16.4 Annotated Student Sample: "Artists at Work" by Gwyn Garrison

Living by Their Own Words

The Power of Language

student sample text Language is the medium through which the communication of ideas takes place. One of language’s many attributes is its ability both to reflect and to shape social attitudes. Language has the power to perpetuate oppression when dominant social groups choose the ways in which rebellious behavior is described. Thus, people in power historically have used language as propaganda to perpetuate the ideas that they want to reiterate. For example, if a woman in modern society is described as ladylike, the message is that she conforms to traditional gender expectations of politeness, modesty, and deference. However, if a woman is called a whore, the message is that the woman does not conform to these traditional gender standards. In recent years, oppressed social groups have learned that they can reclaim the language of the oppressor by redefining such words and their connotations.end student sample text

annotated textGwyn Garrison uses reaction—reflection or thinking—to introduce the “big idea” of the thesis: language has the power to shape cultural and social attitudes.end annotated text

student sample textAmerican authors such as Kate Chopin and Shirley Jackson, sociopolitical activists such as Hillary Clinton and Chrissy Teigen, and California rape survivor Chanel Miller— artists/writers in their own ways—take on this essential work of reclaiming language on behalf of all women. This confiscation of the tools of the oppressor is an essential step toward building a society in which women may be free to be who they are. Negative stereotypical labeling no longer has the effect of disempowering women because language can be reclaimed from the oppressor as a form of empowerment.end student sample text

annotated textGarrison’s thesis statement highlights her analytical approach. She makes a connection between women’s rights and a series of texts by significant women.end annotated text

student sample textWriters can use the short story form to shift perception away from the lens of the status quo and focus perception in a new way. In Kate Chopin’s 1898 short story “The Storm” (text follows this discussion), protagonist Calixta engages in a passionate extramarital affair with an old friend, Alcée. Readers may argue that Calixta’s actions should be labeled as immoral by both societal and religious standards because she breaks the social and religious contract defined by her marriage vows. Yet every other action of Calixta’s complies with traditional gender roles: she is a wife, mother, and caretaker. In some ways, committing this one social transgression seems completely out of character when she meets traditional gender expectations in all other areas of her life.end student sample text

annotated textGarrison provides publication information as well as a brief plot summary and context for the story. You can read “The Storm” in its entirety at the end of this feature.end annotated text

student sample textWhen Calixta acts outside of societal norms, however, she discovers the freedom of self-expression and passion.end student sample text

annotated textThis transitional topic sentence supports the overall thesis while also identifying what the paragraph will be about.end annotated text

student sample textAll parts of her womanhood that have no place in the society in which she lives have been repressed until this one moment. In this scene, Chopin takes possession of the term whore and redefines Calixta’s behavior as a transformative awakening.end student sample text

annotated textThis explanation makes a reference to the language of the text and explains the significance of the scene as it relates to the entire story and to Garrison’s thesis.end annotated text

student sample textChopin’s diction evokes a spiritual transcendence that allows Calixta to live momentarily outside social norms present only in the physical plane of existence: “when he possessed her, they seemed to swoon together at the very borderland of life’s mystery.”end student sample text

annotated textHere, Garrison correctly cites textual evidence—an example of the protagonist’s diction— to support her reasoning.end annotated text

student sample textThe affair becomes a vehicle that allows Calixta to get to a place of true self-expression. The storm, an aspect of nature or the natural world, acts as the catalyst in Calixta’s natural self-realization of womanhood. As the storm breaks externally, it also breaks internally for Calixta. Chopin’s depiction of Calixta’s sexual liberation and fulfillment outside of her marriage is an early step in the fight to bridge the gap between women’s bodies and their sociopolitical lives. By presenting female sexuality in a way that is enlightening rather than degrading, Chopin helps destigmatize labels such as whore, which have been used to shame women for acting outside of traditional gender expectations.end student sample text

annotated textGarrison further elaborates on the significance of the textual evidence and connects it to the topic sentence and thesis. In this case, it is the storm—an element of both plot and setting as well as a symbol.end annotated text

student sample textIn Shirley Jackson’s novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Merricat and her sister Constance are rumored to be witches who, according to village gossip, eat children. The label of witch has long been a device to oppress women who do not conform to traditional gender roles. In Salem, Massachusetts, during the 17th-century witch trials, women who could read or write, who refused marriage, or who practiced alternative religions often were labeled as witches and burned to death.end student sample text

annotated textIntroducing a second text for comparison, Garrison revisits the idea of language reclamation introduced earlier.end annotated text

student sample textIn Jackson’s novel, Merricat embraces the notion of being labeled a witch. In fact, she facilitates the rumors by burying talismans, identifying magical words, and talking to her cat, Jonas. In contrast to the witch trials, Merricat burns her own house to rid it of her male cousin. And she survives the fire, purging herself and her sister of the family’s patriarchal tendencies. By claiming the role of witch, Merricat insulates herself and her sister from their patriarchal family and society. In the end, Merricat creates a space where she and Constance can live together in a woman-centered territory outside the reach of the villagers.end student sample text

