Code Switching in William Wells Brown's Clotel
Everyone has various styles of speaking and various ranges of vocabulary that they utilize depending upon with whom they speak. This concept, known as code switching, portrays an integral part of our lives in today’s society. The fact that different groups of people speak in different ways necessitates the use of code switching. One would not speak to a group of high school students in the manner that one would speak to a scholar, or speak to a prison inmate in the same regard that one would speak with the President of the United States. Speaking in standard American English and then in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), or Ebonics, portrays the most prominent use of code switching in today’s society, especially among American youths. Today, people utilize code switching to associate better amongst a group of people. In William Wells Brown’s Clotel, code switching plays an important role in the escape of two slaves, outwitting a train employee, and simply showing the difference between a slave’s behavior with other slaves and the slave’s behavior in the presence of his owner.
People typically change their way of speaking in a manner that is advantageous for themselves. The narrator portrays the advantage of code switching in the way that Clotel and William escape slavery. Clotel and William impersonate a gentleman and slave leaving Mississippi. William does not represent the typical uneducated slave; he “was a tall, full-bodied Negro, whose very countenance beamed with intelligence” (141). William speaks more eloquently than the average slave, portrayed when he tells Clotel, “There, Miss Clotel, you said if you had the means you would leave this place; there is...
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... proper English to receive a higher level of respect from the slave-owner. Sam portrays how someone can change his or her way of speaking based on the surrounding people.
In William Wells Brown’s Clotel, the use of code switching aids in the escape of two slaves and prevents a free slave from paying an unfair price for riding aboard a train. Code switching is also represented by a slave in the manner used by most – to fit in amongst a group of people and to speak on their level. Nearly everyone utilizes the concept of code switching, from scholars to athletes, from Americans to Africans. Code switching portrays a universal concept and an important part of our society. Without the utilization of code switching, people would have a harder time understanding one another, and social gatherings involving different groups of people would not be as comfortable.
Characters are always changing, in speech, thoughts, actions, and looks, whether it is or isn’t for the better. In the story, Code Talker, by Joseph Bruchac, the protagonist, Kii Yazhi(Ned Begay) changes mentally and physically through the story in many different ways from the beginning to the end. Ned is secretive of revealing that he still speaks Navajo, despite being shunned by white people. However, his secretiveness later turns into pride as he leaves school to pursue another path he is sure is right for him. Overall, Ned changed through major events in his life that proved him of his own
a skill that would provide him with his passport to freedom. The narrative itself acts as a form of protest literature against slavery and also persuades the reader that Douglass has been transformed and is no longer a slave, but a free man.
Douglass was taught the alphabet by his master’s wife he didn’t approve because “it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant...
In Verhsawn Ashanti Young’s article titled, “Nah, We Straight: An argument Against Code Switching,” he makes his objectives clear as he argues against people Right to their own language. The author questions the advantage of standard American English as opposed to other types of English. He refers to those aspect as code switching, which he believes can lead to racist thinking. Code switching, according to Young, calls out for one way of speaking to be omitted in favor of others, based on one's rhetorical situations. The author points out that students are required to translate from Afro-American English or Spanglish to standard English and not the other way around, which is concerning. Youngs method to get around this segregation is the usage
Slave masters wanted their slaves to remain dumbed and to never learn to read. In Speech Sounds there were two sets of people , the ones who could talk but could not read, and the ones who could read but couldn’t talk. This is how it was for slaves except most of them could talk instead of read. Only a select few could read, like Fredrick Douglass , "his relationship to written texts was a struggle not only against the laws that denied him literacy but also against a construction of literacy that aligned it with racial identity. "(Messmer 8). The ones who could read or write often hid their knowledge because they knew the dangers that could happen if they were found out. "For Douglass, then, it is the southern states' systemic cordoning off of literacy as a form of discourse that is denied to die slaves that inspires his resolve to acquire it." (Messmer 7). Same as in the story, Rye did not talk around other people she knew could not talk because of the danger it could’ve caused her. Other people who wished they could talk like her would try and kill her and for Obsidian people who could not read like he could would try to kill him. (Butler
However, she points the fact that for many students, code-switching is a necessity born of unjust socio-economic conditions. That is to say that there are some students and citizens that don’t have a choice to code-switch or not if they wish to rise in the socio-economic class. Although the ability to encourage students to code-switch in their educational realms seems to be the remedy for the achievement gap, it can be dangerous. If the students engages in compartmentalization of their cultures, it shields their behavior and is easily swayed by the demands of the job market, even if the beliefs and customs of the job markets do not line up with the values of the home (Morton
When you are eating food, you have taste buds-which are sensitive. The taste buds are on your tongue, which then they send a message to the brain, where the brain receives it. This action tells you what is happening with your body. Looking at Richard Rodriguez And Bell Hooks essays, which they show the struggles that they went through during their time, when they were growing as a people. The ability to code-switch was a struggle for Rodriguez and Hooks, who came from a different discourse community, which the power of language had already perceived their identity. The term code switching means switching personalities among certain discourse communities, and the use of language to define us in every day life. We often face code switching in everyday life, but we must acknowledge- when it is happening. Having the ambition to overcome our struggles is already hard enough, even though it could be in school: work: among our own family. Doesn’t the power of language perceived our identity?
