Author Archives: aew2976

Gloria Anzaldua asks the question “how do you tame a wild tongue, train it to be quiet, how do you bridle and saddle it?” in her essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” She tells the story of her at the dentist but connects it to her life experience. For most of her life, Gloria, because she identified as a Chicana, was often silenced, disregarded, and stripped of her identity. By silencing someone’s tongue, you are taking away their ability to be human, stand up for themselves, and speak for what they believe in. They are essentially losing the biggest part of what defines them and what makes them unique. As we learned earlier this year, wildness is defined as something untamed, uncultivated, and something that stands out from the rest. To break down the question “how do you tame a wild tongue,” I personally think something so “wild” does not actually have the ability to be tamed. How can you “tame” something that is meant to be loud, to be heard, and to be understood? In Gloria’s example, people want to “tame” and silence her because of where she comes from and looks like. They want to take her established identity and change/silence it because they believe it does not belong, but she should be wild. She shouldn’t be silenced let alone ashamed of who she is.

~Audrey Wines

Wild Woman: 

• In high school, she was very mellow and shy, but now, wow she is a wild woman!

Wild Man:

• Engulfed with rage, the wild man threw the glass against the wall shattering it into many pieces. 

Wild Animal:

• The wild animal ran straight across our campsite as if it were retreating up into the mountains behind us. 

Wild Beast:

• The wild beast trampled through the city, causing destruction and devastation to anything and anyone he came across.

Wild Thing:

• The little boy had a wild thing about him- he hated desserts!

~Audrey Wines

Oscar Wilde, born October 16, 1854, was originally from Dublin, Ireland, but 46 years later in 1900 he passed away in Paris, France. Wilde appeared to be a spokesman for the late 19^th-century aesthetic movement and the Victorian era in England. He was popularly known for his wit, flamboyance, trials, and jail sentence for homosexual acts. He was raised by two very impressive individuals. His father was Ireland’s leading ear and eye surgeon while his mother was a revolutionary poet. Wilde eventually married and had 2 children named Cyril and Vyvyan. Wilde published his first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which received brutal criticism as critiques believed Wilde was suggesting embracing sin and immorality, but now, his novels are studied often and considered a great classic. His novel was also considered a homoerotic text as it hinted to events happening in his own life. Wilde, after being married for many years, had an affair with another man ultimately ending his marriage. He later was involved in a case in which he was found guilty for charges of sodomy and gross indecency ultimately ending him up in jail. 

While Wilde was considered “wild” because of his controversial past regarding the affair with a man, many of his writings were considered “wild” for that time period as well. His last poem ever published, also one of his most successful, is The Ballad of Reading Gaol as it depicts his experience of cruelty prisons inflict on the inmates. Some lyrics include:

I walked, with other souls in pain,
  Within another ring,
And was wondering if the man had done
  A great or little thing,
When a voice behind me whispered low,
  “That fellow’s got to swing.“

Dear Christ! the very prison walls
  Suddenly seemed to reel,
And the sky above my head became
  Like a casque of scorching steel;
And, though I was a soul in pain,
  My pain I could not feel.

Here, Wilde is writing about the pain he felt in prison. This too was considered wild as no writer had ever revealed the cruelty of prison itself. The specific lyrics, “And, though I was a soul in pain, My pain I could not feel” hints at the fact that the crimes he committed in the outside were nothing compared to the pain he felt in the prison. 

• Audrey Wines

In both Hemingway’s The Good Lion and Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, “wildness” is conveyed in both, but with separate meanings.  In Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, wildness is depicted as animalistic and imaginative. In the beginning of the story, Max’s mother calls him a “wild thing” with which he responds “I’ll eat you!” This implies his wildness is mischievous and daunting. Later when he reaches the mysterious island, he finds that it is infested with “wild things” or beasts. In the picture book, they have fangs and claws, ready to demolish and destroy anything in their way, yet Max was able to tame the wild beasts. The repetition Sendak uses of the “wild things” is also noticeable as well. The type of wildness portrayed in this book is animalistic as seen with the creatures Max comes across, but there is also wildness in his imagination- as his bed room turned into a forest, he sailed on a boat for a year, and was able to tame their wild creatures. On the other hand, Hemingway’s The Good Lion depicts wildness in a conceptual way demonstrated through good versus evil. The good lion escapes the dangerous lands in Africa which are full of evil lions that just want to kill him. Instead, the good lion is a “past-eating lion” that has no intentions of killing for food. The wildness is also portrayed in the fact that a lion has wings, which ultimately help in his escape from the bad lions. The bad lions were seen as less than and “uncivilized” because of this therefore making a massive differential between good and evil. The wildness portrayed in The Good Lion is more hidden, more between the lines compared to Where the Wild Things Are as wildness here is used repetitively to describe the imagination and animalistic tendencies.  

~Audrey Wines

On the surface, The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum is seen as a children’s story conveying the message that there is “no place like home.” Dorothy represents an innocent child dreaming of a better, magical place than where she lives now, but as the story develops, this children’s story representing much more than a child finding her way back home. The larger, hidden meaning behind this story is one that depicts the political allegory for American politics at the beginning of the 20^th century. Each character represents different social class struggles ultimately showing the corruption in politics and leaders. Because of this representation, Frank Baum’s intended audience is all people unhappy with the corruption within the government system as well as politicians themselves.

