If Black English Isn T A Language Essay

In “Mother Tongue,” Tan reflects on her various English’s she discovers herself to have throughout her many interactions. Specifically, her “language of intimacy”, her “broken English”, and her “perfect English”. Though these are all just variations of the same language, each one holds the relationship Tan has with said person. For instance, Tan only uses her “broken English”

On one hand James Baldwin is addressing his letter to his nephew, but on the other hand the text is also applicable to the entire black community who is oppressed by society; and to the whites who need to recognize the need for equality. Baldwin addresses the letter to the teenager, James, and additionally descriptively clarifies how this deadly situation applies to many dark-skinned men. Contrastingly, the novelist realizes how the privileged population will hear this message as well, which Baldwin makes clear when he metaphorically states, “I hear the chorus of the innocents screaming, ‘No! This is not true! How bitter you are!’”(Baldwin

James Baldwin was a prominent African American writer, social critic, and racial justice advocate in the 1960’s and 70’s. In his 1963 Talk to Teachers he aimed to persuade an audience of teachers that education must exist to challenge systems and structures of power and that when it does not, it only serves to reinforce them and amplify their injustice. He specifically focuses on racial hierarchies and white supremacy in the United States. He achieves his persuasive purpose through the strategic use of first, second, and third person pronouns and the use of evocative language, and emphasizes the actionability of his message with anaphora.

The idea of relating public and private events in Baldwin’s own experiences is instituted later in the essay in order to transition from narrative to analysis. Baldwin started telling a story about when he lived in New Jersey before the time of his father’s death. He talked about his personal treatment by white people in the south, a first hand account of the racism of that particular era. He learned of the hostility of the Jim Crow Laws inflicted on African Americans during that time period. His story was analogous to nearly all African Americans at that point. When Baldwin lived in New Jersey, he became exposed to the racism of the south that occurred in restaurants and diners. During one of those experiences he wrote, “I

Baldwin describes the whites as believing the blacks are inferior to them and that the white presumptions of black people have defined the place of blacks in society for many years. He states that “[his nephew was] born into a

The essays, "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan and "Public and Private Language" by Richard Rodriguez are recollections of both of the author’s personal encounters and difficulties with the gap that was created between their families by differences in languages. These two writers grew up with bilingual families, in which English was not the primary language. Consequently, they had a hard time accepting and understanding the issues surrounding the different languages they spoke with their families at home, and within society. Because of this, the gap between their public and private languages that had been created through the introduction of a second language slowly grew larger, and eventually impacted their relationships with their family and caused them to view them in a different light. In their writing, Both Tan and Rodriguez reflect on their personal experiences and memories and illuminate the effects that a private language can have on various aspects of life.

In Richard Rodriguez's essay , “ Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood ” he writes about how he struggled as a child who only spoke Spanish language but lives in a society where the “public” language is English . He believes that speaking proper English will somehow help him fit into society and find his “true” identity. Throughout the essay he contrast the Spanish language identity and English language identity. As a young boy, Rodriguez finds consolation and safety in his home where they only speak Spanish. He feels that he only has a true identity when he is at home surrounded by those who speak the same language as him . On the contrary , he becomes trapped and disoriented when not being able to speak / understand the English language . He feels as if he is not part of “their world” and has no identity in society. By comparing and contrasting Spanish language identity and English language identity . Rodriguez's essay is an example that speaking different languages should not make anyone choose an identity . In fact being able to speak and understand multiple languages in his case Spanish and English makes the language a part of his identity, but with two different sides .

