Language_&_Identity__Discovery_of_New_Identities

Language & Identity: Discovery of New Identities Language can be used to convey many different moods and feelings depending on how it is applied. These three extracts are all about the discovery of new identities and have been purposefully chosen as none of the writers are English. The first extract, taken from ‘The Color Purple’ is written from the perspective of a working class black woman living in the American South. This extract is a turning point in the story as Celie decides to stop writing her diary entries to God and starts writing them to her sister instead: “I don’t write to God no more, I write to you”. This loss of faith can be seen as the discovery of a new identity for her character. By writing to her sister instead we can see that Celie fears isolation, she needs to talk to someone about her problems. This extract is written in first person narrative. The speech throughout the extract is ironic as it supposed to be a formal letter but it is written in informal, spontaneous speech. Celie speaks in the vernacular and often her sentences do not make syntactical sense which undermines the seriousness of the topic in this extract: “She look at me serious”. The style of her language shows that she is not well educated and the words are written as they would be spoken: “What God do for me' I ast”. Celie’s negative language is contrasted by Shug’s persuasive tone: “He gave you life, good health, and a good woman that love you to death”. Celie contrasts Shug’s list of three examples with her own four, emphasising her negative outlook “a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a lowdown dog of a step pa and a sister I probably won't ever see again”. She then further dismisses God with another negative triplet: “Trifling, forgitful and lowdown”. This shows that Celie has the most topic control in the discussion and is able to bring down Shug’s positive examples with several of her own negative ones. We sense that Celie has a pessimistic attitude towards men which has been caused by her past experiences with them. In this instance, she is criticising God claiming that he is just like all the men she knows in real life: “If he ever listened to poor colored women the world would be a different place, I can tell you”. This brings up a key issue in the book as the whole story is about Celie’s struggle to break free from her oppression: “All my life I never care what people thought… I care about God. And come to find out, he don’t think”. There’s a sense that she sees herself living in a man’s world because she has suffered at the hands of all the men she has encountered in her life. They have all let her down so she therefore concludes that God must be a man. This has made her have a very cynical outlook on life and has made her believe that it cannot be better because of who she is. However, she also appears to have a certain need for God: “But it ain’t easy… Even if you know he ain’t there, trying to do without him is a strain”. She has become used to her faith through habit and breaking away from it is a stress for her. Her lack of belief is likely to cause problems as she no longer has the comfort which religion provides. Shug, on the other hand, has a far more optimistic view of God. She is more confident in who she is and does not take religion at face value: “Once us feel loved by God, us do the best us can to please him with what us like”. This is a different outlook from the one which Celie has and offers some insight into how Shug can live the life she does without regrets. It is clear that Celie has a very traditional outlook on her faith and finds it difficult to comprehend Shug’s point of view on the matter: “You telling me God love you, and you ain’t never done nothing for him' I mean, not go to church, sing in the choir, feed the preacher and all like that'”. Her naïve outlook leads her to believe that if you do not act the way that church-goers and the clergy do, then you are blaspheming because you are not respecting God properly: “Well, this sound like blasphemy sure nuff”. This is characteristic of the way she has been brought up in quite a sheltered life, barely ever going out. Shug, in contrast, has led the lifestyle that Celie has only dreamt about and this amazes her. Shug’s observations are almost alien to Celie and she is not convinced that her lifestyle pleases God. Shug has very strong views on the issue and believes in god but in a much more liberal sense: “Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me…They come to church to share God not to find God”. Shug seems far more capable of thinking for herself and challenges the norms which would have been forced upon people at the time. She asks Celie to describe what God looks like: “He big and old and tall and graybearded and white. He wear white robes and go barefooted”. This cliché description proves that Celie has been made to believe in a Westernised, commercial version of God and has not thought for herself. Its is also a child-like way of explaining thoughts which reminds us that Celie has not been educated well enough to convey her opinions through correct grammar and coherent speech. Shug explains to Celie that white people probably wrote the Bible which is why she believes God looks like that. Celie is shocked by this and again we see her uneducated naivety: “God wrote the Bible, white folks had nothing to do with it”. We can see that by offering all these new ideas to Celie, Shug is influencing the way she thinks. The cliché, textbook world that