A Descriptive Analysis Of NiggerThe Meaning Of
A Descriptive Analysis Of Nigger: The Meaning Of A Word Essay, Research Paper
A Descriptive Analysis of & # 8220 ; Nigger: The Meaning of a Word & # 8221 ;
Descriptive Analysis
Assignment # 1
ACOM 2263-002
E. Jean Tarrant
26 February 2001
What is the rhetor & # 8217 ; s aim?
In the essay & # 8220 ; Nigger: the significance of a word & # 8221 ; Gloria Naylor discusses the kernel of a word and how it can intend different things to different people in a myriad of state of affairss. Depending on race, gender, social position and age Naylor outlines how a word like & # 8216 ; nigger & # 8217 ; can hold different significances within one & # 8217 ; s ain environment. Naylor discusses how a word can travel from holding a positive to a negative intension simply due to how it is spoken and by whom. Naylor portions a personal experience with her audience as she describes the first clip she truly & # 8220 ; heard & # 8221 ; the word & # 8216 ; nigger & # 8217 ; . A immature white male child in her 3rd grade category tongue it in her face. Naylor provinces, & # 8220 ; I didn & # 8217 ; t cognize what a nigga was, but I knew that whatever it meant, it was something he shouldn & # 8217 ; Ts have called me. & # 8221 ; ( Naylor 460 )
Naylor writes about her ain personal experience and is evidently biased. This, while powerful, can besides be seen as a limited position of the topic. Her audience merely understands thorough her eyes and her experiences.
Naylor is seeking to educate her audience by sharing a personal experience. I think she wants her audience to sit back and believe about the words they use and how others may utilize them and how this can impact others. Naylor wants her audience to understand how she was affected non merely by a immature male child but besides by how she didn & # 8217 ; t truly believe about the word & # 8216 ; nigger & # 8217 ; until the minute it was used to ache her. She is endeavoring to do
her audience think about the words they use and hear and how the context these words are immersed in can alter the significance of them.
Who composes the mark audiences?
To be a portion of Naylor & # 8217 ; s aim audience one must hold evidently had experience with linguistic communication and how people use it. She is aiming those who have heard and/or used the word & # 8220 ; nigger & # 8221 ; before.
Naylor wants her audience to take on her experience and be empathic towards her. She doesn & # 8217 ; t make this in a apparently hapless manner, as she seeks no commiseration. She outlines her experience and wants her audience to understand her position and how this position came to be.
What roles or character does the rhetor assume?
Naylor assumes the function of an pedagogue in her authorship. She assumes a character of a immature miss sing a new manner of understanding a word. Naylor wants her audience to understand how of import the context in which a word is used is so she writes about her personal experience, of which she is the exclusive authorization.
What it the rhetor & # 8217 ; s tone?
Naylor assumes a affair of fact tone in her authorship. She does non demand or
point her finger at any one group. She merely relays her experience in such a manner that
you can & # 8217 ; t assist but believe about what it must hold been like for her as a immature miss sing a new significance of a word in such a manner.
She does non take on a superior or low-level tone ; instead it is like she & # 8217 ; s holding a conversation with her audience as a equal. I find this really powerful because she achieves what she wants to in a elusive manner. Naylor doesn & # 8217 ; t talk or fault she merely portions her experience.
How is the discourse structured?
The debut is a frame for the remainder of the authorship to make full. Naylor discusses how linguistic communication is the topic of her piece, and although the written word is what has kept her traveling throughout her life she still feels that the written word is inferior to the spoken. Her statements in the debut are clear and easy understood. She is portraying what how powerful she feels the spoken word to be. Naylor provinces, & # 8220 ; Dialogue achieves its power in the kineticss of a fugitive minute of sight, sound, odor and touch. & # 8221 ; ( 460 ) This helps the audience understand the power of a spoken word. Naylor takes the place that words either written or spoken Don & # 8217 ; Ts take on significance until a consensus assigns one. Naylor provinces, & # 8220 ; Words themselves are innocuous ; it is the consensus that gives them true power. & # 8221 ; ( 460 ) As a author Naylor feels that the spoken word has a greater impact than the written word by saying, & # 8220 ; & # 8230 ; much of the defeat experienced by novelists is the
consciousness that whatever we manage to capture in even the most surpassing transitions falls far short of the profusion of life. & # 8221 ; ( 460 ) She introduces her audience to how powerful the spoken word can be which is what the remainder of the piece is involved with.
Naylor uses a chronological organisation in composing this piece. She starts with an experience as a immature miss and so goes on to sketch how her ideas on the word & # 8216 ; nigger & # 8217 ; evolved to go what they are today.
In her decision Naylor sums her point up nicely. She wants to convey about an consciousness of how words can take on different significances depending upon how they are used. She relays an illustration of how a word can take on an wholly new significance and the fact that one may non truly hear a word or take notice of it until it takes on that new significance by saying, & # 8220 ; There must hold been tonss of times that the word & # 8216 ; nigger & # 8217 ; was spoken in forepart of me before I reached the 3rd class. But I didn & # 8217 ; t & # 8220 ; hear & # 8221 ; it until it was said by a little brace of lips that had already learned it could be a manner to mortify me. & # 8221 ; ( 462 )
Naylor creates a conversational ambiance where her thoughts flow together nicely in a chronological mode. She develops a smooth relationship between her thoughts in this manner.
What kinds of back uping stuffs are used?
Naylor uses personal experience as her grounds. She uses a colloquial tone that adapts nicely to the audience. I say this because draws the reader in and he or she easy understands and accepts her experience. Naylor uses her experience to represent her point and to offer cogency. One is drawn in by her experience as a immature miss, and her development of understanding. Naylor makes her audience think about what it would be like to truly & # 8220 ; hear & # 8221 ; a word for the first clip, to look back and recognize you had heard the word many times in a different context.
What schemes are used?
The linguistic communication used by Naylor is common, as she doesn & # 8217 ; t use big words one has to look up to understand. She writes in low manner which is effectual for her statement. This usage of linguistic communications conjures an about friendly relationship with her audience, like she is sitting down with you over a cup of java discoursing how context can alter your apprehension of a word. She is sharing a portion of her life and experience with the audience in order to cast visible radiation on her statement.
Naylor, Gloria. & # 8220 ; Nigger: The Meaning of a Word & # 8221 ; Ed. Goshgarian, Gary. Exploring Language. Ninth Edition. Toronto: Longman, 2001. Pages 460-462
