Preview

William Butler's Use Of Language Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
635 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
William Butler's Use Of Language Essay
This short story reveals how Butler conveys the importance of language and human speech in maintaining a civil society. Valerie's experience on the bus shows this. The first setting which is on the bus is where lack of communication reflects a sense of disorder and lack of control in the society. The reason for the argument is uncertain. If the men were able to communicate the situation could’ve had a different outcome. The men "grunting and gesturing" and assuming an "uncertain T stance" confirm how the lack of communication results in an unmannerly setting. Rye is one of the very few people left that can speak. This asserts a dominate female presence that would otherwise be lost. This story criticizes society in a way that the ability …show more content…
The importance of speech in our world and Rye's can't be over exaggerated. Spoken language has become so deep-rooted in our society that few would be able to survive without it. It helps us understand one another to where we can share the past and present to develop ideas about numerous things for the future. As seen in the story without this understanding people will go back inhumane and ordinary lifestyles. Rye explains that "children would run through the downtown canyons with no real memory of what the buildings had been or even how they had come to be, today’s children gathered books as well as wood to be burned as fuel." These children "ran through streets like chimpanzees, they had no future." All of this chaos caused by a lost of nature that we are accustomed to using everyday.

Butler shows in this story the importance of speech and how it can have a detrimental affect on society. It shows feminism, Rye is the only female that can speak. This gives her a sense of power that females today do not have. This pandemic can destroy a whole population and greatly impact how people go about lives. Being able to have a voice as a certain gender and as a person in general would significantly impact the way society

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the novel, Speak the author uses the protagonist, Melinda, to teach the reader the importance of verbal expression. Melinda refuses to speak about an event that occurred in her life; therefore others cannot show her empathy toward her. Melinda’s lack of speaking lead to her being judged and bullied by her friends. Melinda’s silence slowly erodes her self esteem and leads to depressive behavior. Melinda’s lack of verbal communication conveys its merit.…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout Butler Octavia's novel Kindred, there are several examples of female characters who tend to challenge women's traditional roles. Dana is the main character who should be considered a dynamo considering how independent she is during the point of time she travels to (the 1800s). Women have been seen for a long time as not being independent because they depend on their husbands to support them while they stay at home taking care of the children, I do not believe this to be true. I will give evidence of different reasons why I think that Dana's presence in this story challenge the traditional roles and views throughout history.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Catcher In The Rye Songs

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden reacts strongly to the song "Comin Thro' the Rye”. Upon hearing it on a sidewalk in New York, his interpretation of this song provides a deeper understanding of his mental state that ties in his values. Holden first hears this song through a young boy. Holden recalls, “he was walking in the street, instead of the sidewalk, but right next to the curb” (115). The little boy’s positioning near the sidewalk subconsciously stands out to Holden. In New York, the streets are busy with cars, making it dangerous for one not to walk on the sidewalk. The close proximity the boy is to with the sidewalk and to the street is symbolic for a child who is on the verge of losing their innocence. In a…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lesson Before Dying

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages

    4. Find specific examples of how Gaines uses different levels of language and non-verbal communication to make his characters realistic. How does the manner in which they speak or don’t speak enhance the story? How would the novel change if everyone spoke as Grant does, or as the older people in the quarter do? Or as Jefferson writes?…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The style and the concerns of The Catcher in the Rye, written by J. D. Salinger in 1951, continue to interest a present day audience as it draws attention to human problems through the eyes of Holden Caulfield, who rejects the “phony world of adults”, the teenage conflict of staying as a child and “growing up” and rejection of society for the sake of self – protection. J. D. Salinger has shown this through the creation of the unique voice of Holden Caulfield. Some of the examples of events shown through this voice also teach us lessons about life.…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anne Finch is enraged in her poem ‘The Introduction’. Although it was not published during her time, the strong voice of feminism was sure to carry over to the women after her. In the Eighteenth Century, women had hardly begun any sort of strive for their rights. Finch explains why they should in her poem, and why they haven’t already.…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Butler's "Gender Trouble," addresses the problems of gender distinction and the inherent flaws related to current modes of thought. Butler begins by explaining how she will question the gender hierarchy. She notes that current feminism seeks to define gender. However, this is problematic.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The philosophy of language is both fascinating and difficult. One reason for this is that hardly any issue in this area is uncontroversial. Controversy begins with some foundational and methodological questions. Consider, for example, this very basic question: What are the tasks of the philosophy of language? One obvious task is: the study of linguistic meanings.…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Analysis

