"Suddenly, through language, through writing, my grief and my joy could be shared with anyone who would listen." Coming into the language by Jimmy Santiago Baca writes a personal piece on his experience in a different area for him and how he felt. He felt targeted and ridiculed,because when people asked him questions he felt the hang rope tighten around his neck and the trapdoor creak. He also felt humiliated, intimidated and vulnerable because he was not able to express himself . As he was in jail and had nothing better to do he stole a book and because his interest grew vastly he then came onto writing, which is what he liked best, and he expressed his pain through the writing. Reading and writing can have a different and major effect on …show more content…
people. Baca has finally found his own outlet from pain and suffering from the past.
He talks about his experience as a target and how he knew everyone looked at him and also talks about the embarrassment and repetitiveness he had towards his fellow community because he felt prejudiced and on edge because he didn’t know what would happen to him. Then when he was in jail, he starts to read a book and likes it, but that lead to his “new found hobby” writing poetry, he says “he had a place to stand for the first time in his life”. Meaning that through his writing, he could finally feel safe, judgement free. Which gave him the confidence to write poetry, by feeling redemption from his past experience of school and when he felt like an outsider. “He also says through language I was free”. Showing the reader automatically he felt free for a reason suggesting his early to teen years he felt more than uncomfortable he felt not safe or trapped by the society he lived …show more content…
in. I think Baca is showing his side as a person that most people if not all, have struggled in their life at least once, but also his writing suggests that what could be common to one man can be revolutionary to another showing a real life situation. This stemmed from his experience in school and then his interaction with his community which lead him to avoid those certain type situations and until he was in jail bored out of his mind he became interested in all of it. As a reader, I think it's because of the jail environment I believe he felt there he could not be judged nor felt oddly left out. But also that was a benefit to him becoming a better reader and writer, he talks about his growth as a writer and also the process of forgiveness and redemption and how it made him feel. Even with Baca’s improvement he was excited to read more, but his sister felt intimidated too, because she could not write or read, an example of another person besides Baca’s struggle. This piece of literature about Baca describes his experience from struggling with social prejudice and then to his relief when writing his poetry.
He also he finds peace and remembers only his good memories to make himself anew and to finally let himself be. Once he let his rebirth happen, he felt a part of him that was missing that couldn’t have been found before. I think Baca’s article talks about the different experiences a Chicano had in a different country or land. He felt like a victim of social prejudice and pondered when he was little and didn’t do well in school. I think his past experiences do have a key in his perspective and attitude towards the people he later felt targeted by but, just as it affected him in a negative way it affected him in a positive way as well. Negative because of the put downs he’s had in the past which pushed him down, to not be motivated to learn the most basic things like reading and writing. Baca did have a terrifying or troublesome pasts, but once HE reached out it lead him to the one thing he would turn out to love. This article mostly shows Baca’s underdog story and to most it's relatable or easy to identify, making this a story about the struggle to interest then lead to life
work.
Jimmy Baca’s story “Coming into Language” describes his emotional childhood and what he went through while in prison. At seventeen Baca still didn’t know how to read or write. Throughout the story, he shares his struggle with language and how prison eventually brought himself to learn how to read and write. Jimmy Baca then uses examples in his story explaining how he admired language and used it to free himself from the cruel world he grew up in.
In analyzing both writers, Tan and Rodriguez express conflicting emotions. Tan describes her bilingual experience as a language of intimacy, a kind of English
His final layer of skin has allowed him to connect to the youth and use his gift of poetry to help those in
For this specific essay that I read it is based on the effects of language and its values. I happened to read the essay called, “Coming into Language,” by a convict named Jimmy Santiago Baca. He was born in 1952 as an Apache Indian with a Chicano relation. Ever since Jim was a young individual he has been in and out of jail and roamed the streets before knowing the basics of right and wrong. From an early age he didn’t ever get a chance to read or understand writings. Because of his poor upbringing he wasn’t able to gain access to knowledge, and did not know that dropping out of the 9th grade could hurt the rest of his life. In the essay, Baca mainly focused on writing the essay to explain his values and beliefs. I believe that Baca wanted to bring his thoughts across to the Chicano decent and to other jail inmates who didn’t understand their upbringings as well. There is clear reasoning for this, stated in the essay it mentions when Baca started showing the Chicano’s and other prisoners, they too were building an interest. The main purpose of this essay is to show that people can change and make a difference. From a person who was given nothing, and dealt with misery for his first half of his life was able to learn to read and write (then later on learned to write poems.)
