American Voices: Listening to Fiction, Poetry, and Prose

Research

So what is voice? This is a hotly debated question. Peter Elbow writes that voice is a distinct personality in the writing that makes it sound like the author is speaking. This is easily evidenced in Langston Hughes's "Thank You M'am" where he presents his voice through three different characters: the narrator, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, and Roger.

      The woman said, "What did you want to do it for?"
      The boys said, "I didn't aim to."
      She said, "You a lie!"
      By the time two or three people passed, stopped, turned to look, and
      some stood watching. 3
    

Hughes's voice is that of Mrs. Jones: you hear his grandmother's strength and his own through the words she says. He combines, with this authority, the beat and rhythm of the Harlem community to create his own jazz-like style in the sequence of actions Hughes describes on the street. His personality, a strong, proud African American deep in his community's roots, rings from the page because of his use of dialect and rhythm in his phrases.

Voice is more than the personality of the author, though; it is the tone of the words: the vocalization of that which is written. This sense of an individual voice, the expression of the sound of how an utterance was communicated on the page fascinated Robert Frost. In his letters to his friends John T. Barlett and Sydney Cox, he explained how the combinations and tensions of a string of words could give the impression of "voices behind a door." ⁴ The listener can hear the tone of the utterance and maybe even the underlying meaning of the communication, though the listener is not aware of the exact words. There is no question in the reader's mind how Roger said "I didn't aim to." or how Mrs. Jones replied. The exclamation point is not really needed to express the strength in her statement. Hughes's choice to add a is sufficient to carry his intended tone.

Origins of voice: the relationship between the writer, composition and audience

Any piece of literature involves the connection between the writer, composition and audience. It is in these relationships that voice develops and is interpreted. Peter Elbow, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts, argues that voice has more to do with the communication between the literature and the reader than the literature and the writer. ⁵ But Elbow also maintains that the only way to write with a voice is to write without an audience in mind. ⁶ In this case the relationship between literature and the writer is more important than literature and the reader. I believe it can be either way.

Relationship between Composition and Reader

When a writer begins the writing process she has a purpose in mind. If he proposes to communicate an idea to an audience, he concentrates on what will cause the reader to fully understand his own intention. The focus is on the connection of the reader to the literature. In "Names/Nombres" Julia Alvarez wants natives of the United States to understand the internal struggle of an immigrant. She explains her teenage turmoil through vivid ellipses and asides.

I was Hoo-lee-tah only to Mami and Papi and uncles and aunts who came over to eat sancocho on Sunday afternoons - old world folk who I would just as soon go back to where they came from and leave me to pursue whatever mischief I wanted to in America. ⁷

She distances herself from her family's traditions with references to her special name and food only served on Sunday afternoon. Then she forces the relatives away who are tying her to the Latino culture using words like "old world folk." Her understanding as an adolescent of American culture was mischief-making, while her family's traditions were restrained. It is ironic that these are the very people she identifies with as an adult and from whom she creates her voice. Her descriptions and asides are clear enough that I can feel her struggle. The voice is found in the connection between the composition and the reader.

Relationship between Writer and Composition

The focus on the connection between writer and literature often occurs when the writing is more for self-revelation and exploration. Not that the audience does not matter, but they are not the main purpose of composing the piece of literature. Sandra Cisneros does not define her images as Alvarez does. Her writing presents her ideas in impressions that the reader may not share, especially in her poetry. These broad images allow the reader to connect in a more general way to their own life: not share in the details of the event. Her work and her voice are between herself and the prose and poetry primarily, and I, the reader, get to come along for the ride.

In "Good Hot Dogs" there is a "we" throughout the piece that is only defined as Kiki and I. The reader knows the relationship between these two girls is close, but it is never clarified. This allows the reader to connect the close feeling of friendship and family to Cisneros's eating of hot dogs, swinging feet and humming to any of their own personal memories. The voice of the writer is found in the relationship between the writer and the composition, primarily.

Relationship between Writer, Reader and Composition

Walker Gibson places a nice bow on Elbow's discussion of the relationship between reader, writer and composition by contending that voice is the relationship between all three. ⁸ In confirmation, Steve Peha, president of Teaching that Makes Sense, Inc, claims literature with voice is writing that expresses what the writer intends and what she want her audience to understand. To do this he must be writing with enthusiasm for his topic and a belief that his work will be read. ⁹ This is most evident in Annie Dillard's An American Childhood; she utilizes clarifiers like Alvarez at times and brief personal images like Cisneros in other instances. Describing an incident from childhood in which she hit a car with a snowball, Dillard writes "Often, of course, we hit our target, but this time, the only time in all of life, the car pulled over and stopped. Its wide black door opened; a man got out of it, running." ¹⁰ The man remains mainly undescribed through the rest of the piece allowing the reader to share in the writer's reminiscences through impression and feeling instead of seeing and hearing. Earlier in the piece Dillard describes the whole environment, so much so that I, the reader, am there walking down the road with her.

The best hot dogs in town were sizzling right there in the front window, daring each passerby not to come in. … I've had a lot of wimpy hot dogs since then, hot dogs so soft you can't feel your teeth go through them, so mushy with fat and cereal you could almost drink them with a straw. ¹¹

A similar balance of writing for self and audience is prevalent through her whole autobiography.

Peha also contends that it is the collective effect of the writer's choices on the reader that creates a voice. ¹² In "Knots in my Yo-Yo String", Jerry Spinelli chooses short, abrupt sentences to create the tension in a conflict between him and his teacher.

I told Miss Busch there must be a mistake. She said there wasn't. I said I wouldn't be there for detention. It was the only time I ever talked back to a teacher. She said I'd be sorry. ¹³

He continues his description of his perfectionist tendencies with neatly packaged sentences. "I loved routine, repeatedness. To do the same thing twice was to establish a personal tradition. In other words, where there were no lines, I drew my own." ¹⁴ Only when he learns of life's dynamic, chaotic nature do his sentences become longer and more dynamic as well. "I walked home along Markley Street, past the sweet-smelling Wonder Bread plant, the sidewalk dusty with flour, past the Times Herald, over the Markley Street bridge that spanned Stoney Creek." ¹⁵ The reader feels the tension and immovability in the first part of Spinelli's story and then the ease and flexibility at the end because of Spinelli's sentence formation choices. The writer affects the way the reader understands the piece through his techniques.

Thus far I understand voice to be personality and intonation in written and oral language that is produced through the relationship between the writer, the composition and the reader.