Baldwin determines that violence and racial separatism are not acceptable solutions for achieving “power”. Baldwin believes that black people will only be able to achieve lasting influence in America if they love and accept white people. In contrast, writing 52 years after Baldwin, Coats tells his own son to “struggle” but not

James Baldwin in “Notes of a Native Son” writes about the death of his father and his struggle in America during segregation. He also reveals that he didn’t have a very good relationship with his ill father. Throughout the essay there is a repetition of bitterness. Also, Baldwin’s experiences reveal his purpose for writing the essay. One passage that is especially revealing is on page 222 which says, “When he died I had been away from home for a little over a year. In that year I had had time to become aware of the meaning of all my father’s bitter warnings, had discovered the secret of his proudly pursed lips and rigid carriage: I had discovered the weight of white people in the world. I saw that this had been for my ancestors and now would be for me an awful thing to live with and that the bitterness which had helped to kill my father could also kill me.” This passage reveals how Baldwin’s relationship with his father, and his father’s warnings help demonstrate how hatred can cause negative effects on African Americans.

Baldwin, however, describes his father as being a very black-like “African tribal chieftain” (64) who was proud of his heritage despite the chains it locked upon him. He is shown to be one with good intentions, but one who never achieved the positive outcome intended. His ultimate downfall was his paranoia such that “the disease of his mind allowed the disease of his body to destroy him” (66). Baldwin relates the story of a white teacher with good intentions and his father’s objection to her involvement in their lives because of his lack of trust for any white woman. His father’s paranoia even extended to Baldwin’s white high school friends. These friends, although they could be kind, “would do anything to keep a Negro down” (68), and they believed that the “best thing to do was to have as little to do with them as possible” (68). Thus, Baldwin leaves the reader with the image of his father as an unreasonable man who struggled to blockade white America from his life and the lives of his children to the greatest extent of his power. Baldwin then turns his story to focus on his own experience in the world his father loathed and on his realization that he was very much like his father.

I was twelve years old when my family decided to move to America and I can still recall the memories when I left India. I was horrified. What worried me most was going to a new school where I would have to communicate in an unfamiliar language. I feared that other kids would look down upon me for my inability to speak English properly. However, in the essay “Mother Tongue”, the author Amy Tan gives a different, a more optimistic outlook on the various forms of English that immigrants speak as they adapt to the American culture. Using simple language to develop her argument, she casually communicates to the audience rather than informing, which helps the audience understand what is being presented. Tan’s mother plays an important role in her outlook of language because she helps her realize that language not only allows one to be a part of a culture, but also create one’s identity in society. Amy Tan shares her real life stories about cultural racism and the struggle to survive in America as an immigrant without showing any emotions; which is an enlightening experience for the audience. It reveals how a non-native English speaker handles everyday situations.

Tan said, "But to me, my mother's English is clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, and full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world"(Tan 230). An author of this life essay expressed how her understanding her mother's broken language.

In the essay “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan discusses the influence of her mother’s “broken” English have had on her style of writing. Tan always talks with her mother in a different sort of English that relates to family talk, her mother tongue, the language she grew up with. Initially, she was ashamed of her mother’s English because it causes her mother to loss respect from others. When Tan was fifteen, she had to call people and pretended to be her mother while her mother whispered things to her in broken English. Tan first time realized the power of language that you need to use different English to communicate with different people.

In “Mother Tongue”, the article talks about how a Chinese immigrate was limited, ignore, deny of her right because she could not speaking correct English until her daughter that can speak English come to her aids. Amy Tan communicate about her affection and attraction of language, and how language can recall a feeling, a visual image, and how the language it a device she adopted every day in writing. Tan also take about how she is aware of the diverse ways she uses the English language, she was invited to a program where she have to give a speech about her book to a group of people and trying to use the correct grammar that she has learnt when she was in school, and from books. During Tan speech, she notice that her mother was sitting among

“Mother Tongue” is an essay by American writer Amy Tan who was born to immigrant parents from china. She writes this essay after looking at the different forms of English she has used in her life. Her mother played a crucial role in her becoming aware of the power language gives an individual and differences in the language she used in different aspects of her life. The language that Amy Tan talks about is English and how her form of English differs from that of her mother. The event that was described in the beginning paragraphs of her essay with her mother helped her acknowledge the importance and power of language and how people should be more aware of the different types of “Englishes” that exist in society today, not only should they be