The Language Of Silence By Maxine Hong Kingston - 1249 Words

Language is much more than a method of communication. Permeated within it are traditions, customs, and legacies of one’s culture. The identity of an entire population is in the distinct vocalizations of their native language. Unfortunately, as a wave of immigrants enters the United States at young ages, many face language barriers that pose significant challenges. Language barriers affect a multitude of immigrant populations to different degrees. This, in turn, causes many of them to abandon not only their native tongue but a piece of their ethnic identity, as well. In Maxine Hong Kingston’s personal narrative,â€Å"The Language of Silence,† she describes the difficulties she experienced throughout her childhood with a language barrier as a†¦show more content†¦Spanish is my native language, however, my mother advised my siblings and I to speak only English. This was because she was afraid that we would be rejected from professional careers if our Englis h wasn t unaccented, fluent, and similar in refinement to the working class whites. With time, I became a fluent English speaker with a developed Central American accent but like, any other young girl, I thought nothing of it. That is until one event, in particular, occurred that would cast a shadow of embarrassment onto my Spanish language. This event not only led me to desert my entire native language but a sense of my cultural identity, as well. Every afternoon, my mother would take my siblings and I down to the community park. It was a tradition of sorts. The leaves on the trees were brown, only days past Halloween. I sat under the dappled afternoon sun and played in the sand. On this particular day, however, a young girl approached me. Confused, I offered her a friendly smile but was, instead, greeted by the sand she kicked in my direction. Once my mother took notice of this, she came forward and placed a hand over the young girl’s leg without physically touching her. †Stop,† she said. With this one word, the girl ran off. After a minute or so, an older woman approached my mother and I, with a string of curse words. It was the parent of the girl from earlier. Her husband attemptedShow MoreRelatedThe Language Of Silence By Jimmy Santiago Baca And Maxine Hong Kingston788 Words   |  4 Pagesspecific language? Ever been in a situation where you felt no one could understand you? Do you remember how it made you feel in that moment? Imagine feeling that way all the time; alone, isolated, and misunderstood. Jimmy Santiago Baca and Maxine Hong Kingston do a great job of conveying these feelings in their articles. In the article â€Å"Coming into Language†, Jimmy Santiago tells his story as a troubled young man who never saw the value in reading and writing. And in the article â€Å"The Language of Silence†Read MoreCommunication And Silence In Maxine Hong Kingstons The Woman Warrior1609 Words   |  7 Pagesat a committee meeting? You are a drone† (Cain 189). Though the world today certainly knows of Gandhi, his peers once saw him as a drone as a result of his silence. Cultures linked with silence can conflict with other, more vocal cultures: a prominent example is the silence of Asia in contrast with the openness of America. Maxine Hong Kingston delves into this clash in her 1976 memoir The Woman Warrior, throughout which a young, insecure girl develops a voice of he r own, gaining an increased appreciationRead MoreReflection on Readings Using Comparison and Contrast Maxine Hong Kingston (Tongue Tied); Richard Rodriguez (Aria); Gloria Anzaldua (How to Tame a Wild Tongue)1358 Words   |  6 Pagestheir own language, thus, emphasizing onto the lives of linguistic minority students around the world and how they struggle to cope in school and at home. Audience: Class HUM-111 and Dr. Connelly Purpose: To highlight the difficulties students have at school and at home when it comes down to learning a language which they aren’t acquainted to and the consequences of such, depending on their social background. Reflection on readings using Comparison and Contrast Maxine Hong Kingston (TongueRead MoreMaxine Hong Kingston By Maxine Kong1199 Words   |  5 Pages Maxine Hong Kingston prides herself on her personal strength and character, as well as the ability she developed to assert herself into a culture that is not accepting of her differences. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants living in the US, she was tasked with living a double life, straddling the line between her traditional Chinese upbringing and the environment outside of her home in 1960’s California. She was in many ways a perfectly normal and intelligent child. Through her writing sheRead MoreThe Woman Warrior By Maxine Hong Kingston Essay1557 Words   |  7 PagesRichard Potter ENC 1939 16 November 2016 The Woman Warrior Language is a system of communication used by humans either written or spoken to communicate our thoughts and feelings. Our thoughts and feelings we want to communicate to our loved ones, to our friends, to people we work with or go to school with and even to strangers. Maxine Hong Kingston in her memoir The Woman Warrior explores language and the use of language to express what Kingston finds as several conflicts. The conflict of the immigrantRead MoreAmerican Ethnic Literature Differs From American Literature1378 Words   |  6 Pagesconsidered to determine which category is fitting. American ethnic authors include immigrants who have arrived in the United States and become a citizen or first-generation Americans. American ethnic authors write in English, but sometimes use original language and speech. American ethnic literature often depicts life before America, as well life after arriving. American ethnic literature is important because citizens of all nationalities can s hare and learn about different backgrounds. Many ethnic authorsRead MoreOn Mother-Daughter Relationship in the Women Warrior6552 Words   |  27 Pagesdetails 2.1 Analysis of the relationship between mother and daughter in details The arts are used to address both aesthetic and serious societal issues such as Maxine Hong Kingston s The Woman Warrior, the story of a woman s struggle with identity as a minority in American culture. The Woman Warrior was written by Maxine Hong Kingston and published by Vintage Books in 1975. It is semi-autobiographical, incorporating many elements of fiction. In any case, her work stands as an example of postmodernismRead MoreNo Name Woman By Maxine Hong Kingston1046 Words   |  5 PagesChinese-American, Maxine Hong Kingston is familiar with this dilemma. In her piece â€Å"No Name Woman†, Kingston explores this struggle by sharing the tragic story of her aunt’s pregnancy. Within her piece, she journalistically reports her aunt’s story in her mother’s words and fictionally narrates some of her aunt’s possible behaviors because of its lack of detail. She also explains several Chinese customs and reflects on how they have impacted her. By combining several established modes of writing, Kingston providesRead More Comparing the Role of the Ghost in Morrisons Beloved and Kingstons No Name Woman972 Words   |  4 PagesThe Symbolic Role of the Gho st in Morrisons Beloved and Kingstons No Name Woman The eponymous ghosts which haunt Toni Morrisons Beloved and Maxine Hong Kingstons No Name Woman (excerpted from The Woman Warrior) embody the consequence of transgressing societal boundaries through adultery and murder. While the wider thematic concerns of both books differ, however both authors use the ghost figure to represent a repressed historical past that is awakened in their narrative retelling of theRead MoreAnalysis Of Maxine Hong Kingstons The Woman Warrior1229 Words   |  5 Pagesthemselves as the Other. The immigrant’s struggle to find and understand their identity is seen throughout the works of many writers and artists, such as Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, which depicts her struggle of understanding how she had ignored her own culture in order to attempt to fit in American society. Within her memoir, Kingston often depicts the concealment of her Chinese culture as an attempt to fit in and not be seen as the immigrant Chinese girl. Part of her motivation to conceal