In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary “Pike County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding. (Twain 2)
... to whom the light of knowledge does not mean anything. So, the white society directed a man into a slave. However the reader of this Narrative knows that the slaveholders’ attempt to convert a man into a slave was unsuccessful in Douglass’ case. His kind hearted mistress sparked a fire within Douglass when she taught him to read. That fire of manhood eventually raised within his heart and his manpower erased his slave like attitudes, and made a slave into a powerful man. Next he was ready to escape from South which was further a big turning point in his life. His desire for freedom was as strong as his desire to read. He said, “This was what I wanted” (92). Douglass tried to save others from abusing by writing “several protections”(94). At the end of the book, Douglass’ huge change of position made him a powerful speaker, teacher, and saver from a passive slave.
Douglass uses formal English instead of informal to better appeal to his audience, who is used to the formal way of writing. He does not write in the vernacular, which is very deviant from the way a freed slave at the time would write. Douglass does this to appeal to his white educated audience so that he would, in the narrative, appear an equal to any of the readers. He also uses politically correct terms, such as “colored man†instead of the offensive “nigger†so that his audience will not feel uncomfortable with the text.
The African influence of American English can be found as far back as the Seventeenth century. Although its influence may have began that far back, the influence of African American slang has arguably reached its peak (so far) in the last half on the 20th century. Evidence of this can be seen in magazines, music, television, and films. Perhaps more importantly, evidence can be seen in the way that people of ethnic groups, other than African American, have changed their speech due to this influence. The Equal Rights Movement lead to a paradigm shift in African American linguistic consciousness due to Black intellectuals, scholars, activists, artists, and writers deliberately engaging in a search for a way to express Black identity and the particular circumstances of African American life. Although there had been strides in Black pride in the past, this was the first one to call for linguistic Black p...
When a new slave is introduced to the plantation, Sarney, a young slave, notices something different about him. Within the first nights the new slave, John, offers to teach Sarney letters in exchange for rolls of tobacco. Every night from then on, Sarney begins to learn the alphabet letter by letter- something very dangerous and illegal for a slave. One day, talking with John and Mammy, John explains to them how he was a runaway that eventually became free. “And you came back?” Mammy asks him, “Why?”. “To teach reading” John explains simply to her (pg. 55). It turns out John could have safely lived the rest of his life in peace- instead he gave up his freedom to return to the nightmare of slavery and for one reason only- to teach slaves how to read and write. “We all have to read and write so we can write about this- what they doing to us.” (pg.58). Because he realizes that there is a real problem at stake, John was willing to give up a free life to better the chances of other slaves.
In using descriptions of slave life, ironic situations, and general frankness, Douglass is appealing to the emotions of his audience. Douglass is letting people know of the terrors of slavery by touching their emotions. He gets them motivated by being interesting and then builds upon this by describing his life in simple terms that all humans can relate to.
At age twelve, Douglas became a slave in the household of Mr. Hugh. Mrs. Auld was very kind and considerate when Douglas met her, because it was the first time having a slave in the household. She even taught him the A B C’s but Mr. Auld forbade instructing him. However, in the later part of the story, she changes into a wicked mistress. Mr. Auld expressed “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master-to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world” (1) and this revelation was an eye opener of freedom awaits him. Mr. Auld tells his wife that if a slave was taught to read, it will cause Paul to be not satisfied and sad because he will yearn for freedom. Paul learned that learning to read is the key to his freedom. He was longing for freedom because he was treated badly. I am so impressed with the effort he put forth learning how to read and be a good writer. However, he regrets learnin...
These repeated words show the reader that the narrator identifying himself as a “colored” man is sincerely shameful and desires to abandon his colored race. In addition, the word choice of debating, shame, forsake, and inferiority in the context conveys a feeling of negative categorization to the reader while the narrator is talking about the African American race. This projects the narrator’s idea, which is carried throughout the novel, that being a “colored” man in society is looked down upon and shameful. In the beginning of the novel when the narrator is conversing with his mother for his true identity, there is a sense of shame as the narrator says, “ She must have felt that I was examining her, for she hid her face in my hair…” (8). Also when the narrators mother talks about his white father, a positive sense of categorization is delivered as the mother says, “ No, I am not white you- your father is one of the greatest men in the country- the best blood of the south is in you” (8). These two quotes early in the novel connect to the narrator’s general idea that being an African American in society is categorized as shameful and negative while being white is classified as the “best” and “great.” This idea is relevant to the social issue of racial