Jimmy Baca’s story “Coming into Language” describes his emotional childhood and what he went through while in prison. At seventeen Baca still didn’t know how to read or write. Throughout the story, he shares his struggle with language and how prison eventually brought himself to learn how to read and write. Jimmy Baca then uses examples in his story explaining how he admired language and used it to free himself from the cruel world he grew up in. Jimmy Baca used examples from his childhood of the embarrassing punishments his teachers made him do and how he felt because he didn’t know how to read or write. Baca then describes one of his punishments, “making me stick my nose in a circle chalked on the blackboard” (53). Scared of going back to …show more content…
He explains that “I could respond, escape, indulge; embrace or reject earth or the cosmos” (Baca 55). Baca was exploring on an endless journey without any boundaries, in which he could see his past floating around him. He saw his future and what language was doing to him. Baca expresses that “each word steamed with the hot lava juices of my primordial making, and I crawled out of stanzas dripping with birth-blood, reborn and freed from the chaos of my life” (55). Baca was no longer a captive of his own emotions never feeling like a victim of other people’s mockery and intimidation. He was physically in prison but in his poems, he was anywhere that he wanted to be. With the power of words Baca realized he could do anything and soon overcame his fears of …show more content…
Baca expresses that “I wrote to sublimate my rage, from a madness of having been damaged too much, from a silence of killing rage” (57). Baca explains that he wrote to avenge the betrayals of others and to purge the bitterness of injustice around the world. He expresses himself in rage that “I wrote with a deep groan of doom in my blood, bewildered and dumbstruck; from an indestructible love of life, to affirm breath and laughter and the abiding innocence of things” (Baca 57). Writing bridged Baca’s life of a prisoner and free man. He wrote about the emotional bloodbath of prison and of his incisive recognition for poetry. The power to express himself was a new welcoming that rushed his blood and filled his
In the course of reading two separate texts it is generally possible to connect the two readings even if they do not necessarily seem to be trying to convey the same message. The two articles, “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, and “Coming Into Language” by Jimmy Santiago Baca, do have some very notable similarities. They are two articles from a section in a compilation about the construction of language. The fact that these two articles were put into this section makes it obvious that they will have some sort of connection. This essay will first summarize the two articles and break them down so that they are easily comparable; also, this essay will compare the two articles and note similarities and differences the texts may have.
“Se Habla Español,” is written by a Latin author, Tanya Barrientos; and Amy Tan, a Chinese author, wrote “Mother Tongue”. In both literate narratives the authors write about their experiences with language and how it impacted their lives. In This essay we will be discussing the similarities as well as the differences in the stories and the authors of “Se Habla Español” and “Mother Tongue”. We will discuss how both authors use a play on words in their titles, how language has impacted their lives, how struggling with language has made them feel emotionally, and how both authors dealt with these issues.
In Aria,” from Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, Richard Rodriguez shares his autobiography of when he first entered his classroom at catholic school. He writes of his transition through emotions of fear, insecurity, and self-doubt as he transitions from the privacy of his home to the public world. Richard develops an understanding that his that private language that is used in his home is different from the language that is publicly acceptable in school. His school teachers pushed his americanalization which led him to discover his identity, since he indeed was an American but grew up in a Spanish speaking home. Through this journey of journey of assimilation he discovers that learning this new language brought him a sense of comfortability and acceptance. Richard Rodriguez heavily relates to the Crevecoeurian immigrant because he was willing to learn a new language, leave his culture behind, and embrace his American identity.
In the work of Amy Tan’s “Mother’s Tongue” she provides a look into how she adapted her language to assimilate into American culture. She made changes to her language because her mother heavily relied on her for translation. She was the voice of her mother, relaying information in standard English to those who were unable to understand her mother’s broken english. She tells about her mother’s broken english and its impact on her communication to those outside their culture. Her mothers broken english limited others’ perception of her intelligence, and even her own perception of her mother was scewed: Tan said, “I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mothers ‘limited’ English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” (419) The use of standard english was a critical component to Tan’s assimilation into American culture. Standard English was an element she acquired to help her mother but more importantly is was an element that helped in her gain success as a writer. Tan changed her ‘Englishes’ (family talk) to include standard English that she had learnt in school and through books, the forms of English that she did not use at home with her mother. (417-418) Tan realized the ch...
