The language of the oppressed

Gloria’s essay “Speaking in Tongues” is a beautiful way of opening the conversation of the oppression women face as well as explore the layers of what that means. She includes the voices of other women creating an echo that solidifies and emphasizes her main argument. Each poem she includes by another woman fits seamlessly with what she was writing. The only way you could tell it was not her own words is if you see the way it’s written before she credits the originally writer. By simply having seamless transitions with other women’s work, it proves her point that all women have a level of oppression and women of color deal with so much more because they are all talking about the same issues. Her words of how women of color have nothing to lose because they never had anything to begin with really struck me because it’s true. I have seen it with my own mother but the way Gloria phrased it is so incredibly shocking and true. It’s like she was talking about at the end about being naked and using “organic writing” (172). I loved the way she spoke in a poetic manner despite saying at the beginning how she started it as a poem and tried to turn it into an essay. The poetic manner creates a dramatic side that adds an emotion to every word and provides a base and reason for everything she says.