It's a Collection of Voices

At first when I began reading Gere’s article, I was a little unsure of where it would head especially with her discussion on voice. As I kept reading, her argument slowly made its way into view. “…so we often consider our students’ voices separate from the particular family history, significant persons, and events that helped to shape them. We forget that ‘authentic’ means relational. To describe a voice as authentic is to put it in relationship to other voices.” (27-28). We begin to think of writers as individuals writing about a particular subject, drawing only from themselves from the language they’ve developed. We forget for the moment that these people have family, friends, teachers, and situations that have made them who they are in terms of when they speak and write. These influences affect them in some way on how they view the world and certain experiences, and it shows through voice. Their voice is not only their own, but the collection of many others that have made it into their memory.

What I found most compelling about Gere’s argument, and what I loved about it, was that these voices not only collect as a little library we can access in our mind. We can use them at our disposal, once aware of them, in helping to shape the present. Because of Gere’s adoptive daughter’s Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Cindy couldn’t find the exact words to say all of the time. Gere spent many years of her young daughter’s life, learning to understand her and speak for her when she couldn’t figure out what to say. From this, Gere was able to help speak for her mother who lost the ability because of her dementia. A line she puts beautifully when she says, “In part, I was prepared for giving voice to my mother’s thoughts because I had many years of practice–albeit a different sort–with my daughter.” (30). The power that voice can bring, whether it’s writing an article about FAS as Gere had done, or even in your own writing, is pretty incredible when taking into account all of the voices you’re bringing into it.

I’d like the class to focus on the different voices we all encounter in our daily life and even our writing, and my question would be, what are some voices that Gere didn’t bring up in her essay that are just as important? (Cultural, religious, etc.)