from any background; and to make sure that every person gets equal opportunity, a couple governmental changes are needed. Many times in the text he says “a new kind of politics, one that can excavate and build upon those shared understandings that pull us together as Americans,” (Obama 9). He continuously describes Abraham Lincoln as an ideal example of this quote. Lincoln, having only two years of Congressional experience, was able to become president and lead the country through som...
He uses allusion and repetition of words to prove his points about racial discrimination. His main goal is for the country to stay united and put discrimination aside, and continue the path of the ones who came before us. Obama alludes to the civil war by saying,” continue the long march” which illustrates the march that the north did to the south to stop race discrimination, as well as the fact how the north opposed with slavery and wanted to make south stop (1). The other device he uses in his speech was the repetition of words by using the word “more” to express his main goal and focus. Although the country is so called “free” his main goal is still to improve America in every way possible and put race discrimination completely aside. In the speech, he expresses his tone by saying,” more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous America.” Which goes to the fact that he is trying to even improve America more in every way possible. If we improve our country even more, then we will not be having any issues in our
Have you ever been to another country, state, or even city and realized how different your accent may be? Have you been asked to repeat a word or phrase that you may say differently? Sometimes we were asked for a good laugh, but that’s not always the case. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, both authors use personal narrative to demonstrate how their lives and identity are affected by their language and culture.
He then appealed to pathos by bringing light to his audience with examples of racial corruption and inequality to highlight the huge need for unity and change. And finally, he capitalized on these sentiments by appealing to the ethos of advocating methods of change. With the great success of this historic and rhetorical speech, Obama assumed a new podium in November of that same exact year, but this time, to accept his election as the President of the United States.
(1) "My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors." Starting with the opening lines of the speech, a shift from the style of Bush, with the multitudes of “my fellow Americans” is evident. Obama’s form of address can be perceived as more inclusive, including all nationalities and ethnicities, applying a more citizen-centered attitude. Also, this style of Obama can be explained on the lines of that citizenry is the cornerstones of the American republic, and that the whole system is based on a grass root diplomacy, rather than an exclusive and elitist system of Bush. Strong Citizenry. (2) "That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age." Obama not only condemns "greed and irresponsibility” of the individuals when commenting on the effects of the global financial crisis, but also criticizes the "collective failure" of the system, the former being prosecutable, the latter not. So the problem will require a major, institutional reform. The president acknowledges the ongoing war on terror; however, he makes no reference to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. A preponderance of the possessive pronoun “our” indicates unity of the people in the time of national peril.
In her article " Do You Speak Presidential?" Trester explains how language is a powerful political tool presidents use to project a sense of pity and it 's not always what you say but how you say it (399). This sheds a light on Mandela 's speech with his use of pathos to target emotion and pity from the audience. "That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common homeland explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict" (419). "Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal" (419). The language and tone Mandela speaks in projects a sense of pity as Trester says. Trester also says how language creates an identity. " Language is and will continue to be an important tool for creating identity" (403). This illuminates on Mandela 's rhetorical use with ethos. Mandela 's image and creditability is well known in South Africa, his past made this a little easier an his connection with the African citizens to be more than just a president but someone they can relate to. Mandela assures the people that he to has gone through the same suffering and long discrimination as well using "we" repetitively in his speech. "We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom" (420). " We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world" (420). William Lutz, a professor of English at Rutgers University speaks on "Doubts About Doublespeak" which I believe also has a take on Mandela 's speech. Lutz 's articles refers to how doublespeak is a language which pretends to communicate but doesn 't (380). The fourth kind of doublespeak is inflated language, makes the ordinary seem