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Frankenstein Language Analysis

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What is language? In the Merriam-Webster dictionary language is defined as “the system of words or signs that people use to express thoughts and feelings to each other”. This is a very broad definition and captures so many of the tools that we use each and every day to communicate with each other. It includes spoken or written words as well as non-verbal cues and signs, including sign language. It also captures systems of communication such as computer languages and braille. This is why an historical figure like Helen Keller as referenced by Perkins.org ,who was deaf and blind was also able to acquire language skills and give a voice to disabled people. She is a perfect example that language empowers us to understand, question and change …show more content…

If language gives us power, are individuals without language powerless to understand, question and change our world? We will explore this question in the text below with references to the novels Ru by Kim Thuy and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Language gives us the power to understand our world. It is through language that we acquire knowledge and ideas about the world we live in. As children, we learn from our families and later through formal education and peers. Where we live in the world greatly influences what we learn and how we perceive others in the world around us. Perhaps the more languages one knows, the more empowered one is. The Vietnamese refugees in the novel Ru had knowledge of language and were able to communicate and collaborate with others and even exert some influence over their peers in Vietnam. Once in Canada, though, their sphere of influence was limited to their family and other refugees from Vietnamese because they spoke only Vietnamese. Although the parents spoke French as they had learned it in Vietnam, the children did not. This is why the mother wanted the children to learn French and English as quickly as possible. She knew that without the language of their new home, their power would be limited. “My mother wanted me to talk, to learn French as fast as possible, English too, …show more content…

Everyone uses language to influence others, whether it is in our small family world or the world in a broader sense. Mark Pagel in his Ted talk, “How language transformed humanity” (ted.com) described how language gives us the power to change the world as follows: “I’m talking about your language, of course, because it allows you to implant a thought from your mind directly into someone else’s mind”. Ultimately, language gives every one of us the power to effect change by using our knowledge and opinions to influence others and the way we see the world. This is what the politicians and the media in our society seek to do every day. The broader our knowledge of language and the subtleties of language in our different spheres (home, work, society and planet), the more broadly we can effect change. In Ru, for example, we learn that the physical language varies depending on the culture. “If a mark of affection can sometimes be taken for an insult, perhaps the gesture of love is not universal: it too must be translated from one language to another, must be learned.” (Thúy 96) In order to effect change, we must have knowledge of these subtleties of language. Further, in the novel Frankenstein the monster attempted to change his world by coercing Frankenstein into creating another monster who would be his mate. Unfortunately, he did this by killing those

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