The Sacred Language by Toni Morrison Toni Morrison makes a good point when, in her acceptance speech after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature, she says: “Fiction. . . AND . . . one of the main ways we absorb knowledge” (7). The words we use and how we use them is how we, as human beings, communicate our thoughts, feelings and actions to each other and therefore our knowledge of the world and its peoples. Knowledge is power. In this way, our language is also powerful. In his acceptance speech, Morrison tries to convey the idea that we need to be careful how we use our words. Analyze the use of language with the life of a metaphorical bird in the tale of a wise, old and blind woman. Toni Morrison opens her speech by referring to the story of two young men who, in an attempt to disprove the credibility of this wise woman, ask the question: "'Is the bird I hold [in my hand] alive or dead?'" (11 ). Of course, being blind, the woman doesn't know this and has to say so. However, he adds: “What I know is that it's in your hands. It's in your hands'” (11). By saying this, he tells the young people that the fate of the bird's life is their responsibility. The bird, in this case, represents language. Morrison explains, “So I choose to read the bird as language and the woman as expert writer” (12). The bird has been found dead, has been killed, or has the capacity (if it is alive) to be killed, just as language, being considered a living being, can live or die; be saved or destroyed. Language is “susceptible to death, cancellation; certainly in danger and saveable only by an effort of will” (Morrison 13). This will is the responsibility of those who… in the middle of the paper… the possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers,” (20) Morrison describes. The limits of what language can do are undefined, unattainable, and inaccessible Because, in reality, there are no limits to language, no limits to knowledge, no limits to power, the power of the mind. “'The future of language is yours,'” (23) Morrison tells us This is why we must hold sacred the life of language, the life of this bird, which has wings to fly. Works cited Fox-Genovese, Elisabetta. "The claims of a common culture: gender, class and canon". writing as re-vision: a student anthology. Ed. Beth Alvarado and Barbara Cully. Needham Heights: Simon & Schuster P. 15-23. Morrison, Toni Nobel Prize for Literature". Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1994.