annotated textFocusing on language and its implications, Garrison discusses the use of witch, a label the character is happy to embrace as a means of asserting her womanhood.end annotated text

student sample textWith this story, Jackson does the important work of reclaiming the word witch, stripping it of its oppressive power and redefining it for womankind.end student sample text

annotated textIn the section that follows, Garrison moves outside literary texts and extends her analysis to language use in contemporary political situations, thus connecting literature with reality. Notice that Garrison has used the literary present tense in discussing both Chopin’s and Jackson’s fiction. She switches and uses mostly past tense now in discussing nonliterary events.end annotated text

student sample textSimilarly, in a more recent political climate, former U.S. president Donald Trump employed stereotypical derogatory language against women whom he considered dissenters. He used phrases like “such a nasty woman” (Ali) to describe former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and “filthy mouthed wife” (@realDonaldTrump) to describe model Chrissy Teigen to try to shame women with social influence into submission. It is noteworthy, too, that he describes Teigen by her role in relation to a man rather than by her name, which would indicate her individuality. Both Clinton and Teigen, along with millions of women around the world, have worked to empower women by redefining such language. Almost immediately following the accusation of “such a nasty woman,” women and girls around the country donned t-shirts and ball caps with the phrase, showing their pride in being “nasty” (Ali). In this context, the term came to describe women who speak truth to power. Although Teigen acknowledges that she had previously been blocked by Trump for trolling him, she shot back defiantly at him with a tweet that read in part: “lol what p— a— b—” (@chrissyteigen). Shortly thereafter, the phrase was trending as a Twitter hashtag (Butler). In this instance, people, particularly women, appreciated Teigen’s ability to respond to female shaming with language that Trump himself was recorded using and that is also traditionally used to shame and degrade women. This time, however, it was directed toward a powerful man. This reclamation of power through language is one step women have taken to revise the social gender narrative for a modern context.end student sample text

annotated textAgain, Garrison introduces texts for comparison, bringing her argument regarding the reclamation of language into the modern day.end annotated text

student sample textAfter four years of being known as “the girl raped by Stanford swimmer Brock Turner,” sexual assault survivor Chanel Miller has reclaimed the narrative of her story with the publication of her memoir Know My Name. After a Stanford University fraternity party in January 2015, Turner assaulted (with intent to rape) an intoxicated and unconscious Miller behind a dumpster at approximately 1:00 a.m. Some passing students interrupted the act, and Turner was taken by the police after the students restrained him. He was later brought to trial and found guilty. The sympathetic male judge sentenced Turner to only six months in county jail, from which he was released after three months for good behavior. When speaking on television to 60 Minutes on September 22, 2019, Miller expressed outrage that media coverage during the trial had focused not on what Miller had already lost but on what Turner had to lose if found guilty—his education, his swimming career, his Olympic prospects (Miller). Because Miller remained anonymous during the trial, the media and Turner’s lawyers controlled how she was perceived to the world—as a girl who got drunk and put herself into a compromising situation.end student sample text

annotated textGarrison emphasizes the role of language in Miller’s telling her story and ceasing to feel ashamed.end annotated text

student sample textThis male-centric characterization of events left Miller feeling ashamed and disempowered. By writing her book and reclaiming her story, Miller took a vital step in healing and trauma management, emphasizing that she now controls the language of her narrative. She is not a girl who deserves what she got, as some would argue. Miller readily acknowledges she deserved a hangover for her actions, but never a rape.end student sample text

annotated textNotice the switching of tenses to indicate events in the past and present. Notice, too, that Garrison returns to the literary present tense in the paragraph that follows.end annotated text

student sample textMiller’s story is all too common in the college partying scene, and the regularity of such attacks contributes to the perpetuation of an environment in which women are made to feel responsible for being attacked and men are free to act as they choose. The awareness of Miller’s story and, more importantly, her published story, reframe the narrative around rape culture so that the victims are not further victimized, as women work to educate men so that these attacks stop.end student sample text

annotated textGarrison introduces a final contemporary text for comparison. By citing multiple texts across time, Garrison strengthens her argument.end annotated text

student sample textArtists and writers such as Chopin, Jackson, Clinton, Teigen, and Miller engage in the gritty work of social reform that cannot be achieved through any other medium because culture cannot change unless the language in which people talk about the culture changes. This socially reformed reality is conceived only from the creativity of intelligent minds that are able both to envision and then to describe the world as it is yet to exist. In this way, artists who work with the medium of language become the prophets.end student sample text

annotated textThis conclusion looks to the future, which is a productive rhetorical or persuasive technique to give the audience an idea about what they can take away from this project.end annotated text