And That’s The Word
The meaning of a word can have a major impact on how you use it. Only a simple word people choose to use can have enough power. It can affect people, community, and even culture. These three authors have something in common. Nancy Mairs, Gloria Naylor and Leonard Pitts Jr. show how the meaning of a word can have such a large impact. These essays show how the language can impact accordingly.
In Mairs, “On Being a Cripple” she believes the word crippled the more proper definition for her condition than other words like disabled and handicapped. As Mairs describes it, crippled is “a clean word, straightforward and precise” (60). Any other word will make her seem like she is at a disadvantage in her state physically and emotionally. Especially the word differently able, as she states it “strikes me as pure verbal garbage” (60). The word crippled is a word that Mairs uses as power to the people she is comfortable with such as her friends and family. Unfortunately, our society has high expectations and is obsessed about their norms and physical appearances. Having Mairs exposed to this society will see that crippled is a very unpreferred, however powerful word. Differently able or any other word similar to cripple is more appropriate than what Mairs prefers.
Regardless of what the society thinks about Mairs and the word cripple, she does not let the word bring her down. She will name herself a cripple and not be named by others. She embraces the word as if she owns the word herself. Instead of having the meaning of the word degrade her, she uses it as a positive manner to boost her self confidence and self-esteem. In her case, “As a cripple, I swagger” (59-60).
More than any other prejudicial language, racial ...
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... at least a majority of them, understand how awkward and degrading the word nigger is. On the other hand, the black people as Pitts describe, “run around making lame excuses and lamer justifications” (1).
For hundreds of years, a simple word used in a language can have a large impact to different people, such as their friends and families. It has enough power to affect a community such as the white and black communities. The meaning of a word also has power to affect culture within this society. They are the words that bring meaning to degrade or to boost self confidence, regardless of condition and to insult or use as an adjective to describe someone, even if it was used for comedy. The words Nancy Mairs, Gloria Naylor and Leonard Pitts Jr. have chosen to use in their essays and letters have power and they always have since the English language have been around.
Disability they have, but styles to tell are more of difference. Nancy Mairs and David Sedaris use writing to address their disability in different ways. In both Nancy Mairs “On Being a Cripple” and David Sedaris “A Plague of Tics”, both authors describe and live with their disabilities in different ways. Mairs uses her familiarity to address the reader where Sedaris recollects his habits in a somewhat humorous way. Even though both have a disability it’s conveyed in two different ways. Mairs comes straight out the gate as being cripple stating “First, the matter of semantics. I am cripple” (Cohen 259). From this point on she goes on to explain her disease which gives you an idea of what’s to come. Sedaris approach is very different as he jumps into examples throughout his childhood and never states his disability. His habits are explained as “tics” while he uses his childhood experiences to describe his disability.
“I am a Cripple,” when people typically hear these words they tend to feel bad for that person, but that is exactly what Mair does not want. She prefers that people treat her the same as they would if she did not have the disease. Throughout the essay, Mair discuses her disease openly. She uses an optimistic tone, so that the reader will not recoil with sadness when they hear her discuss the disease and how it affects her life. In Nancy Mair’s essay “On Being A Cripple,” Mair uses her personal stories, diction, and syntactical structures to create an optimistic tone throughout the essay, so that the audience can better connect story.
In "The Meaning of a Word" and "Being a Chink", Gloria Naylor and Christine Leong examine words of hatred that are meant to scorn, hurt and disgrace people. But these same words could also be used without harmful intentions and in a fashion of endearment amongst the people those words were created for. They each had a different word to discriminate their different culture and ethnicity. These writers discuss the words "nigger" and "chink", which are words in our language mostly ignorant people use. Naylor and Leong are also both minorities who were raised in America. They talk about how discrimination and hatred towards minorities is almost always inevitable in America, which is mostly populated by Caucasians. Naylor and Leong observe how these racial acts of discrimination can unify a group of people even closer together. Naylor didn't know the true meaning of the hate word nigger until it was used against her in a degrading manner. On the other hand Leong already knew what chink meant but wasn't traumatized until she found out her father discovered it.
