Morrison achieves this choice through the use of the bird as the symbol of language.

Just like it is up to the young people

whether or not the bird lives, so it is up to young people whether or not to keep language away from the looters, those that
use language to "drink blood" and know how to exploit the "policing languages of mastery." As Morrison writes of the bird,
a symbol for language, when the old lady addresses the children, "If it is dead, you have either found it that way or you
have killed. If it is alive, you can still kill it. Whether it is to stay alive is your decision. Whatever the case, it is your
responsibility,"
When Morrison speaks of "tongue-suicide", she is discussing how very often people can use language in a way that is
destructive and harmful. They use their tongue only to murder, maim, or distort language. They use their tongue to express
racist, fascist, sexist, theistic language that is completely divorced from the real power of language and the real purpose of
language, to express the human in us. When they use language in this manner they are committing "tongue-suicide", or
using the tongue to divorce themselves from human instinct primarily to achieve power for themselves or over others.
The relationship of truth to power is a complicated one. Morrison believes the highest truth is using our inherent gift of
communication and language expression to find meaning, to convey love, and to connect to other human beings on a
fundamental level. The old wise woman may be blind but she knows language
I think this is an interesting story to tell for a speech.The pov in the beginning(pg 2) is from the old blind woman.I think the
point of this story is to tell the audience that sometimes the best answer is the one you're not expecting.Maybe that trying to
trick an old wise person who knows the way of the world is silly and instead we should learn from them. And as she tells
this story,I think that she is aiming for us,the young and naive students. I interpreted that she would want us to seize what's
right in front of us instead of waiting around for something better that may never arrive.I felt that some parts were
confusing but for the most part I understood.I also interpreted that the old woman's language will not die or be infected by
an outsider and that the whole world can communicate if we just listen to one another. I found many metaphors in this
speech and I agree with Toni Morrison's choice of dialect.
Morrison decried the debasement of language, of words that could be used to oppress people, to obscure the horror of
terrible things, to deny people their truth. Language, she said, was too essential to humanity to abuse it in that way.
"Word-work . . . makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference - the way in which we are like no
other life," Morrison said. "We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of
our lives."13

espite these uses of language and the shift of position from all humans to these kinds of usurpers of the inherent right of
speech as meaning and love, Morrison still contends that it is our right, our duty, and our responsibility as individuals to
ensure such individuals do not "loot" our language and the desire to express it. Morrison achieves this choice through the
use of the bird as the image of language. Just like it is up to the young pile whether or not the bird lives, so it is up to young
people whether or not to keep language away from the looters,

Language, she suggests, is in fact our only human power, and our responsibility. The consequences of its misuse we know
all too well, and Morrison does not hesitate to name them. But she ends with a challenge for her audience, and for all of us,
to take our own meager literary resources and put them to use in healing the damage done. You should listen to, and read,
her entire speech, with its maze-like turns and folds.

What do you mean by her choice of dialect? What were the metaphors? Where were they and was there a
central one? We will need to work on you being much, much more specific in your journal entries. You will have to really

dig into the material and digest it. Right now you are treating it like an appetizer,and I need you to think of it as a meal. Can
you answer some of the other questions I posted? :-)
Matthew Nunez said...
I think the story was extremely meaningful. I beieve that Toni Morrison used a stiory she heard from personal experience to
convey a very powerful message and arise a new perspective of what you are made to believe the story is first trying to
convey. i believe that this old woman was used to symbolize us and who we are as people, this is due to the "uncertainty"