In many scenes of the book and film, “wild” is used to describe animals and beasts. One scene in particular regarding this type of wildness occurs at the beginning of chapter 6 titled: The Cowardly Lion. Along the yellow brick road, birds flew “for birds love the open country where there is plenty of sunshine” but every now and then “there came a deep growl from some wild animal hidden among the trees.” It was said that this type of wildness “made the little girl’s heart beat fast, for she did not know what made them.” This type of wildness is described animalistically as these “wild” beasts install fear and uncertainty within Dorothy and her companions. These emotions are commonly associated with pathos as fear is an emotion many people can relate to. The different representation between the freedom the birds felt compared to the hidden, wild beasts infers a type of evilness and mystery.

Audrey Wines

One song I particularly believe to be categorized as wild is a popular hip-hop/rap song called “Young, Wild, & Free” by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa. Artist Bruno Mars is also featured in the song. Originally released on October 11, 2011, this song broke records around the world due to its catchy chorus and ability to relate to many teenagers at the time. This song is written from the perspective of teenagers wanting to enjoy their lives free from rules and free to be whoever they want to be. The music video, which is linked below, is set in a high school where rules are broken and trips to the principle’s office were quite frequent. Because of society’s refusal to except all types of people at the time of the song’s release, being anything but “normal” and stereotypical was considered out of control and wild. Because this song hints at teenager’s wanting to be rebellious and live life in a less construct way, it became a universal anthem that paved a way of thinking that sometimes rules are meant to be broken. I believe wild can have many definitions ranging from animalistic wildness or society wildness. For this song in particular, I think having teenagers realize that there is not one specific mold to how a person should live their lives opened up doors for people to truly explore and become who they want. This all happened so quickly that society couldn’t keep up with the change, therefore categorizing their break from the “norm” as wild and unpredictable. 

This is the link to the song’s music video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa5B22KAkEk (Links to an external site.) 

~Audrey Wines

The specific sports branch I am going to focus on is American Football. Despite what some may think, there are leagues for both men and women. The goal of football is to score the most points through field goals or touchdowns of the oval-shaped ball called “football.” There are eleven players per side that have different positions, and depending on that, they work together to ultimately win the game. While both genders play this sport, there are some crucial differences. Women play on a field that is half the size of the typical men’s football field, they use a smaller ball due to the stereotype that women have smaller hands than men, and women are dressed more provocative and showy compared to men. While both men and women are playing the same sport, men’s football has gained more fan attention and awareness. Men’s football is mainly focused on the skill, speed, and overall athlete abilities while women’s football leagues tend to show off more of the “sexy” side. 

Through both of these videos, it is obvious both men and women show intensity and the want to win, but there are many different gender dynamics happening within both leagues. Men tend to be more aggressive and violent compared to women, celebrations after touchdowns are different, and men tend to show more speed and skill compared to women teams. Also, it is understood by the pure number ratio of fans coming to games that men’s football is more popular and tend to “sell out” more compared to women’s games where seats are often empty. I believe football is not considered wild, but the type of player, the way they play, and the way they can interact and make fans in the stands react can make a football game seem wild regardless of gender. Both the links to female football highlights and male football highlights are listed below: 

~Audrey Wines

A film I consider as wild is Bird Box. It was released December 21, 2018 and directed by Susanne Bier. The main character is played by Sandra Bullock where she is the mother to two kids when tragedy strikes. A poisonous “something” is in the air and if someone looks at it, they instantly die or will do something destructive like light a house on fire before soon dying. In a desperate attempt to save her own life and the lives of her two kids, she blindfolds all three of them and sails down a river in hopes of finding safety. I think this film is wild in the since that I could never imagine anything like this happening to the world. Going from living a normal life to instantly being surrounded by destruction, confusion, and death caused by something you cannot even see, freaks me out and I consider that to be wild and crazy. 

Here is the trailer: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2AsIXSh2xo (Links to an external site.) 

The scene I consider as the “wildest” is when they are in a makeshift boat floating down a river completely blindfolded due to the inability to look around. They hit rapids and even tumble out at one point. They desperately feel around and look for each other, afraid to take a fatal, wrong step. For me, rafting down a river in general is crazy, but the concept of doing it when you are blindfolded and fighting for your life is something so wild I could not even imagine it. They luckily *spoiler alert* survive and make it to a safety center, but I think this film is wild due to the unlikelihood of something like this ever happening to the world.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “wild” is defined in many different ways including something uncontrolled and full of energy, not raised or grown by humans, to like something very much, and a natural place secluded from civilization where animals and plants live/grow. Dictionary.com (Links to an external site.) defines “wild” as living in a state of nature, untamed or domesticated, uncultivated, barbarous and uninhabited. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines wild as animals/plants, in its natural state-not changed by people, and one without any discipline or control. All of these dictionaries define wild using the “un“ suffix, therefore they are implying wild is something negative, dangerous, and risky. They say wild is uncontrolled, uncultivated, without discipline, and barbarous. Because of the way they define “wild” in such a negative light, it has no appeal for anyone to want to be wild. 

I think wild can mean freedom and adventure. Yes, I believe that wild can be used to describe animals that are untamed and uninhibited, but I also believe wild can mean something that has not been explored fully yet. There is a since of possibility and question. During our class assignment, one comment I loved and thought summed up “wild” extremely well was that “wild is anything which is not recognized by the society of its time.” Wild is something, by nature, that scares and intimidates people due to its unpredictability, but wild should be accepted and appreciated. If people were not wild, where would America be as a country? You have to be bold, different, and wild for true change and inventions.