ENH 224 | Spring 2018 | College of Staten Island, CUNY

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“We’re going to have to control your tongue” (Shelley F.)

When I first read the chapter How to Tame a Wild Tongue before coming to class, I was confused and did not see the message the author was perusing right away. I did not see how much of a impact a voice/language of an individual can have on that one individual and the readers on this chapter. I was able to see that a language makes up an individual, in a way there language is a piece of them, a great piece of them for that matter. In this case some people may think that her voice is only being controlled by the man, however that is not the case here. Her voice is not only being controlled by man,  as stated in a quote in the beginning of the chapter. It is also controlled by her family, society and different people that she has to surround herself with, not because she wants too, but possibly because she has no choice she has to get through life some how. Therefore, coming across people that want to control her and the languages she speaks.

The fact that she is a strong individual blows my mind. She stands her ground and does not let anybody get to her. She is not letting anybody stop her from speaking all the languages that she knows. It blows my mind to see that there is racism though out the Spanish race. The fact that there is so many different dialects of Spanish and each one tells the next Spanish speaker where the other one is from. And just from this it causes them to get racist against each other, it can even get to the point were they don’t like each other because they speak a different dialect of Spanish.

One page 81 in the middle of the page the author writes “So, if you want to really hurt me ….my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.” I reread it a few times because I really enjoy her describing her power, her pride fir who she is as an individual and that she won’t change her self for anybody. It also says that she will over power the silence because of who she is and what she is. This part of this chapter showed me how strong and no matter what she will stand her ground. This gives me a whole lot of strength and hope for the long run not only when it comes to having a voice, but life in general.

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