An Analysis of How to Tame a Wild Tongue, a Novel by Gloria Anzaldua

Analysis of How to Tame A Wild Tongue

How would you feel if someone cut out your tongue? Gloria Anzaldua answers this metaphoric question in her famous novel called How to Tame a Wild Tongue. She discusses the existence of a language called Chicano, which is a mix of English and Spanish. Being Chicano, as she is, is very tough in United States, and she shows this mentioning the discrimination that people who speak her language suffer, mostly in United States. Overall, Anzaldua uses various literary devices such as dialogue and anecdotes and includes Spanish elements and phrases in order to describe not only the important relation which exists between language and identity but the discriminatory problem that Chicanos suffer trying to get their cultural identity recognized.

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Throughout the text, she explains the difficulties most Chicano people face. Firstly, she relates an anecdote while she was in the school saying, “I and all Chicano students were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents” (34). Here the author clearly illustrates the oppression to which Chicanos were subjected in the school by Americans, who wanted to force them to assimilate English. They usually were told as children that their language was wrong, therefore since their childhood a feeling of inferiority was attached to them.

Without a doubt, these attacks continue during their lives in the workplace. According to her mother, “Pa'hallar un buen trabajo tienes que saber hablar el ingles bien. Que vale toda tu education si todavia hablas ingles con un 'accent'” (34). This implies that for finding a suitable job in this country, you need to have an American accent, which demonstrates all the drawbacks Chicanos have to get through. The author completely disagrees with this purpose of English language domination, and she asserts that “attacks on one's form of expression with the intent to censor are a violation of the First Amendment” (35). According to the encyclopedia, the First Amendment “prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press(...)".

However she talks not only about racial discrimination but also about sexual discrimination in her novel. She comments that “Hocicona, repelona, chismosa, having a big mouth, questioning, carrying tales are all signs of being mal criada. In my culture they are all words that are derogatory if applied to women- I have never heard them applied to men” (34). All this words are used to describe a bad-mannered girl. With this, she illustrates that in some cultures like Chicano, female sex is considered inferior to males. Sexual discrimination affects women everywhere because of the culture of each country. In addition, the author also talks about the linguistic discrimination for women when she relates that “The first time I heard two women, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban, say the word “nosotras”, I was shocked” (35). She demonstrates how Chicano women are suffering the effects of sexist language, which is also a discrimination against persons but through the use of a language.

After looking at sexism, the author transitions to the importance she gives to the identity in order to feel proud of herself. Anzeldua emphasizes that “Change, evolucion, enriquecimiento de palabras nuevas por invencion o adopccion have created variants of Chicano Spanish, un nuevo lenguaje. Un lenguaje que corresponde a un modo de vivir” (35). Definitely, her language is a very important aspect of her life because for many people, Chicano is a way of living, a connection with their identity. Again, Anzaldua claims the importance of having your language recognized and respected everywhere in order to get an identity asserting that “I will have my serpent's tongue-my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice” (40).

Besides, she feels proud about Chicano music and literature because she find these branches of art as an expression of cultural identity, and she wants people to know their musical and literary culture when she reveals, “At the risk of being fired, I swore my student to secrecy and slipped in Chicano short stories, poems, a play” (40). She finds in music and literature a way of having her culture reflected and feeling proud of it. However, this struggle with their identity hasn’t finished, because nowadays they still suffer the violation of their identity. Besides this, she asserts that “Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself" (39).

This affirmation demonstrates that she wants to feel proud about her language and about who she is and have the freedom of writing bilingually, switching codes without translations, and all the benefits people with a language and culture have. Finally she declares that they are going to fight for their identity no matter how hard the path is because they have been rejected for many years for being different. The author says, “Stubborn, persevering, impenetrable as stone, yet possessing a malleability that renders us unbreakable, we, the mestizas and mestizos, will remain” (44).

Throughout the text Gloria Anzaldua appeals to logos by including examples of her real life, quotes, and personal anecdotes. She explains the difficulties that Chicanos have in order to find their identity. It is a difficult situation because since school they have felt inferior because their teachers wanted to remove their accent and many times felt ashamed because people told them their language was a bastard one and that they were ruining Spanish language. In spite of the oppression Chicanos have suffered for many years by the dominant language, she still has the hope of the language being respected as many others like French, Spanish, and English etc. and of the language remaining through the years.

She encourages Chicanos to keep fighting for their identity saying that language is a way of asserting the identity and a bond with their cultural identity without which they would feel empty and could not accept their legitimacy. The key of a globalized world like nowadays is accepting all the cultures even though they are minor and not to enforce the dominant one because we can make people feel like they are lacking an identity.

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