In Gloria Anzaldúa’s How to Tame a Wild Tongue she describes the struggle of growing up in America where she cannot speak one language without receiving ridicule from opposing groups. Though Anzaldúa identifies mainly as a Chicano, she also lists seven other languages in which she engages with Anzaldúa 473). The diversity and history behind each native tongue emphasizes the internal conflict Anzaldúa faces when choosing what language to speak. Throughout Anzaldúa’s work she switches between English…
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Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” demonstrates her struggles within her community and with the “anglos” or White Americans. It also explains how she resolves those struggles by accepting herself. But, in coincidence her essay connects with Amy Tan’s “ Mother Tongue”. Anzaldua uses her essay to show her life as an American though her eyes. First and foremost, in “How to tame a wild tongue” Anzaldua insinuates her struggles with Anglos growing up. When she was younger she was “caught…
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there's more to it: blacks and other minorities segregate themselves only because society has taught them that grouping together is the only way to stay safe. In support of this argument I contend that this feeling of being ashamed of one’s own native tongue is nothing less than marginalization, in order to appropriate the labor of the Hispanic Americans to keep them from assimilating into the American mainstream. In the 1960’s American society was influenced by movements that were fighting the political…
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Gloria Anzaldúa's piece “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” focuses on what it is like to grow up constantly reprimanded to speak English instead of Spanish. Throughout this excerpt, Anzaldúa stresses the importance of retaining your native language as this heritage shapes your identity and she conveys this message through incorporating components of a definition essay. According to Anzaldúa, language is one’s native tongue that ties together where someone originates and who this person is. Anzaldúa also…
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How would you define a person? Well a person is defined from their voice, language, and identity because it all connects to their culture and to who they are as a person. In Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” shows the struggle that she had with her voice, language, and identity, because she was Chicano. She had struggles with trying to fit into the American culture and society since she wasn't an “Average American” who was white and spoke perfect English. She was Chicano who had a slight…
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their nations, the diversity shapes the identities of people. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, both have similar subject as they both discussed how different forms of the same language are recognized in society. They emphasize the fact that a person can unconsciously develop different ideas through a language and categorizes an individual by the way they speak. Both articles reflect how the language an individual speak is linked with their identity.…
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America’s Boiling White Pot: How Our Culture Oppresses Others The Melting Pot is often a metaphor for America’s diversity. Where people come from around the world to become part of the stew. Their heritage is boiled away and replaced with the American identity. Unfortunately, our country’s history is built upon assimilating all those different ingredients into the rancid broth we call white American culture. In David Yi’s article, As an Asian American I am Invisible in this Country, the…
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“cover” is a physical, external entity. How initially see things or people, is how we call it until otherwise. Errol Morris author of “Will the Real Hooded Man Please Stands up” recalls a controversial photo that swept the attention of the world. Morris wanted to explore how the use of the media, particularly through photographs led to misidentification of the real “Hooded Man.” Similarly, Gloria Anzaldua in her piece “How to Tame A Wild Tongue” explores how she was misidentified growing because of…
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In the reading "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua, the author describes her experience growing up in the United States with a different culture. Gloria Anzaldua grew up between two cultures, the Mexican culture, and Anglo culture. The insight I received from the reading was the way her people would be discriminated against because of the way they spoke. As a high school student, I am currently learning about old and new immigrants. In the earlier year, America was surrounded by people…
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everyone’s daily life. Gloria Anzaldua expressed how she used code switching in her story “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Anzaldua grew up in Texas, near the Mexico border, to a Mexican-American family. Her family primarily spoke Spanish, but while at school and in the community, they had to speak English, the accepted language of America (Anzaldua 530). Anzaldua did not want her native language to die, so she wrote “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” to express her feelings, and to show how code switching affected…
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