The Biggest Con of All

Anastasiia Chorna

English 11000

March 23, 2015

The Biggest Con of All

        Wherever you live in the world, you should know the language of that society in order to thrive in it. However, you shouldn’t abandon your own, personal language.  Our families might be able to protect us and help by creating a world full of comfort and love, but there will always be a moment when we realize it is the time for us to become someone. It is in that moment where we choose to become an independent person with our own goals and values. Each of us has something we love or truly want to do. It is not easy to come to the realization of what that really is, as it is not easy to change our lives in order to start moving in the right direction.  We are all a part of a larger community and whatever our goals are in life we are bound to have contact with people who are critical or just passing by through our life. We must be able to address them in a proper way and language is the most important tool for this.

An empowering example of the influence that language has over our life is a story of Megan Foss. In her article “Love Letters”, she shares with the the world her way of rising from from the bottom of our society to becoming a valuable part of it. An amazing writer and professor at a university, she opened her world to us through her writing. Megan Foss wrote about her realizations and emotions of her using a broken-down language and how it pervaded simultaneously with her being on drugs and working as a prostitute. This language is the closest to her, even if she doesn’t sell her body now and doesn’t take drugs, she was once that person and from that world. It was this language that helped form and mold her into the person she is today.

She started her story from the time she started writing letters to her boyfriend Darryl who was in jail. She remembers the times before when they spent all their time together whether be it sharing the same food or sharing the same drugs. They were everything for each other, they enjoyed their time together and nothing else mattered. However, when Darryl was taken away from her, she was left to herself, with only two choices. Either face the cruel reality of her existence or try to find a way to escape. Composing letters to Darryl became the only way to escape from this unjust world, a way to escape into herself. She was what those letters were: day-to-day episodes and anecdotes from her daily life. Her letters encompassed problems with basic necessities, such as food, shelter, clothing,and even her “dope”. She was lethargic, her letters reflected her morbidity of not facing and analyzing her life. Although her letters seemed blech, they were also her thread of hope. She thoroughly enjoyed writing, she was doing something she loves and it is this fact that kept her going on with life after Darryl left her. She was opening herself to words, though broken and misspelled, but her own words nonetheless.

        As time progressed Megan eventually found herself in jail, and once again her enamoring letters and expressive language became her “saving grace”. Nevertheless, here more than ever she grabbed for threads of her writings. Even though her letters were officially addressed to Darryl, they were in actuality written to herself in her own private language. But now, in jail, the writing became her trading currency. She found out that she can reduce her time in jail if she submitted her writings to the English teacher there. Therefore, in order to shorten her term she faced a necessity to address other people. With this in mind she learns proper English. Eventually, she comes to realization that refining and evolving her current English became the progenitor of a world full of opportunities. It strikes her like an epiphany, that it doesn't really matter who you are and where you came from, if you speak the language of the masses, you will be able to obtain benefits from life, to become a valid part of the society. Isn't it "a biggest con of all"?

However only  perfecting the english language was not enough, she was longing for her old language. She knew her past is still a part of her, and the only way to survive with her personality intact in this society, is to integrate and intertwine both of them. Her refinement is as valid a part of her now as her old “trash” English is a part of the past, and only together they build Megan Foss.

The success in which an individual is able to integrate the fluidity of broken english into a more refined context - much as Megan did - is not always achieved. In a lot of cases it depends where you grew up at and what choices you made or rather what choices were made for you. Richard Rodriguez gives a great example of a similar situation like this in his article "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood". Where he grew up in a Spanish speaking family, studied english at school while living in neighborhood full of Americans.

We can see how at his young age he enjoyed speaking Spanish with his family,  and only speaking this language he felt like himself. His family was his only refuge and his only happiness. He didn't speak English and he felt as though he didn't need to, or rather he didn't want to. As Megan had Darryl, Richard had his family - his little escape - where he didn’t face the necessity of communicating with others. He was behind in school, didn’t make any new friends and was alienated from his neighbors. The reason was simple, he didn’t know the language of his community. He didn’t have his “public language”. With the help of teachers, his parents realized the problem and made a decision that changed his life. They forbid Spanish at home.
Unlike Megan, Richard didn’t lose his family, he only lost his personal language. Progressing in the article we see how he starts succeeding in school, finds new friends, and even how his family becomes more familiar with the neighbourhood. Eventually Richard grows up and becomes a successful writer. However, throughout his life the thread of nostalgy and feeling of loss makes its way. In his article we can see how he brightfully remembers the times with his family, and how he misses their conversation in his loved “private language”. When we look at his work as a writer - “Hunger of Memory”(book of autobiographical essay about his childhood), “Mexico’s Children”(study of Mexicans in America) and  “Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father”(memoir) - we can see how he longs for the usage of his private language, the desire to escape back to earlier memories is reflected in his writing.

We are taught proper english so that we may be able to find a decent job at least and succeed in life. Being a member of the American society, we sometimes overlook our foreign native language, the one we spoke at home with our family and friends. Our personal language transforms and develops with us as we grow, learn, and gain our life experience. Only being able to speak both - public and private languages -we can succeed as a valuable part of a society and an independent and unique individual.