Wild Things Project

 I think the question Anzaldua asks, “how do you tame a wild tongue, train it to be quiet, how do you bridle and saddle it? How do you make it lie down?” resonates with many people from different ethnicities. Anzaldua herself identifies as Chicano, which essentially means Mexican American, but that identity conflicts with one another. Ones heritage is shown at the base of one’s household through many traditions and by the use of language. Therefore, the question poses the difficulty that many of these people face. It reveals the discomfort and sense of belonging that many of them face due to their culture. Being able to use your language gives you a sense of belonging to your ethnicity and heritage. To be told to neglect that part of you or to walk on eggs shells wondering if it’s okay to use it is quite horrendous. Ideally speaking, a tongue can be tamed such as any other wild thing. However, it would require a huge amount of domestication since language is a part of one’s identity. It is like asking to give half of yourself to society and reject the other half you are made up of. Training to be quiet or to bridle one’s tongue remains pointless in the aspect that language is a part of those who are of different ethnicity. There isn’t a simple answer or guide to erase that part, especially when language is one component that shapes them, such as Anzaldua, and is shared through friends and family.

-Jaileen Gutierrez

Gloria Anzaldua discusses challenges dealing with “wildness” in language in her essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” She poses the question of what it means to tame a wild tongue, how to train it to be quiet, and how to make it lie down. Based on her writing, it can be concluded that Anzaldua feels that her language has been silenced and seen as primitive in a country like the United States. She would get in trouble for speaking Spanish, or simply correcting her teacher on how to pronounce her name properly. Anzaldua feels that language is strongly tied to her culture and plays a significant role in her identity. I agree that in order to actually “tame” a wild tongue is to strip individuals of their culture and silence expression. Some words and phrases that are used in other languages do not exist in English, and there is no way to “tame” a wild tongue without essentially assimilating individuals. I would argue that simply speaking a language that is not English is not “wild” (but rather natural), and that there is no need to “tame” a wild tongue. Culture and identity deserve to be expressed, and will always end up prevailing.

elina chen

In her text “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Gloria Anzaldua poses the question of how exactly “do you tame a wild tongue?” Anzaldua adds to this, wondering how to keep it quiet, how to bridle and saddle it, and how to make it lie down. These descriptions make a tongue out to be something that must be forced into submission, rather than willingly becoming civilized. A wild tongue must be shackled down by bridle and saddle, forbidden to speak the way it wants to, and is pushed down, rather than being given the choice to speak. Thus, to tame a wild tongue, one must prevent it from uttering anything wild, whether it’s expletives or “unfitting” language, forcing it to conform to the wishes of those around it. By removing the tongue’s ability to speak freely, you also remove its ability of self-expression and identity. Culture and personality come from the “wild” phrases that one chooses to utter and through the taming of the tongue, a voice loses its sense of self. However a person’s sense of wildness cannot be suppressed, no matter how much society forces their wild tongue to bend to their so-called “standards”. Despite facing a society that shackles its words, a wild tongue will ultimately find a way to make itself heard.

– Kenny Ly

Taming a wild tongue is a difficult and arduous task. Holding back one’s tongue is sometimes the hardest thing to do especially in a country where free speech and expression are encouraged. So, how can you tame a wild tongue? Train it to be quiet and lie down when not needed? Such a task requires training and discipline. At its heart, a tongue that is truly wild can never be fully tamed but it can be trained to stay down and only stay up when asked to. The process can be done just as one would tame a wild animal. Discipline when the unwanted action appears and rewards when the correct response is indicated. Operant conditioning with positive reinforcement and negative punishment is the only way to control one of the most uncontrolled organs of the body. With time, patience, and rigorous training, an uncontrolled tongue can be controlled and taught how to speak the way one wants and at the time one wants. With force and mindless training, a wild tongue can be trained but it will never truly lose its wildness. A wild tongue is a part of a whole that belongs to an argumentative, assertive person who some may call an advocate. Though the tongue can ultimately be tamed, the heart cannot. 

