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Language and Power - Essay
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This essay analyses the importance of language for Patricia, Looksmart,, Beauty and Bheki, and how language is linked to power. It has been marked and received 100%.
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The Dream House Essay – Kate JonesTopic 12 - Language is intimately linked to power. Discuss what Beauty, Bheki, Looksmart
and Patricia reveal about the power of language.
In The Dream House, language has different significance for each character, however it
initially appears to the reader as if those who speak English best hold the most power. As
the novel continues, though, it is revealed that English speakers are not necessarily the
most powerful, and that there is power in silence too. Patricia’s fluent English makes her
appear powerful, but her lack of understanding about the past reveals the flaw in this
appearance. In contrast, Beauty’s silence and her preference for isiZulu leads her to seem
less important, but her knowledge of the past ultimately reveals her power. Looksmart uses
language in different ways when interacting with different people, and Bheki places more
value on emotions than on language.
Patricia’s grasp of the English language, which is linked to the linguistic strength of
colonialism, leads her to believe that she holds power over the workers on Dwaleni.
Looksmart feels as if Patricia’s “particular kind of cleverness diminished [others]”, as if
Patricia’s use of language demeaned those to whom she was speaking. He notices this
especially when Patricia summons Beauty, as he believes that she calls “Beau-ty” like “she’s
calling one of [her] dogs”. Patricia does not speak of the past, which she believes “doesn’t
amount to much in the end”. She does not realise, however, that her memories of Grace’s
death are built on Richard’s description that Grace was “taunting the dog”. Looksmart’s
arrival forces Patricia to re-examine her role in the past and acknowledge that “maybe [she]
got it wrong”. Her realisation of “the mystery that must run through all things” brings her to
acknowledge that the power she thought she held was superficial and meaningless, and
that power does not arise from status or use of language, but from knowledge and a
willingness to re-evaluate one’s past behaviour with integrity.
Initially, Beauty appears as a contrast to Patricia, in that she prefers to speak isiZulu and
thus seems less powerful. For Beauty, isiZulu is “something she can slip into, like a song,”
whereas English is alien and less comfortable. This makes Beauty appear to hold little
power, a mindset which she adopts despite its erroneousness. When Looksmart confronts
Patricia about Grace’s death, Beauty feels “powerless to step in, to intervene” even though
she has “knowledge in her eyes, smouldering like a fire” and knows more of the truth than
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