a word ’ s meaning gloria naylor nigger and caricatures nigger

A word’s meaning

Gloria Naylor

Nigger and Caricatures

nigger

Pre-reading

Why does “stone” mean stone? Wha6t does stone convey to you? What about “girl”? Can words mean different things to different people? If so, how is it we can communicate with one another?Naylor suggests that different words—even offensive words —mean different things to different people. Would y6ou agree or disagree, and why? Can you think of a word that you personally find very offensive but others might find acceptable?

In reading

Nymphomaniac & necrophiliac (par. 3)

Unreal conditionals: Conditional mood

Harlem (par. 4): meaning

The juicy details (par. 5): juicy

…like three in recognition of the extra ounce of wit, … (par. 11)

Building vocabulalry2. Naylor is disagreeing with an argument that the use of the word “nigger” among Afican-Americans is a sign of self-hatred. “Social stratum” refers to economic class; “internalization of racism” means that the racist values of the outside society have been turned in on the blacks, who believe these values, and thus they hate themselves.

Understanding the writer’s ideas

1. In par. 3, Naylor identifies “I remember…” She is in her third grade class and the word is used by a boy who she notes has received a lower grade on a test than she has. When the teacher scolds the boy for using the word, Naylor recognizes that the word is considered “bad” in this context. She uses the words “puzzled” and “verified” to show how the meaning has shifted based on the social clues from the classroom.


2. Naylor identifies her family as working class. They have jobs in postwar industries like shipyard and factories. The grandparents own their own home in Harlem, to which the large and vital extended family gravitates on weekends to recover from the week of hard work. They have migrated from the rural South to find relative prosperity in the urban center.


3. Her family refuses to let the children hear about “sexual misconduct and death,” but anything else is not censored. The family group condemns neighbors who get illegitimately pregnant, for instance, but otherwise details of workaday triumphs are part of the discussion.


4. Naylor uses the word “nigger” in various contexts and inflections to vary its meaning. (a) In par. 8, it is used in the singular to praise a successful man. (b) in par. 9, it is used with a possessive adjective, “my nigger,” as a term to show affection for a man. It also could be expanded to become the “essence of manhood,” to show respect for a man who had survived a tough situation. © in a more negative usage, the word is pluralized to describe a family who lacked self-respect and decency as the group defined it (par. 10).


5. The word was not applied to women since women were not appreciated on the same lines as men. “Girl” was the equivalent, but Naylor’s examples show that here, as earlier, the meaning depends on the context and the pronunciation of the word (par. 13).


6. Naylor argues that blacks’ use of the word subverts the negative meaning assigned to it by whites. By redefining the word on their own terms, blacks alter the meaning to make the word one that creates a close-knit community among users like themselves. “Impotent” means without power. They transform the word by making it a word used with intimacy and pride rather than as an insult.


7. The mother must explain racism to her innocent child. The mother’s gesture of taking the child onto her lap illustrates her desire to protect the youn Naylor from the painful meanings of the word “nigger” when it is used as a hate word.

Understanding the writer’s techniques

1. Naylor stirs up her thesis in par. 2 when she asserts “Words…power.” We know because she has prepared us for this culminating sentence in the previous paragraph.


2. Naylor wants to move from general to particular, to place her definition in context. If she presents an intellectual introduction, one in which she illustrates her familiarity with academic theories about language, she will convince the reader that she is a rational and well-informed writer. Then, when she gets to her main word, “nigger,” she can show that she is not a hatemonger but, rather, one who is rationally defining a hate word. She is aware that her audience is most likely white and middle or upper class, and she must establish her credibility with such a group.


3. The shift in tone makes the reader more sympathetic with the writer. While we may appreciate the theory in the first two paragraphs, we respond more compassionately to the personal experience she introduces in par. 3. As a skilled writer, Naylor uses both voices, and frames her personal experience with the general ideas so that we have a context for relating to her experience even if we are not black readers, for we are all language users.


4. Naylor uses examples and dialogue to make her definition clearer. She is arguing that the meaning of the word changes depending on how it is used, and who uses it. By using dialogue, she supports her point. She also shows that these speakers, all different, understand the use, or create a consensus of meaning.


5. Naylor’s piece first appeared in the “Hers” column of the New York Times. She asserts her expertise, her authority over language, bu using the technical grammar terms. She uses the “power language” of the audience first to show that she can speak “their” language. Then she goes on to show that she can speak another language as well, a language to which she is introducing them with her new definition of “nigger”.


6. Naylor’s last sentence argues (Like Amy Tan’s essay) that the simple direct language of one’s family may be the best language. It is clear, direct, effective.

a word ’ s meaning gloria naylor nigger and caricatures nigger

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