In her writing “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa asks the questions “how do you tame a wild tongue, train it to be quiet, how do you bridle and saddle it? How do you make it lie down?” In other words, how do you oppress someone into silence, based on how I interpret it. Throughout her piece, Anzaldua discusses how she felt that her language was a strong part of her identity, and that white society on the border was trying to take away their identity as chicanos by taking away their language. Growing up, she was always told in school to speak English, but, depending on who she was with, she spoke around 8 different languages of mixed Spanish and English. She felt that all of these languages were identities, and that her combination of them helped to create her own identity. I agree that, to “tame a wild tongue,” you must strip a person of their identity through language, and this is something that should not be desired to be achieved. Everyone has a voice, no matter their language, and different languages make life more wild in the best way. Anzaldua made it clear in her writing that she does not want her tongue to be tamed by anyone, and that while many attempted in her youth and most likely still do today, she will not yield.

Anna Ranslem

-wild woman: After moving to the city, the once calm, studious girl became a wild woman. 

-wild man: He’s a wild man who takes way too many risks and is an absolute adrenaline junkie. 

-wild animal: The forest is home to many wild animals. 

-wild beast: The wild beast feared nothing as it tore through the backyards of a once quiet neighborhood. 

-wild thing: It was a wild thing to see such a normal household disrupted by so many scandals.

She is such a wild woman, she parties all the time and lives her life on the edge. I have never met anyone like her.

As I was lost deep in the woods, I saw a wild man. He was alone in a small handmade cabin wearing animal fur as clothing and carving up a rabbit for dinner.

You should not try to pet a bear, despite their cute looks, it is a wild animal and it will hurt you. It is not like the dog back home. 

I saw a wild beast running rampant in New York City. It tore down buildings and threw cars. No one knows where it came from.

Did you catch what happened at the Oscars last night? What a wild thing to see happen live at such a prestigious event!

-Stephanie Wilhite

– Women who are strongly independent and outgoing can be seen as a threat and sometimes mistaken for wild women due to their intensity but others fail to realize that it is a privilege to be a strong, successful woman.

– Those who make it their life goal to backpack around the world can be seen by many as wild men but I believe doing so can introduce you to sceneries and experiences you otherwise might’ve never encountered.

– After my brother’s cat attacked his arm and made it bleed deeply, he was ruled by my parents to be a “wild animal” and was kicked out of the house to live outside.

– Because the forest is such a big, lonely, and mysterious place, we never know what type of wild beasts might be hiding out there waiting for a lost explorer to show up.

– With my older brother recently getting married, it has made me realize what a wild thing life is and no matter how unique we might think we are, the greatest things in life are typically done by many, such as getting married.

-wild woman: The wild woman loved to go on adventures. She would go on expeditions to some of the most remote places on Earth. 

-wild man: The football game was interrupted by local news. They warned that a wild man was assaulting people at a downtown bar. 
-wild animal: I went on a hike a few days ago and I heard leaves rustling behind me. I did not know what it was but it’s likely that it was a wild animal. 

-wild beast: After acting out of anger and frustration when he wasn’t getting any foul calls, the soccer player decided to commit a hard foul on the opponent and got ejected. This is why it is important to maintain your composure and not act like some wild beast. 

-wild thing: It’s usually the quietest people that do the wildest things. 

–Luis Rincon

-wild woman: The wild woman used to go out every night to party and get drunk. After getting pregnant, however, she had to change her ways to be a better mother to her child.

-wild man: Thousands of years ago, wild men used to live in caves and wear animal skin for warmth.

-wild animal: The wild animal growled before disappearing into the woods to find its prey.

-wild beast: John has a repeating nightmare where wild beasts are chasing after him, but he is unable to run fast enough and ends up frantically waking up after getting devoured in his dream.

-wild thing: The wildest thing about visiting my home country Belarus, was that public bathrooms were not free and you could not use the bathroom without paying someone first.

Katsiaryna Aliashkevich