she is used to is suddenly disputed as Celie is being told that everything she has been told is just made up by white people. This can be seen as the discovery of a new identity for her as she begins to understand and think about what her friend is telling her: “I never thought bout that”. This changes Celie’s mood instantaneously and we see her harsh use of language soften slightly as she comes to see Shug’s point of view. The second extract, taken from Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, was chosen because he has had to face similar problems to Celie in his life, in terms of his battle to win an election as the first ever African American candidate. This extract begins in a slightly negative way which immediately sets up the mood for a ‘rags-to-riches’ story: “I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements”. This is the first of the three points of the growth of his campaign and helps him to address his audience as he is engaging with them and identifying with their situations at the same level. Adding to the contrast between where he started and where he is now, Obama mentions ‘the halls of Washington’ where the campaign was ‘hatched’ and juxtaposes this with: “the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston”. This emphasises his point and shows that he had humble beginnings but has managed to move himself up in the world. Immediately we see the difference between how Obama speaks and how Celie voices herself as his language is well refined Latinate. However, there are also similarities. He speaks very confidently and tends to use a lot of repetition, just as Celie does to reiterate her opinions. In his second point about the campaign, he lists three examples of donations: “five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars”. This emphatic technique- which is used by Celie when she is arguing with Shug- restates his points very clearly and strongly. He positions long bits of speech alongside short, clipped sentences making his speech more varied and enjoyable to listen to as it takes several turns and changes of tone throughout. In the third point of his campaign, he talks about how “it grew” and again uses a triplet of examples: three different groups of people- “the young… the not-so-young… and millions of Americans”. It is clear that Obama has chosen his words to maximum effect. Where he could have used the word ‘disappeared’ or ‘vanished’, he instead says “for the people has not perished”. This use of alliteration gives the speech more impact and in turn, gives him more impact as an orator. The way Obama uses his speech is highly energetic and he speaks directly to his audience’s senses making them feel good about themselves: “You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead”. This use of persuasive language is an effective technique as it sways the audience to his point of view and makes them more likely to accept what he is saying. The way he avoids talking down to his audience is critical as it shows that he has come from the position that they are in now. He was not born into the life of the most powerful man in the world, but he has achieved it through hard work and effort and is trying to show others that this is possible. In this way, he has taken on a new identity and is now trying to share his new insights with his nation. Again he uses a formulaic three-part list (“two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century”) of which the third example is also the longest as in ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. There is also more use of alliteration (“planet in peril”) which evokes a more poetic feel in the speech, again varying the language and holding the audience’s attention. Another important aspect of his speech is the way he does not separate himself from his people. He encourages a collective feel and promotes a patriotic mood amongst the audience by using a well balanced syntax: “The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep”. The imagery of climbing a mountain which leads to “we as people will get there” is reminiscent of Martin Luther King’s last speech in which he says: “I’ve been up to the mountain, I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land”. This biblical lexis which both the orators have used simply highlights the obvious similarities between them and it is clear that Obama has been heavily inspired by King. His belief is that improving the political situation is a group effort and so everyone should be included. The way he juxtaposes problems and solutions plays on peoples’ emotions and makes them feel as if they can make a difference and get involved: “There will be setbacks and false starts… but I will always be honest with you… I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation”. This makes the speech seem good for morale. He knows that the state of his country is below par and so is able to convince his audience that he will be able to help but at the same time emphasises that he is not perfect: “There are many who won’t agree with every decision I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem”. Unlike the speeches of other leaders such as George Bush, this is quite honest and open and he is not making promises which he obviously cannot keep making his whole campaign far more credible. This speech shows how Obama has managed to find a new identity for himself as the President of America and also how he wants to find a new identity for his country. The third extract is by an Indian travel writer, Vikram Seth, and his experiences