    • 1915 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “The Lesson” is one that effectively embodies the voice that Margaret Atwood mentions in her essay. This short story is told through the voice of the main character—a girl from the ghetto named Sylvia. Sylvia’s narration of the events in this story is as raw and as true to life as any fiction can be. In “Reading Blind,” Atwood quotes from Raymond Chandler: “All language begins with speech, and the speech of common men at that.” The voice in “The Lesson” precisely portraits the speech of a black girl living in the poor urban area with sentences that lack auxiliary or conjugations, and by doing so, reveals the reality like it truly is. In order to closely picture the setting in her story, Bambara has sacrificed the proper and boring ways of the English language and stay faithful to the speech and voices of the people whose stories she depicts. Only with this unmasked honesty can Bambara create a short story that is so…

    • 1915 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    McCarthy, V. Christine, "The Social Criticism of Charles Dickens: A Point of View" (1971). Open Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper…

    • 20073 Words
    • 81 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Pygmalion, by Bernard Shaw

    • 3515 Words
    • 15 Pages

    The way she speaks attracts the attention of a bystander, who is constantly scribbling down something in his notebook. The flower girl first thinks that he is a police officer and begins to defend herself that she didn’t do anything wrong, but it soon becomes clear that the bystander isn’t a policeman at all, but a professor of didactics, an analyst of dialects, specialised in London’s suburbal accents. He is so fascinated of the absolutely disgusting slang of the flower girl, that he has taken down all the expressions she used. He explains to the crowd, that he has no bad intention at all. He is just a collector of dialects.…

    • 3515 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    communication analysis

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Standard English is a dialect that is supported by important institutions. Such institutional support may come from governments’s recognition or presentation of the standard form of being ‘good’, ‘correct’ or ‘proper’ form of language. Standard English was used by Mother Millie in the monologue. Phrases like “won’t they” and “what’s the matter dear” shows that Mother Millie is familiar with the standard variety of language and this indicates that she has an educational background. On the language continuum the main character and her mother spoke in the Basilect while Mother Millie spoke in the Acrolect.…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This paper discusses the ways of communication of two characters Ben and Gus in Harold Pinter’s play, dumb waiter. Ben and Gus are two assassins awaiting the arrival of their next victim in a dank basement. The pair inhabits a pantomimic parody of world where nothing is ever accomplished through their dialogue. As a result they talk, but they don’t communicate. This paper examines four kinds of their communication and the violence and menace underneath it. It also explores the concept of power regarding their communication and the notion of silence that permeates the play.…

    • 4161 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay on Language

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I was talking with a friend of mine about a year ago, about what humanity has done and is capable of doing. During this discussion, we came to the conclusion that language was one of the most impressive feats of humanity. My friend said that language really is just a bunch of sophisticated grunts, and I have to say I agree with him. There are thousands of languages in the world, and multiple dialects to each language.…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Language Essay

    • 987 Words
    • 3 Pages

    An American author named Oliver Wendell Holmes once stated, “Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.” This quote, itself describes the importance of language as it embraces “growth” as an aspect of it. Language, which is a method of communication used by humans, allows for innovation and progress within the world. For starters, communication is important because it allows one to gain understanding and meaning about the world. Having knowledge about the world you live in is important to conquer everyday task that are essential to living. Factors of living such as getting a job, finding a place to live, and buying forms of transportation, all consist of using communication. Essentially, language is important because it enables one to stand up for themself, explains what an individuals core needs are, and represents the specific region of the world an individual is from. Through the use of language, people are able to interact with each other on a level that promotes understanding in the world.…

    • 987 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays