Becoming What We’re Called, “Boy, Man, Fellow, Chap”. This is the story on which I decided to contemplate. It is written by Alice Walker, an African American Author and Poet who uses her works to tackle activism, feminism and identity. A prime example of her work is, “The Color Purple”, a fictional novel that won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983.
“Becoming What We’re Called” like many of her works highlights the identity, distinction, and definition of a female; all of which echoes a great deal in the piece. Her issue in this essay was people (men or women) referring to women as “you guys”. Written in the first person, Alice Walker pronounces her dislikeness to the use of the words “you guys” towards women. She becomes aggravated with her best friend and everyone who referred to her as “you guys”. She points out that by calling women “guys” doesn’t do any justice to their personal identity, description, struggle and accomplishments. More so, “guy” as noun means “a boy or man: fellow: chap” and as a verb means “to tease; or to ridicule.” Now are women being ridicule by the use of the words “you guys”, or is it just used out of ignorance?
In the story, Miss Walker, uses her personal experiences and references (denotation) as a structure to build a strong impact and develop ideas to her view. She mention the story of the black man mentioning the word “nigger” while listening to his music, her trip around America and Europe where people would ask question referring to them as “you guys”, and the definition of the word “guy”; all as reasons to becoming what we’re called. I believe she right in that instances, events or certain things can make a word widespread. When a word becomes widespread, it tends to have either a negative or positive impact on a person. If I didn’t know Alice Walker, I would say she strikes me a well cultivated woman. She is someone who is very concern with what she says, and knows very well the power of the spoken word.
The piece is personal and written in the first person as Creative Nonfiction. It becomes personal via the pieces of stories she throw s into it. It is those very stories that shapes and enforces her point of view, creating a potent impact to the reader. By giving you the pieces of stories, she was able to acquire the distance to see herself and her point. Thus she builds herself as a character through personal involvement from the stories. Her voice is informative as it is frustrated. It is informative because she aims to teach women their true identity and how not to be consumed in general connotation and conformity. She is frustrated because “you guys” is something she cannot stop hearing.
I am Hamilton Marks, Jr.
GOOD DAY!
