The only speaker of his tongue

Through this passage “only speaker of is tongue” Malouf illustrates how one language can eliminate another language. This can be seen when the slave talks in english, showing how he is refrained from  speaking his own language because no-one else can speak it. In other words, he cannot converse with another. Unlike how he can speak english with the people surrounding him as it represents a large population. This is portrayed in Malouf’s story of how a language is seen to be dead, because no-one is speaking it anymore. The slave speaks a language that is dead, therefore the metaphorical implement of the slave being silent. 

Although, I do see that although the language isn’t spoken, the language is not exactly dead however just cannot be see and is hidden though his life. This slave has managed to still keep the language alive, and the language and culture still remains within him and the culture is not dead, referring to what I have learnt in previous lessons how culture is interconnected with your language. 

Within this passage, the slave continues on with his work as is seen to be powerless and obedient, perhaps suggesting that he is conforming to the way of speaking english and is powerless to speak up with his own language as no-one around him can speak it, so he has to do the same job and speak the same language. His life is conforming just like the other workers around him and that there is no uniqueness and forces him to be the same like everybody around him.