Question

Agosin( Always living in Spanish) and Dumas( The F word) explain about how language is used as part of identify formation. In fact, Agosin writes, “To write in Spanish is for me a gesture of survival”.

How do these writers support such a claim?

Answer 1

When a person speaks and others listen to him, the first and foremost things that are being noticed by others is the language and the efficiency in the manner the thoughts and ideas are presented. Irrespective of the viability of the statements, this can be seen as a weak statement by others if the grammar is not used correctly. This can also lead to the assumption that the speaker is not a reliable individual. If we extend this concept further, the society members will think that if a person does not speak any language well say English, it does not indicate that he or she is uneducated and ill-informed. If we look at the works of “Always Living in Spanish” by Marjorie Agosin and Dumas( The F word), both the writers tried to find out the effect of the language. There is no doubt that the importance of language will be realized and it has substantial power, some may be positive and some may be negative. The main fact is the source of the language, what is being represented by it and who are the ones going to be influenced. Any language whether it is English, Spanish or Hindi is a very potent tool irrespective of whether it is being spoken by others or not as it can provide a lot of information about the culture and life.

Agosin wrote that writing in Spanish is always an active search of memory, to find the old words. All the dimensions of her past life vanished but languages stuck. When the writing is used by her, she gets the power that will never be lost. It could be tough for the writers to carry all the ridicule and mockery, but with the help of words, she did a splendid job. The writers found that with the help of words, it is easy to communicate and the thoughts can be converted into any language that indicates that writing can be done in Spanish while others may not be Spanish speaking but still they can read it. This will indicate that language is quite important and it is not important that it has to be converted in a manner so that others can understand it.