Elaborated Definition Essay

In this response, I am going to discuss how a person’s experience in the U.S can be affect by marginalization based on their ethnicity. I will refer to Tommy Pico’s Nature Poem to provide examples. Tommy Pico is the author of Nature Poem, as a gay, native American male Pico has face a fair share of adversity and marginalization throughout his life. He shares many of his experiences in Nature Poem. Your experiences in the U.S can be different based on your nationality, your sexual preference, and the area you live in.

Typically, a government or political organization that is in power places these restrictions formally or covertly on oppressed groups so that they may be exploited and less able to compete with other social groups. The oppressed individual or group is devalued, exploited and deprived of privileges by the individual or group which has more power" (Barker, 2003).

This voice often refers to the ability to speak up and out about wages and working conditions without fear of reprisals. This voice is represented in the statement as follows:

Marginality talks about the differences in gender and origin and how we are descendants from the original inhabitants who have been on the lands way before the European settlers arrived. Also that some are even descendants from the African

People in society can have interesting views on issues around the world, these views on society are best conveyed through distinctive voices as it evokes feelings from the listener and allows them to relate to the situation through their own personal experiences.

“We feel that our voices are who we are, and that to have more than one, or to use different versions of a voice for different occasions, represents, at best, a Janus-faced duplicity, and at worst, the loss of our very souls” (Smith 133).

Because of this, those that utilize this form of oppression are able to take advantage of individuals and isolate them in society. For example, “racialize groups in the United States, especially Blacks and Latinos, are oppressed through capitalist superexploitation resulting from a segmented labor market that tends to reserve skilled, high-paying, unionized jobs for whites.” (pg. 51) It is here where we see the injustice of exploitation by the ability of one group to “transfer energies to another, and therefore enabling social institutions to help few accumulate while constraining many more.” (pg. 53) As the amount of people that are constrained continues to increase, exploitation begins to take the form of marginalization.

"My commodity as a writer, whatever I'm writing about, is me. And your commodity is you. Don't alter your voice to fit your subject. Develop one voice that readers will recognize when they hear it on the page." –William Zinsser, On Writing Well

As a writer is writing they must critically think of how they want readers to react to their writing. Although the understanding of the writing might be clear a writer should consider that “the aim of writing is communication, not just self-expression” (Murray). A reader can not look into the writers head and understand what they are trying to convey, with that being said, the authors tone in their writing is a huge factor in critical thinking. Since a piece of writing must have a certain tone “writers must hear and respect their own voice” (Murray). I struggle with this because I often have a hard time believing in my own quality of writing. Hearing and respecting your own voice is important because it can help you improve your own writing. Constructive criticism will also help a writer create a better piece of

Marginalization is the process whereby something or someone is pushed to the edge of a group and accorded lesser importance. This is predominantly a social phenomenon by which a minority or sub-group is excluded, and their needs or desires ignored (BusinessDictionary.com). The society exclusion or oppression of an individual.

Who am I? What is it that defines that personality? Anzaldua argues in her essay that the language is what defines one’s identity. Language is indeed an important component of culture, and culture is known to be a crucial definer of identity. People use language to connect to their identities and communicating their realities and values to themselves and to the world around them… In other words, language is important because people use it to express their thoughts and beliefs. “People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances” (Baldwin 109). Consequently, language does not necessarily define identity as much as identity defines language. People decide on

Cinema audience often finds the connection to a film by experiencing what actors or actresses are portraying, mainly through relating with the emotions being projected on screen. These emotions can be presented in many forms in the realm of acting, but the voice plays the biggest role in all of this. This could be the reason why many stars are being hailed for their voices throughout the history of film. When discussing about voices, one could only come to the conclusion of defining it as the spoken language; words that are released from one’s mouth. However, voices are more than just language, in fact voices and language are so different that Barthes seeks to find and explore the gap between these two elements in his essay The Grain of the Voice.

Here is a video that shows the true horrors that refugees and asylum seeker face each day. What is marginalisation? (Slide 3) To some it may just be a definable term like “it’s just pushing people to the margins”, but it is not as simple as that.

Speech is expression of thoughts, through many different actions. Some include writing, artwork, speeches, protests. On occasion in speaking

Different people think, live, view, and judge in distinct ways. That’s what makes life so interesting. The great diversity of the world sometimes has an effect on certain people. Humanity itself has ways of expressing its differences, for example there’s; art, music, fashion, and hobbies, etc. All these are factors that can help identify ones personality, lifestyle, and views on certain topics, etc. This helps define us in a way, it’s a form of expression, whether personal or not.