The two essays “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs and “A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris are excellent pieces of work that share many similarities. This paper would reflect on these similarities particularly in terms of the author, message and the targeted audience. On an everyday basis, people view those with disabilities in a different light and make them conscious at every step. This may be done without a conscious realisation but then it is probably human nature to observe and notice things that deviate from the normal in a society. In a way people are conditioned to look negatively at those individuals who are different in the conventional
Words are only our impressions of them—imprecise, indefinite, unclear. A single word suggests infinite shades of intensity or quality or connotation. They are variable, distinct in each era and dialect, even in each speaking. They are impossible to translate.
Mairs’s inferiority complex which made her question other people’s attitude towards her. In “On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs. She kept believe the way how
Colored people were neat and quiet, niggers were dirty and loud” (Morrison 189). A character in the novel named Geraldine, a fare skinned African American women, married, one child, lives in a nice home with a cat, symbolizes the division of African American within their own culture. The ability to get an education made or broke an African American’s stance in society. While the irony in Geraldine’s characterization is that while she feels she is an upper-class African American, she is still viewed as inadequate as and less prosperous than White Americans. The desire for societal recognition evolved into the need for verification of societal status; with status entailed an education. Society began to allow African Americans who were not as fortunate to attend school r who were not given the same equal education the title of the N-word to remind them of their lack of racial and societal
Mairs recognizes herself as a “cripple” although many people would not want to be called a cripple since they would find it offensive, but Mairs believes it fit her perfectly. Mairs does not like the term “handicapped” or “disabled” because they are not flattering which is why she prefers the word “cripple”. Although she has a serious condition she does not take consideration of other individuals statements, “whatever you call me, I remain cripple. But i don’t care what you call me” (Mairs). This passage demonstrates how brave and strong she is; Mairs is also optimism because she learned to accept herself the way she is, she eventually became confident enough to joke about her serious condition.
The words Negro, nigger, and nigga have always been a sensitive topic, yet it is a topic that needs to be addressed in light of the more common use of its vernacular. One word is used to describe a color, while the others are used to define a people. It’s very clear to many the negative connotation these words carry, but where did these words come from? Furthermore, is there a difference between the word nigger and nigga; and why is it that African-Americans now use the word nigga to degrade each other in today’s society? These words, in spite of their spelling, still holds the same degrading power as it did during the time of slavery, and they are still spoken out of cruelty and ignorance, but who is to blame? Can one still blame the Spaniards for considering people of a darker skin tone –Black? Can we blame the Europeans for perpetuating their hatred and ignorance of superiority over a race of people to the point they felt it lawful to define and dehumanize them? Or does the blame lie with the African-American race as we use this degrading labeling on our own kind, thus becoming the victimizer. Either way nigger or nigga are words that should be eliminated from the vocabulary of every human being.
...ive most of their life as a perfectly able-bodied person until a tragic accident one day could rob you of the function of your legs, and you have to learn how to cope with being disabled. Mairs illustrates that being disabled is more common than the media portrays, and it’s hard to deal with feeling alienated for your disabilities. These three authors have evoked a sense of sympathy from the reader, but they also imply that they don’t want non-handicapped people to pity them. The goal these authors have is to reach out to the able-bodied person, and help them understand how to treat a disabled person. The disabled people don’t want to be pitied, but they still need our help sometimes, just like if you saw someone with an arm full of grocery bags having difficulty opening their car door. They want us to accept them not as a different species, but as functional people.
Words have great power and when used correctly can influence what people believe and how they act.
The English language is filled with words that help convey meaning to stories without saying the actual meaning. These useful words are called figures of language and not only are they important in daily life, but they are a necessity in books and plays to deliver to the point home to the reader or make him on her laugh. The English language is an extremely complex and diverse collection of words. This is one of the many reasons why English is a worldwide language, because there are thousands of way to express a single thought.
Words are a powerful tool of communication ,if used well words can build a relationship but also if they are not used well they can lead into misunderstandings and sometimes cause harm to the relationships. The use of language in communication allows people to relate to each other or argue about a matter that could have been brought and this can happened unexpectedly or unexpectedly .It is important to be aware of the effect of language so that we can use it the best way we can to the best effect .
For some people, they think that words are more significant than the actions. Although, the words can express and influence someone expressions, feelings and thoughts, yet, it is only the reflection of the action (Mina, 2012). Sometimes words are lies, they do not give any effect or impact. Words mean little and cannot be seen or proven if no actions are taken.
I have been exposed to language in many forms throughout my entire life, and the words that I am exposed to will have both favorable and adverse effects upon my life. These effects will thus shape my personality by influencing my relationship to the world around me, as well as my relationship with certain words.