Back to category: English

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Brand New, Out of the Box, Female Body:Margaret Atwood’s “Hot Topic”

Language is a nuisance. It can humiliate, irritate, aggravate, frustrate, and manipulate. Language is a friend. It can advocate, accommodate, cooperate, alleviate, and mitigate. Language is clarification. It can illustrate, demonstrate, elucidate, illuminate, and commentate. Language is an arbiter. It can mediate, consummate, consulate, adjudicate, and negotiate. Language is strong, influential, intimate, kind, mean, crude, and inspires creativity. Language has the power to excite us and inform us. It can help us and comfort us. However, language has the power to hurt us and destroy our dreams. It can insult us and make us angry. Indeed, language is powerful. Granted, these are figurative or metaphorical representations of language. Nonetheless, these are words that strike us at our souls. They provoke our thoughts and move our emotions. This is how language derives its power. Words can have an effect on social identity; they can shape attitudes and values. In her essay,...

Posted by: Melissa T. Littlefield

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