Anzaldua Questions

Questions for discussion and Journaling

1. Gloria Anzaldua uses both English and Spanish within her article. BY reading this article I can tell she is very intertwined with her writing. She talks about how she can’t sleep at night because her writings will keep her awake if they are bottled up inside of her. This piece made me wish I could write with such depth and be so connected to my writings. I feel it made the piece more personal by not being, “clued in.” I think she wants the writing to use their own words to connect and make their own meetings. These are her own personal stories which are her memories encapsulated in time. This piece is much different from other pieces with in this book and leaves a lot of parts unexplained. I think she doesn’t explain much of the story because she wants the reader to make their own personal opinion of her stories, and take what they want from her life story.

3. Anzaldua has a deep connection to her writings and has to trust her thoughts to compose her writings. I feel each person has a different opinion on how they write the way they do. I feel some people just spit ball writing and others have to have a deep connection on what they are writing. I think every writer should believe what they write and not take others ideas to compose their writings. I believe when I have strong feelings about what I write it helps me to get my ideas out better and write more freely. I have different feelings about each topic I write.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

2. Gloria is an amazing writer and is one of the most creative writers I’ve ever read.  I feel the way she wrote this piece was very personal and had the most impact by being written in this. If she wrote it in a more tradition academic format it would of took a lot away from the piece. The way she wrote her piece shows she believes in her writing and, it also shows she has a deep connection with her writing. She wrote her piece this way because this the way she wanted to write her thoughts, feelings out on paper.

3. No, I do not agree with Anzaldua’s statement that images are more direct than words. I feel images give the reader instant images in your head, but they cannot explain thoughts as deeply as words can. I personally feel words affect me deeper than an image. I know when I look at a familiar picture it can spark a memory in my mind better than words could. This happens more often to me with images than words but, images occasionally affect me on a deeper level than words. When I am talking to my friends or writings them notes I would communicate through images because they are funnier and it is easy for me to get my points across through pictures. I understand better though words but, communicate better though pictures, although I feel this is different for everyone.