An Analysis Of Jimmy Santiago Baca's Coming Into Language

Ever since the birth of mankind, words and letters have been the tools for many things, from everyday life communication to grand diplomatic treaties between countries. As time goes on, words and letters usage changes as it’s the nature of all things that exist. Through the essay “Coming into Language”, Jimmy Santiago Baca presents to us his amazing journey to obtain the wings of freedom and shows us how writing could alter and elevate a person’s life to a whole new level.

Baca lived his harsh youth illiterate and lonely as he dropped out of school at a rather young age. In addition, he was falsely accused of murdering and drug using which caused most of his early age to be behind bars. He was illiterate not only because of his background but even Baca himself once thought that reading is a waste of time and there is no purpose in doing it (Baca, 154). But things took an interesting turn when

Baca first learned how to read on his own. Words and letters embraced him and set him free as if a dreadful disease was lifted from him (154). We can relate this to a famous saying by Frederick Douglass “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free”.
As Baca wrote his first words, he felt as if he truly lives for the first time in his life.

Words and letters empowered him, drove his spiritual life wild. “Through language I was free” he said (154). He was freed from the demons that tortured him; freed from people’s contempt and freed from his own anger (Baca, 154). With each words Baca wrote, he immersed himself in poetry; letting his soul fly to a world beyond imagination, his own world. Such immense power words and letters hold that a man although behind bars yet constraint and hopelessness he doesn’t feel. If I were a prisoner sitting in a deep dark cell. The loneliness would devour me whole as I fall into a state of deep despair. But this didn’t happen to Baca. Indeed he was alone in his dark cell yet through writing, his soul escaped his body and flew out to the open world outside the cell’s dark grey window and from there he became one with the grass, feeling its green feelings while bathing in the sunlight (156). He doesn’t seems like a prisoner at all. In fact, he seems like the perfect definition of a free

man.
From the essay, we can see how writing liberated Baca and lead him to a whole new world. Although he was an inmate, Baca doesn’t feel confined at all. Words and letters saved him. They gave him power, gave him life and freedom. Baca states this himself “Writing bridged my divided life of prisoner and free man”