when he visits Kathmandu in Nepal. The whole extract is written in first person, as if it is happening as he writes, so immediately we are drawn in. The first few lines are very factual and almost list the writer’s movements: “I get a cheap room in the centre of town and sleep for hours”. This is contrasted in the second paragraph as the writer launches into more in depth, complicated language describing his surroundings: “there is an atmosphere of febrile confusion”. This change of register mirrors his change of scenery as he is taken out of the city and brought to a sacred place, very different from his usual environment. The writer seems almost excluded from his surroundings, as if he is just observing it rather than being part of it. He uses long lists and brackets to add in extra information about his surroundings, all in long sentences which again mirrors the setting as it is full of hustle and movement. He lists random words next to each other, humorously juxtaposing ‘tourists’ with a long list of animals as if there is no differentiation between the two. The word ‘confusion’ is repeated and reiterated by confused, almost noisy imagery: “some people trying to get the priest’s attention are elbowed aside by others pushing their way to the front”. All this gives the impression of a very unholy place when in fact he is meant to be inside a sacred Hindu temple. There is a momentary lapse in the chaos as the writer describes the arrival of a "princess of the Nepalese house" to whom "everyone bows and makes way". However, this serenity is short-lived and the language returns to that of confused chaos as the writer describes "saffron-clad Westerners" in a Hindu temple and a fight between two monkeys; quite the opposite of what you would expect to find in a place of worship. This also reiterates the feeling of enormous confusion as royalty; peasants and animals are all in the same place at once with little respect for the religious aspects. This seems to spill over into the holy Bagmati river where the writer sees: "A corpse being cremated... washerwomen at their work and children bathing". These secular activities really diminish the holy feeling within the temple. There is also a sense that the religious aspect of the temple is old and dying out which is reflected in the "basket of flowers and leaves, old offerings now wilted". Even the holy men are 'muttering' their mantras suggesting that they have lost interest and have also become caught up in the hustle and bustle within the temple. This reminds us of Celie's loss of faith in the first extract and the way she feels abandoned by God. In contrast, the Buddhist temple is seen as a haven which is protected from the outside world: “Its immense white dome is ringed by a road”. There is a clear divide between the buzzing of daily life and the sanctity of the temple as the writer describes the small shops standing on its outer edge. The writer identifies that this Tibetan community is entirely different from that of the Hindu temple, much more contained and refined in the way it conducts itself. The relaxed state of this new environment is reflected in the elongated words and sounds which are used to describe it: “I luxuriate in my tiredness; drift deliciously along”. He seems to almost wallow in his tiredness and the language, full of sub clauses, starts to flow almost poetically: “allowing sight to follow sight, thought to follow thought”. This is a contrast to the earlier lists of confusion and a technique which reminds us of Obama’s speech in its repetitive patterns. The writer has clearly recognised the disparity of the two temples but we still sense that he is an observer, not becoming part of his surroundings. He is unsure of where or how he fits in but, as he begins to wind down, he starts to try and find peace, just as the immigrant Tibetan monks have by moving to Nepal. The emptiness of the temple is described by a long list of negatives which, ironically, are describing a peaceful and positive environment: “there is nothing, no intermediate step…no lift to look for…no hill to climb”. This use of semantics also reminds us of Obama’s speech and the way in which he repeats some ideas in order to accentuate them. Here, the writer begins to come to terms with his own identity: “For a person of fundamentally sedentary habits I have been wandering far too long”. He starts to realise the reason for his journey, to discover an environment without tension or demand. He then begins listing his plans for when he returns home to Delhi: “I will not move for a month, just sit at home, talk with family and friends, read, rewind, sleep”. These activities are ones which would be welcomed in a relaxed community like the Tibetan one but which may not be well received in a big city like Delhi. However, we sense that he has realised that this is what life should be about rather than the tension and movement to which we are all accustomed. Each of these extracts is very different in the way it is written. The Color Purple, written in the vernacular maps out Celie’s feelings as she starts to realise that she does not believe in God. Obama’s extract is a highly powerful and energetic speech which is aimed at people like Celie and tries to convince the audience that change is possible. The final text is a literal journey which is also a metaphorical journey of self discovery for the narrator. Each of the extracts is an interpretation of the discovery of a new identity which demonstrates how language can be manipulated to convey all sorts of thoughts and feelings.