Naylor vs Bosman

507 Words3 Pages
Whether people agree with it or not or believe we really have as many as we do, we in America are given a very large scale in freedom in our opinions, thoughts and how we choose to voice them; on paper, out loud, etc. Because of this, many people have many different views and meanings for the world and things around us. Gloria Naylor’s piece A Word’s Meaning, and Julie Bosman’s piece The (No) Free Speech Movement, both show how people freely use terms, phrases, and outlets for such things differently, and also how some in communities may find their views different. Though both essays contain similarities between their minor focuses, there are certainly more differences between the authors, the styles and the content of their pieces. Gloria Naylor and Julie Bosman both went to college and participated, if not graduated with a knowledge of literacy and understanding of language and its effects. Both show that people have the right to say or print what they want. Unfortunately they both also show how some people may, or may not, take offense to these thoughts and opinions. Both pieces are talking about issues that bring up differences in ideas within communities and they each originate over a controversy over the African American community. Though in Naylor’s case it is when she was a young child, and in Bosman’s she was and undergraduate in college, both authors use personal life experiences. Both pieces also show how expressing certain ideas/terms can be harmful, but also show an understanding of a community and it’s reaction towards thoughts and people. Both pieces also seem to talk about the appropriateness of certain things, though in A Word’s Meaning, it is about terms used to describe other human beings and in The (No) Free Speech Movement, it is about the appropriateness of timing, and content of advertising in a college campus newspaper. Although
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