The Sacred Language of Toni Morrison Essay
The Sacred Language of Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison makes a good point when, in her acceptance speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize in
Literature, she says, Narrative . . . is . . . one of the principal ways in which we absorb knowledge (7).
The words we use and the way in which we use them is how we, as humans, communicate to each
other our thoughts, feelings, and actions and therefore our knowledge of the world and its peoples.
Knowledge is power. In this way, our language, too, is powerful.
In her acceptance speech, Morrison tries to communicate the idea that we must be careful with how
we use our words. She analogizes the use of language to the life of a metaphoric bird in a tale of a
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Throughout her speech, Toni Morrison works towards defining and supporting this thesis of
responsibility. It is our responsibility, as users of words, to make language thrive. Elizabeth Fox
Genovese has a similar goal, but takes a different approach in her essay The Claims of a Common
Culture: Gender, Race, Class and the Canon. She speaks on the use and composition of the canon
taught in humanities classes. Her idea is that the canon of today is much too one sided and does not
include the influence of the several different cultures, peoples, and ideas that make up our society. She
says that with respect to representativeness, the canon fails woefully. It represent[s] a small,
sometimes minute, portion of the elite, which itself constitute[s] a statistical minority of the population
(Fox Genovese 19). In this abstract way, Fox Genovese is reiterating Morrison s words that what we
say, and how we say it (or teach it), or what we fail to say (as in the canon taught today) is
monumentally influencing and impactful upon others.
If we are not aware of the words that come out of our mouths due to lack of thought or attention, we
all suffer and we are all at fault: When language dies, out of carelessness, disuse, indifference, and
absence of esteem, or killed by fiat, . . . all users and makers are accountable for its demise (Morrison
14 15). The standards of society are changing and with them the
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