Exposition is an important part of the literary work which provides a reader with the necessary background information, clues, and important details which are essential to understand the author’s main idea supported in the text. In her essay “Tongue-Tied”, Maxine Hong Kingston intends to provide the complex background for her story, and she uses several types of the exposition in order to introduce her ideas, including the historical background with the elements of the allusion, the background personal story, the internal monologue based on the recollection, and the dialogue (Kingston 513).
Therefore, to analyze Kingston’s specific use of the exposition in the essay in detail, it is necessary to focus on one type of the exposition presented in the work which is the background personal story. Although Kingston provides much space in her essay to the exposition in order to discuss all the necessary background details and motivate the audience to read more, the background personal story is the author’s most effective use of the exposition because the discussed experience is striking, provocative, and even terrifying.
If the first paragraph of Kingston’s essay is the descriptive exposition presenting the historical details and elements of the allusion, the second paragraph of the essay is a controversial background personal story. Kingston begins to present the background details of her personal story while connecting the first sentence with the information presented in the previous paragraph. Kingston states in her work, “Maybe that’s why my mother cut my tongue” (Kingston 513).
In spite of the provided details, it is a challenge for the reader to link the historical allusion and the personal striking detail that the tongue of the author was cut by her mother. While introducing the personal back-story with such a provocative sentence, Kingston intends to catch the readers’ attention, and she receives the perfect opportunity to add more striking personal details in order to provide the background for her further argument.
The exposition in a form of the personal back-story is written as the retelling of a sequence of important events associated with cutting the author’s tongue. Providing the personal back-story, Kingston states that she does not remember the details of that event, but this fact provides the author with the opportunity to think more about possible aspects associated with the situation of cutting the tongue. Thus, Kingston states, “She pushed my tongue up and sliced the frenum. Or maybe she snipped it with a pair of nail scissors” (Kingston 513). Focusing on these details, the reader needs to know more about the whole situation and about the reasons for the mother’s action because the whole situation seems to be rather painful for the author. That is why, this approach to using the exposition can be discussed as effective to intrigue the reader.
If the first sentences of the back-story provide the general description of the striking event, the next sentence contains the references to the author’s personal feelings associated with the discussed situation. Kingston notes in her work, “all during childhood I felt sorry for the baby whose mother waited with scissors or knife in hand for it to cry” (Kingston 513). The focus on the personal emotions and feelings is necessary in the back-story in order to provide different details about the author’s attitude to the problem which can be discussed in the other parts of the essay. Thus, such notes about the feelings are important in the exposition in order to provide the context for the further points discussed in the work.
The final sentences of the background personal story include such literary devices as a simile and a proverb. Thus, Kingston adds to the emotional discussion of her personal experience while comparing her open mouth for cutting the tongue with a “baby bird’s” one (Kingston 513). In addition, to link the personal experience to the cultural context, the author provides the Chinese proverb where the tongue is discussed as the evil (Kingston 513). However, these literary devices should be considered only in the context of the whole personal back-story because they contribute to creating the image of the speaker and to creating the emotional context for the story. It is impossible to discuss these devices without references to the whole exposition because their role is to add more clarity to the whole meaning of the story.
Focusing on the personal story as the exposition, the reader understands that such a painful author’s experience is important to provide the background for the whole essay. In her personal back-story, Kingston concentrates on only one event from her past life in order to discuss it in the context of the essay because only this situation is helpful and important to convey a particular meaning related to the whole essay.
In addition, this back-story is useful to establish a tone for the essay because it provides the reader with unique and striking personal details which should throw the light on the whole problem discussed in the following parts of the work. It is important to note that the author uses the exposition in the form of a personal back-story because the information presented in it is not only background. Thus, colorful details about the process of cutting the tongue are significant to create associations which are important for understanding the essay’s main idea.
In her essay, Kingston describes her experience in speaking the English, in interacting in the English society, and in presenting her own ideas and thoughts in this society with the help of the tongue. In this context, the element of the provocative and terrifying personal experience presented in the beginning of the essay is important to explain why the stated problem is urgent and needs to be discussed by the author, why this problem influences the whole life of the author, and why this problem is not unique in spite of the uniqueness of Kingston’s personal experience (Kingston 514). As a result, the controversial background personal story is an effective choice for the exposition in the essay discussing the problems of using the tongue and language in the society.
From this perspective, Kingston’s use of a background personal story as one of the elements of the exposition can be discussed as the effective approach because Kingston presents her personal story of cutting the tongue in an emotional manner. The author focuses on feelings and emotions associated with the situation in spite of the fact that she avoids using the emotionally colored words. Instead, the use of short sentences presented in a sequence which introduce striking facts from the author’s biography is more effective to draw the readers’ attention to the further main idea discussed in the essay.
Works Cited
Kingston, Maxine Hong. “Tongue-Tied”. The Norton Reader. Ed. Linda Peterson and John Brereton. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2011. 513-516. Print.