of Toni's description of the person. I viewed the bird as a test by others, for example during the speech Toni conveys the
point that we use language to try to sugar coat things and make them sound acceptable. Toni is streesing the importance of
communication. language is constantly personified and used with metaphor. A phrase that really stuck to me was "iterate
the voice of speechlessness.
I was hit with several meanings to the speech. First, the one that was most obvious to me was that fate is your responsible,
for all your actions and there are consequences [pg. 2 line 9-13]. Second, language can be the eyes (and all the other senses)
for the world. Embrace while it lives on and to keep it.
The way she is explaining the importance of literture, of language through storys. One of the storys involed was about a
blind lady who was supposely very wise. One day that women was visited by young people who went up to her to ask her a
question. This question was "I hold in my hand a bird , tell me if it is dead or alive". The lady was merly being tested by
these young people. Figurtive language was used in asking that question. In my opinion the real question that was being
asked was what is the meaning of life, do we hold in our hands the power to decide who lives and who shall die?
Throughout her speech the mood changes from calm to a assertive person who is gettin there feelings about literature and
the power it holds to the world. Also how literature breaks barriers. In reading Toni Morrison`s speech I found myself to be
confused at certain parts , mostly when she was telling the storys. The way she transition into them is what I think had me
confused.
how important language is to our society. Toni uses the anecdote of the "old blind woman" to bring forth her point of view
on language, by comparing it to a fragile bird that is believed to be in the hands of a young person. We can see the
importance of this fragile bird by the way the old woman responds to the question they ask, with a "soft but stern" tone of
voice replying,"What i do know is that it is in your hands." This soft but stern reply reveals the responsibility that we all
have of using our words/language wisely. We all have this bird in our hands, we have to make sure that we don't kill it.
Another verse that i greatly admire is found in {pg.3, on the last paragraph, second sentence} when Toni says,"Oppressive
language does more than represent violence; it is violence..." This verse is very powerful in that the author explains how
our language effects our whole lifestyle. The way we speak is the way we are. And the way we speak is the way that other
people will portray us!
Starting in the beginning, the blind woman is approached by visitors, and after the visitors show an act of disrepect towards
her disabled state, she reproaches them with words of wisdom. Her Point of View in this instance is that people shouldn't
pick on those that appear to be less "fortunate" than you. The author then goes on to symbolized both the woman and the
bird as a writer and language respectively. Using that symbolism, the author throughly explains how language that we use,
is correlated to the pains and gains of human life.
Towards the bottom of Page 3, I noticed the author's reference to the state and power merchants, and surmised that the
author was indicating how different social classes might use language. For example, a very prestigious person may have a
very eloquent and fluent dialect whereas a lower classman might have a slightly less developed dialect and use slang or
"shortcuts" like how people communicate over the internet in chat rooms. To conclude my analysis of Page 3, I noticed the
phrase "Oppresive language" on line 37, and thought it was an example of personification because it is essentially giving a
human quality to an idea, since Oppresing is a human action.
However, the visitor's tone changes again on Page 8, this time to feelings of disgruntled. In the first paragraph, the visitors
have this frustrated tone as they continue their response to the blind lady's actions (or lack thereof) from Page 7. The author
expresses their feelings with words like cruelty and mediocrity. The author also uses these quotes " Do you think we are
stupid enough to perjure ourselves again and again with the fiction of nationhood?" and "How dare you talk to us of duty
when we stand waist deep in the toxin of your past?" Both quotes mean that the visitors believe that the actions of those in
the past signify how the future goes; therefore they are frustrated with the blind lady because they believe that her failure is
why they are where they are now.
From reading the speech by this author I was able to learn a lot and see how the author was able to refer to the bird in every
element that she was trying to impliment. This author used many different ways to show her opinion and thoughts to the
children. she also showed in much language the feelings of the children and how they used the bird as a way to get the
attention of the old woman. For her to also give them and explanation as to why she wasn't able to reach out to them and
give them guidance and to show them her wisdom which comes from age and experience. The author was able to show the
use of point of view through the eyes of the children as they felt that they had to trick the older woman into thinking that
they has a bird in their hands which was either alive or dead to seek the attention of the woman and also to get words from
her from experiences in the past so they can now be able to learn how to be the person they should be. The author was also
able to show figurative laguage as she spoke very stern and angry to express the feelings of these young children toward the
woman,also to show how the woman was telling the story of the young man and woman and the situation they were in. The

author was very was very clear to me as of her intentions of where she was going with her speech about the bird and how it
represents more than wat it is physically but it also has a double meaning to it.