The excerpt from Malcolm X's speech to Harvard Law School was one of the passages that struck me as very interesting because of the different type of voice and style he uses to his audience. Malcolm X uses what linguists call code switching, this is when a speaker moves effectively between different audiences and adjusts their language and delivery (Melzer 13). This excerpt caught my attention because of the way Malcolm X spoke to his audience and how he quoted Shakespeare which showed he was aware of white European cultural traditions. "As long as you sit around suffering the slings and arrows and are afraid to use some slings and arrows yourself, you'll continue to suffer" (Malcolm X 8). I think this quote is what the whole passage is really about and with which i also agree with, because he explains that if you allow people to put you down and you don't stick up for yourself or live your life for yourself then you're always going to suffer.
Another passage that caught my attention was where they discussed literacy mediums and took a passage from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. "The light sprang up again, an there on the brink of the chasm, at the very Crack of Doom, stood Frodo, black against the glare, and tense, erect, but still as if he had been turned into stone." (Tolkien). Since this is all written and not being shown on the television Tolkien has to rely on vivid and detailed description to get his point across to his audience and create the scene. He does this by describing in great detail Frodo standing as still as stone and how he just appeared out of thin air. This passage was very thought provoking because it really shows you how important language and style are to the composition of this book, without these detailed descriptions you would never be able to imagine what is really happening in the book and that is the key to any book.
How Malcolm X changed his style and voice also caught my attention because i thought that being famous he would have to use the same style for everything or people would consider him two-faced. It turns out that he changes his style in order to form to his audience which is interesting to me since i have always thought all famous speeches are the same boring junk.
ReplyDeleteNailed it right on the head about language and style and how important they are to give the audience a picture as to what is going on in the novel.
ReplyDeleteThe details that the author uses when discussing Frodo makes a very vivid picture of him, and shows that by using detailed descriptions it allows the reader to imagine it and picture it without even being able to see it.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Courtney, it's a nice change up when speeches change their style but still have their own spin on them. It's never fun or inviting to sit in on the same speeches over and over.
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