“Se Habla Español,” is written by a Latin author, Tanya Barrientos; and Amy Tan, a Chinese author, wrote “Mother Tongue”. In both literate narratives the authors write about their experiences with language and how it impacted their lives. In This essay we will be discussing the similarities as well as the differences in the stories and the authors of “Se Habla Español” and “Mother Tongue”. We will discuss how both authors use a play on words in their titles, how language has impacted their lives, how struggling with language has made them feel emotionally, and how both authors dealt with these issues.
In closing, Francisco faced many hardships throughout his life. He had to adapt to his life here in the United States, deal with being a male in his family, as well as face discrimination. Through all the hard times, family and getting a good education were always his top priorities. With the help of his teachers and counselors, he was able to succeed in school, unlike the majority of the students. Francisco is a true hero in the eyes of many Hispanic immigrants who come to the United States and strive to be the best they can be.
In the following excerpt from the autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the third paragraph is distinguished from the rest of the passage due to the immediate shift of attitude, and exhibiting a somewhat of an ebullience through this hopeful vision of becoming forever free, which is effectively displayed by his use of figurative language and short and concise like syntax.
Like in the poem, illiteracy leaves a person vulnerable to be taken advantage of. This poor soul unknowingly signed away the rights to his own freedom by leaving his mark.
He creates a vision of relief at the beginning of the passage by means of diction, similes, and an impeccable amount of imagery. Douglass also applies an approach for the application of syntax, diction, and connotative sense to amplify the feelings of loneliness and paranoia presented after emancipation. The result is the masterpiece that fluently runs from one state of mind following his escape to another. It is a masterpiece with a timeless sense of moral values being unconsciously taught to its audience, whether or not they succeed in deciphering it. Works Cited Frederick Douglass.
In the passage of the Narrative by Fredrick Douglass, the author masterfully conveys two complimentary tones of liberation and fear. The tones transition through the use of diction and detail. The passage is written entirely in first person, since we are witnessing the struggles of Fredrick Douglass through his eyes. Through his diction, we are able to feel the triumph that comes with freedom, along with the hardships. Similarly, detail brings a picturesque view of his adversity.
English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize her belief that there are more than one proper way (proper English) to communicate with each other. Tan hopes her audience to understand that the power of language- “the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth”- purposes to connect societies, cultures, and individuals, rather than to rank our intelligence.
Tan first presented a love for her mother. The words and candour of speech that her mother uses reminds her of home and family. Her mother’s way of speaking seems natural to Tan and shaped how she interacted and reflected on the world around her. Tan took issue with the term “broken” as a description of her mother 's language because she saw nothing broken or limited in the way that her mother was able to share ideas. The limits for her mother was not how she organized her words in her sentences but rather it was how people would treat her when they heard her speak the way she does. Tan became accustomed to dealing with authorities who would not listen to her mother 's broken language. The stockbroker who tried not to pay her and the doctor who ‘lost’ her test results. Tan however also believes that her mother limited her in the way she was able to learn and what she excelled at in school. Math and sciences came easier to Tan than language, she struggled with the ambiguity of writing. Tan out of rebellion and passion started to write seriously and went on to write novels like The Joy Luck Club with complex sentence structure and academic words. She later found that using her family and her mother’s English that she was able to see her mother for her true ideas and passion. Her story is one of a second generation
...xpressing her Chinese culture. Mastering a second language allows her to articulate her and her mother’s thoughts; it is a foundation for her pride and a foundation to express herself. For Gloria Anzaldua, instead of choosing one language over the other, she chose a mix of the two and fights for it. She realized the value of her language when she lost it and now treasures it. The kind of Spanish she speaks is neither English nor Spanish, but both. It is overflowing with culture from Medieval Spain, France, Germany, etc., just from the origins of the words. It is her pride and a representation of herself, fighting and living. In conclusion, in addition to Lera Boroditsky’s article proving that the structure of language affects how we think, the articles by Eric Liu, Amy Tan, and Gloria Anzaldua show how language is a foundation for a person’s culture, pride, and self.
It is relatively easy to see the repression of blacks by whites in the way in which the little black boy speaks and conveys his thoughts. These racial thoughts almost immediately begin the poem, with the little black boy expressing that he is black as if bereaved of light, and the little English child is as white as an angel. The wonderful part of these verses is the fact that the little black boy knows that his soul is white, illustrating that he knows about God and His love.
It is this moment of recollection that he wonders about the contrast between the world of shadows and the world of the Ideal. It is in this moment of wonder that man struggles to reach the world of Forms through the use of reason. Anything that does not serve reason is the enemy of man. Given this, it is only logical that poetry should be eradicated from society. Poetry shifts man’s focus away from reason by presenting man with imitations of objects from the concrete world.