Oppression, a poem by Jimmy Baca, is a vivid display of the illusory power of oppression and what it does to one’s stance of life. In the first stanza, the poet refers to oppression as inflicting continuous pain to someone, such that he would feel that he were being continuously “trampled over”. This clearly indicates that the poet feels oppression is an external action which is recurring and painful to one. In addition, he says that oppression is dependent on a crucial factor: strength. One can infer that imbalance of strength leads to oppression, and thus the oppressed has no power against the oppressor. He also indicates that he believes an oppressor tends to be emotionless, and therefore sheds no tears, as the author describes. Concluding
your birthdays with you behind bars." This represents confinement. Baca went to prison because of petty crimes, this could be what the poem was referring to. And from that statement it's easy to determine Baca's feelings towards oppression which could be interpretated as anger and fear.
The 1990 poem “I Am Offering This Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca is themed around the life of a prisoner who has nothing else to offer except poetry. As one learns, more about the author’s background, the context of the poem becomes clearer. Examine this piece of information taken from the biography of Baca, “A Chicano poet, Baca served a ten-year sentence in an Arizona prison and his poetry grows out of his experience as a convict” (Baca). Baca’s experience as a prisoner reflects in his writing in that prisoners are often deprived of their rights and many of their possessions while serving a sentence. In his poem, “I Am Offering This Poem”, Baca speaks from the point of view of a prisoner having nothing to offer his love interest except the
Tan’s essay does more than just illuminate the trouble with language variations; her essay features a story of perseverance, a story of making a “problem” harmonize into a “normal” life. Almost like a how-to, Tan’s essay describes an obstacle and what it takes to go above and beyond. Mirroring Tan, I have been able to assimilate “the [world] that helped shape the way I saw things” and the world that I had to conform to (Tan 129). Life is a struggle, but what makes it worth it is the climb, not what is on the other side.
Is it possible to make vital life changes to become a better person at heart? Who’s the one that can help you? The only person that will get you up on your feet is yourself, and you have to believe deeply to make those changes. In this essay there are many main points that are being brought across to explain the problems and wisdom that arose from Baca’s life as an inmate. It talks about how he was grown up into an adult and the tragedies that he had to face in order to become one. Later I fallow steps that lead to the purpose and rhetorical appeals of Baca’s essay. The purpose dealt with the cause and effect piece and problem/ solution structure.
The audience Tan is reaching are people who are very ignorant to the fact that others who speak broken English, regardless of race, know that they are taken advantage of and are not given the respect that a fluent English speaking person would get. The essay is also aimed toward people who can relate to the ?language of intimacy? (36), which is a different sort of English ...
...and walked home.” Collins contrasts the students’ misbehavior with the teacher’s ignorance, thus implying a relationship between the history teacher’s inability to teach his students and their ensuing misbehavior.
Richard Rodriguez commences, “ Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” recounting the memory of his first day of school. A memory that will help support against the use of “family language” as the child 's primary language at school. Rodriguez is forced to say no: it 's not possible for children to use the family language at school. To support against the “family language” used at school, Rodriguez uses simple and complex sentences to help achieve the readers to understand that to only accept the family language is to be closed off by society; to not have a “public life” is to not share one 's life experiences with society. Bilingual Educators state that you would “lose a degree of ‘individuality’ if one assimilates. Rodriguez refutes this statement through his expressive use of diction and narration educing emotion from his audience building his pathos. Rodriguez also develops ethos due to the experiences he went
English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize her belief that there are more than one proper way (proper English) to communicate with each other. Tan hopes her audience to understand that the power of language- “the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth”- purposes to connect societies, cultures, and individuals, rather than to rank our intelligence.
This study examined language acquisition and accidently observed the effects of sociological isolation of a teenager who had been locked away from the world for thirteen years. Doctors along with scientist of Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles tested Genie for multiple medical conditions whilst no conclusive results. Doctors could not predict the origin of Genies learning curves yet they employed with her daily to achieve results. Genies case was sensitive in nature, with many obstacles for her to overcome while being bombarded with international coverage furthermore she had no personal time to truly communicate. Genie spent her youth as a test subject in scientific research with no concrete evidence of her actual limitations or achievements. As an exceptional subject Genie gave the world a glimpse into a
Mexican immigrants are misjudged for coming to the Unites States illegally and stealing jobs from American citizens. In the poem “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans”, Jimmy Santiago Baca discusses the mistreatment that Americans have of immigrants and then explains the reality of the situation. Baca uses imagery, symbolism, diction, and tone to argue about the prejudices that Americans have of Mexican immigrants.