Language & Leverage by Imani

Language & Leverage by Imani - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

There is no greater force than words, be they written or spoken. During my current career as a high school scholar, I have come to a better understanding of the power of language. Thus, it is no surprise that my greatest challenges and accomplishments have stemmed from Literature classes.

In ninth grade, I was introduced to the late Elie Wiesel, a man who oozed with power. Upon studying Night I learned about tragedy, like the loss of loved ones and the destruction of families, as well as triumphs, like the fall of the Nazi party and liberation of survivors, through a personal account. Prior to reading the novel, two words came to mind when hearing the word Holocaust: merciless genocide; however, I had severely underestimated the hope growing within those concentration camps. Wiesel made me aware of this never-ending optimism through a deeply saddening true story. He showed that Literature can touch and ultimately unite people around the world regardless of culture, social class, and personal experiences.

Next year my teacher had the class study Antigone by Sophocles. The main conflict in this play was between Antigone and those around her, as she wished to bury her brother, Polyneices, without consequence, but King Creon forbade it. This story teaches about sacrifice and connects the reader by making them question their own morals and wonder what it is that they too may want to stand for in spite of the odds.

In eleventh grade, my teacher focused primarily on helping students develop a deeper understanding for rhetorical devices. While rhetorical devices are evident in many kinds of text, it is most apparent in speeches as the speaker’s goal is to appeal to the audience. Over the course of the year, I compared speeches with devices like parallelism, repetition, imagery, and more. I noticed that ethos, pathos, and logos are very important as the audience may want to relate, hear facts, or establish an emotional connection with the speaker. For example, in Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” she uses ethos to make her audience, of primarily white women, reevaluate the way they see black women. Pathos is also used when Truth mentions a briefly haunting image of her children being sold away to slavery. These powerful rhetorical devices were used to hopefully encourage white women to accept black women into an impending women’s rights movement during a time when black people, in general, were viewed as less than nothing.

Without literature teachers, I may not have found the appreciation that I have for language today. It extends to my personal life as I cannot watch a movie or show without analyzing a character’s choice of words, listen to a song without trying to find the meaning behind any image, simile, or metaphor, or send a text without rereading it first to make sure that what I typed is not misconstrued by the recipient. Knowing the power of words makes me a more cautious person as I have found that the words you say and write can have lasting impressions the way that Antigone, Night, and “Ain’t I a Woman?” have, so it is best to express words that will have a positive impact on others.