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Making Arguments/ Explicating Key Quotations ("We are afraid to admit…
Making Arguments/ Explicating Key Quotations
Thesis Statements
should outline the shape of the essay
makes the stakes clear, shows WHY it's important
suggests solution, which will be laced throughout the essay and circled back to in the conclusion
quotations and textual evidence! should be relevant (in support of thesis) close read for--DICTION, SYNTAX, HOW IS THE SENTENCE STRUCTURED, HOW DOES IT FLOW/CONNECT TO OTHER THOUGHTS
"We are afraid to admit how deeply 'the man's' words have been ingrained in us" (Moraga, 27)
paraphrase: even though we want to get away from "that way of life," but it's how we've been raised, it's in our heads, and we practice some of these things without even meaning to;
"the man's" as a white patriarchy
compulsory ways of life, overlapping with gender and race: "find a man"
what about our erotic desires?
tone: expresses the impossibility or daunting task ahead "we are afraid"
Who is the we? "Society": anyone with a heart beat, shows the extensive work we as a collective need to work through? "Women"?
the verb "ingrained" is about something deeper than "taught": this is deep, it's interwoven, it has texture
"Silence
is
like starvation. Don't be fooled. It's nothing short of that, and felt sharply when one has a full belly most of her life" (Moraga, 23-4)
you're being deprived of a basic need; silence is depriving folks of basic human needs (using the similie of hunger); and you don't realize that until it's taken away from you--when you have to encounter silence in a particular are when others were "full"
silence is not being heard/recognized
full belly is lower class v. higher class; colorism (white is right), the hetero/homo binary, the act of passing or being recognized as white. (Is full belly privilege?)
silence as an image for the closet; silence can't work as defense
the italics set the tone about an imagined audience who might respond, "But silence can't be that bad?"
the similie is about feeling and approximation, but not saying it is the thing
Moraga is arguing for a way of coming to terms with discriminations--racial, sexual/anti-lesbian, sexisms--; also calling on us to do something about it: it's about collectivity, paying attention to differences "the real power as you and I well know is collective" (29). "If it takes head on collisions, let's do it. The polite timidity is killing us" (29)
"The danger lies in ranking oppressions.
The danger lies in failing to acknowledge the specificity of oppressions
(24)