How to Tame a Wild Tongue Essay Sample

How to Tame a Wild Tongue Essay Sample How to Tame a Wild Tongue Summary and Response Gloria Anzaldua is an American novelist, poet, essayist, and critic and she is considered to be a significant figure in modern Chicano literature. In her works, she presents her experience as a mestiza that means a woman who lives on the very border between different cultures and countries. Anzalduas major work is ‘Borderlands/La Frontera’ which was published in 1987. It describes people who live on the border between the United States and Mexico and explains the political, socioeconomic, and spiritual influence of the European conquest of native peoples on the borderland. The book consists of two sections: in the first part, there are seven essays, and in the second part, there are several poems. In this essay, I am going to give a ‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue’ summary and analysis. In ‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue,’ Gloria Anzaldua tries to investigate the negative social attitude toward Chicano ways of speaking and the harmful effect of this negative attitude on the self-identity of Chicano people who live in the borderlands. She starts her article with a metaphor, recollecting a dentist who complained that Gloria’s tongue was strong and stubborn. So she was frustrated and started thinking about how to tame a wild tongue. Although the dentist did not mean her accent, her reaction proves that she has had problems with the way she speaks and that makes her stay conscious of what other people think of her when she speaks. Gloria considers her accent as an essential feature that identifies her. She explains that Chicano Spanish she speaks has developed naturally as a border language. That causes problems because she is not accepted as a native speaker by both English speakers and Spanish speakers. But Gloria does not identify herself socially with either of the groups so her language is appropriate for people who speak it too. These people come from diverse, complex backgrounds. She thinks that Chicano Spanish emerged because these people wanted to identify themselves as a unique group. More free time? Better grade? Click on this button nowOrder Now Being a child, Gloria had to overcome a lot of difficulties and stereotypes because of her Chicano accent. The language she spoke was a source of uncertainty that resulted in her being angry and frustrated. She had also certain problems with self-esteem. The problems that she encountered because of your language had a negative impact on her personal identity. Finally, Gloria Anzaldua realizes that she cannot feel content with herself until she understands the ‘illegitimacy’ of her language and accepts that fact. Many people think that their ethnic identity and the language they speak are synonyms. Gloria Anzaldua is a good example that proves: any person can be self-validated in spite of negative reactions of other people to the person’s diversity. A person’s language is the key to identity â€" this is the main idea expressed by Gloria Anzaldua in ‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue’. And it is also a proof of identity. In this way, language unites and helps different people to identify with one another. It’s up to every individual to value the language he/she speaks. It’s up to you to decide what language to speak. You should not allow anyone to dictate you what is a right way and what is a wrong way to speak. In her writing, Gloria Anzaldua motivates minority people not to be discouraged and accept the fact that they are different and special and take the challenge of being bilingual in the USA. Anzaldua also makes an attempt to persuade the audience to accept the fact that some people might speak differently, and that American citizens have to change their mindset towards diversity. We should accept each other’s differences and personal identities of every person.