Perkins 1 Jason Perkins Dr.

Gayle Mercer English 111 18 February 2013 Barb-ed hooks I started school when I was five years old. I learned to read and write in my native Standard American English (SAE). School was always a breeze because, for the most part, everybody spoke using SAE. My teachers, classmates, and counselors were all on the same page. I sometimes wonder how school would have been different if I had grown up in a different region, or spoke with a different dialect. Authors bell hooks and Barbara Mellix address this topic with different perspectives and strategies in their essays, but also seem to agree on a common thought. hooks essay, Teaching New Worlds/New Words, takes the path of English being the language of the oppressors. She views it as an all powerful language that eclipses, and squanders any other vernacular. There is no doubt of her dissatisfaction of this when she writes, It is difficult not to hear in Standard English always the sound of slaughter and conquest (hooks 176). Her dramatic word choice and sense of discomfort in her tone are apparent, and help to further her message of discontent. Mellixs essay, From Outside, In, approaches language in a different light. She, too, was forced into SAE as an African American woman, but handled it in a much different way. She is much less hostile about learning the new language, and sees it as a necessary evil. Instead of fighting the system, she sees it as a chance to grow, saying I write and continually give birth to myself (Mellix 77). As a child in the South, she was

Perkins 2 taught at an early age that there is a right and wrong time to use her black vernacular. It was a matter of reading her audience. Her parents taught her that she, too, could be powerful like the white folk is she could successfully harness SAE. She viewed it as a tool, rather than a muzzle; a ticket out of the ghetto, rather than barbed wire keeping her fenced in. The rhetorical strategies used by hooks and Mellix vary throughout the essays. hooks uses the device of pathos, or appealing to the readers emotions, in order to establish her points. By writing about how the slaves were abused and constantly undermined by the owners through language, The very sound of English had to terrify, (hooks 174) the reader begins to feel for the slaves and is more apt to agree with hooks. Mellix, however, uses logos and appeals to the readers logical side. She writes about how SAE is an absolute necessity, and not as bad as hooks makes it out to be. By writing speaking and writing standard English had taken on new importance. Each year about half of the newly graduated seniors of our school moved to large cities- particularly in the North- to live with relatives and find work, (Mellix 80) she logically states why one must adapt their language in order to succeed. The difference in how the author grips the audience is, in my opinion, because they have slightly different messages in their writing. While they agree that one must morph their language in order to adapt, their tones indicate that there is something more to the message. hooks seems to have a vendetta against whites for the way they treated their slaves, and wants the reader to know how deeply it affected their history. She has a much more somber tone when she writes its not the English language that hurts me, but what the oppressors do with it how they make it a weapon that can shame, humiliate,

Perkins 3 colonize (hooks 173). Mellixs tone is a bit more free and understanding when writing about her ventures with SAE. In one section of the essay she explains her trials and tribulations in the workplace, In a sense, I was proud of the letters I wrote for the company: They were proof of my ability to survive in the city, the outside world- an indication of my growing mastery in English (Mellix 80). The contrasting tones work well with each authors varying approach to language. Comparing the content of the two essays, both authors use personal events to portray their childhood struggles with adjusting to a new language. They both experienced feelings of inadequacy when they used vernacular in writing; When I first began to incorporate black vernacular in critical essays, editors would send the work back to me in standard English (hooks 176), where Mellix writes, Each experience of writing was like standing naked and revealing my imperfection, my otherness (Mellix 82). Both authors seemed to find a proud sense of self after finally mastering how to incorporate English into their lives. Each author took their own approaches to discuss the heated topic of language. Even though the authors were using different tones and rhetorical strategies, the women were able agree on a common principle. Through struggles and hardships, they remained true to themselves and were able to overcome language barriers on the road to becoming successful authors and extraordinary women.

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Works Cited hooks, bell. Teaching New Worlds/New Words. Composing Knowledge. Ed. Rolf Norgaard. Boston: Bedford/St Martins, 2007. 172-180. Print. Mellix, Barbara. From Outside, In. Composing Knowledge. Ed. Rolf Norgaard. Boston: Bedford/St Martins, 2007. 76-86. Print.