Identity Through Voice Essay

Identity Through Voice “Do not involve yourself with THOSE kinds of people,” my elders would warn me as monsters and demons but only people of different cultures. Throughout my childhood, I was taught to deny their voices to only recognize how vile it is and question if I should be seen as a monster instead. Ceasing one’s power of voice robs their culture, individuality, and past. Maxine Hong Kingston, Gloria Anzaldua, Sandra Cisneros, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, women of different cultures and pasts, share their experiences of the power of voice. Kingston shares a memoir, “No Name Woman” illustrating a woman’s, her unheeding aunt, eternal struggles as she may not be spoken of, only to be a dishonor with her legacy soon to dissipate. Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” describes Anzaldua’s struggles of her language, accent, and culture. Sandra Cisneros’s “Eleven” in Woman Hollering Creek tells a story of a girl who is denied any power and forced into a horrific experience. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares her experiences of stereotypes which caused her to blindly see partial sides of every situation. As these women grew, they discovered the importance of the power of voice and how it identifies one of their culture, individuality, and past. As we age, our culture helps shape ourselves to …show more content…
In “Eleven”, Cisneros writes, “That’s when everything I’ve been holding in since this morning, since when Mrs. Price put the sweater on the desk, finally lets go, and all of a sudden I’m crying in front of everybody, I wish I was invisible but I’m not” from the perspective of a soul deprived from voice and power(9). The character was demoralized and beaten until she was broken. She was not seen as an equal as she was confined into pent-up frustration until she erupted her discomfiture into tears. Her individuality was denied rejecting her beliefs and opinions as it demoralized