Will Words Suffice?

Language thrives throughout varying cultures as the primary form of communication. Not only does language exist in verbal form, but body language and written language flourish. As effective as language is, some instances occur where the use of language cannot capture the enormity of the experience.

No matter how brilliant of a writer a person is, there are some situations where you just have to be there. As a critique, most circumstances can be thoroughly explicated with the use of language, but the extent of some requires personal attendance in order to grasp the entirety of the picture.

From personal experience, I have had difficulty putting certain events into words. On the day of my father’s traumatic accident, I lacked the ability to form words to give that day justice. The feelings, emotions and thoughts running through my head like a rampant disease simply could not be expressed into words. I did not know how to craft my ethos to successfully portray my experience on the day of August 16, 2009. I felt that if I tried to argue my case, I would undermine the severity of the accident, so instead of telling my story, I kept it bottled up inside.

Other instances can be shared through an adequate use of language. Some people make careers out of doing just that. Journalists and novelists get paid to capture the essence of the experience and artistically paint a picture with words. The simultaneous use of logos, pathos and ethos makes for a picture perfect story.

Language has the ability to encapsulate the enormity of experience depending on the level of emotion of the certain experience. Some things, you just have to be there in order to understand it. However, some great writers and speakers have a gift where they can do just this. Their use of word choice and word order, diction and syntax, grasps the situation and clearly and vividly explains it. To truthfully represent an experience, the right person and correct language needs to be utilized to fully capture and narrate the situation.