Yank's idiosyncratic speech, characterized by chopped and mangled words eliminate the possibility of Yank's successes or acceptance in a world or class other than his own. His deformed language makes real communication impossible. Ann Massa in "Intention and Effect in The Hairy Ape" puts it quite beautifully, "Yank can only break the bounds of his vocabulary and his style in the same violent and ultimately frustrated way that he bends the bars of his cell he can't break the mould of the apparently flexible yet imprisoning medium that is language and that is life." Yank's speech defines his class and place in society—rigid, unchanging and binding.