In Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood, Richard Rodriguez makes the claim that “[i]t is not possible for a child—any child—ever to use his family’s language in school. Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses of schooling and to trivialize the nature of intimate life – a family’s ‘language.’” Rodriguez enforces this idea through extensive use of vignettes as well as the structure of his essay, recalling his childhood and his reluctance to learn public language. Going into depth, he explains how his fear of the public society—rather his belief that he could not be a part of it—caused the young author to be weary of leaving his intimate family setting.
Rodriguez does not argue his points solely based on vignettes, however,
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In paragraphs 25 and 26 as well as throughout the essay, he explains how his fear of the public society—rather his belief that he could not be a part of it—caused the young author to be weary of leaving his intimate family setting. Countless childhood experiences are used to support his claim. The time his parents began speaking
English to him at home (para. 32) and his first introduction to the public education system (para.
3) are only a few examples. Rodriguez’ is able to immerse audience in his childhood experiences through vignettes, allowing them to relate to the author as well as develop an understanding as to why he does not support bilingual education.
Though Rodriguez uses an extensive amount of vignettes, he also develops his claim through the periodic structure of his essay. The events of his childhood are not retold in the way they ordinarily would be, which is the linear order in which they occurred. Rather, Rodriguez chooses to introduce specific memories in a way that gradually leads up to his final argument.
Evidence supporting his argument builds up until the audience can easily guess what Rodriguez’
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Thornock claim is before he outright states it. Said claim makes its appearance in the 43rd
He mainly uses various examples to prove each of his
Lopez brings up another part of Landsberg’s story: "Should merit be considered a
Learning to Read” the story was about Malcolm X Africa American, a man who’s learning to read and write, and he educated himself in his twenty years imprisoned because he commits felony crime of burglary. Eight grade was the higher education he got as a child. The experience of at prison he was jealous of Bimbi of his stock of knowledge. he tries to copy Bimbi but the problem he could not read all the world, he and didn’t understand all the world that he read.
He proudly starts losing his Spanish accent and starts correcting his parent’s speech. The second turning point in the narrative is when he is in third grade and completely devotes himself to his studies and sacrifices family time. One important thing I think Rodriguez learned is you cannot balance an education and family life without making sacrifices on both sides. 2. What incidents or insights did you find most interesting?
In order to support his argument, George J. Sanchez uses many examples to discuss the
In writing, authors chose particular words and phrases to effectively convey their message or to engage the reader. Writer's word choices, also known as diction, can help communicate ideas, reveal emotion and opinions that they may have toward something or someone. There are many different levels of diction such as formal diction, used by Richard Rodriguez in his autobiography The Hunger of Memory, and neutral diction, used by Charles Bukowski in his novel Ham on Rye. The use of diction in these pieces make the stories come to life in the reader's head. Richard Rodriguez uses very formal diction in his autobiography,The Hunger of Memory, his words express his emotions and motives of being a writer.
Black Shack Alley Intro: Education, by definition, is the process of receiving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university. In Joseph Zobel’s, Black Shack Alley, we come across many different forms of education. Jose, the protagonist, moves from the plantation town, Petit-Bourg, to a more urbanized town, Forte-de-France.
Language forms a part of culture and identity. Bilingualism is the right to speak multiple languages. Part of bilingualism is keeping and developing a passion for language. In the essay “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School,” Martín Espada suggests the definition of bilingualism and the importance of keeping it. Espada understands the difficulty of continuing to speak Spanish.
After I read “Excerpt from Bootstraps: From an Academic of Color”, I thought author Victor Villanueva was writes about the challenges he faced. Victor Villanueva, he born in Puerto Rican immigrants, and grew up in New York. Firstly he got his GED and then joined the army. When he finished his time in the military and has to faces the decision of what to do next. The only option was college.
In doing so, he ties the claim and evidence together, and, logically advances his argument. Davidson provides the clarity and the clarity leads the reader to conclude that the benefits of his argument outweigh potential
The first time one is able to comprehend the meaning of a word is a momentous childhood moment that is forever engraved in one’s memory. Books and reading are significantly impactful to people’s lives; Mark Twain said that, “books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.” This statement is apropo for Sherman Alexie, who was a Native American living on a reservation during the time he learned to read. Sherman Alexie convinces his audience that an education is crucial to being successful by using personal anecdotes to captivate and create a connection with his audience and repetition to reiterate the importance of having an education. Alexie's use of personal anecdotes fortifies the impact he has on his audience.
He shows this through his many experiences with bilingual court and education. At the end of his essay, Espada concludes with a basic summary of what he has learned. Espada claims “The repression of Spanish is part of a larger attempt to silence Latinos, and, like the crazy uncle at the family dinner table yelling about independence or socialism, we must refuse to be silenced.” Through the summary the reader understands despite English being the prevalent language the in the U.S. today the Spanish culture is still being preserved through bilingualism. On the other hand Rodriguez argues that in order to gain a public identity, one must be willing to sacrifice some part of their own cultural identity.
Rodriguez’s English was not the best, and because of that he would either be silent or quietly mumble when asked to participate by one of the nuns (73). Since his lack of participation was noticeable and showed little progress, some of his teachers visited Rodriguez’s home to ask his parents to “encourage your children to practice their English when they are home?” (73). Rodriguez one day walks in on his parents speaking Spanish, but when they see him they switch to English, which offends and over the days that follows angers him enough to decide to seriously learn English. Rodriguez even willingly decides to participate in class (74).
A tongue is one of the most important body parts, if that’s what we shall call it, that a human being has. If it was not for the tongue, it would be a very quiet world. Gloria Anzaldúa, born in 1942, near the large Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, was bound to make a difference in lives before she ever knew it. When Gloria turned eleven she started to work in the fields as a migrant worker and then started on her family’s land after the passing of her father. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s the short story, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, she describes her upbringing and growing up in a dual culture society split in two.
In the fictional essay “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan states that we speak diverse languages to communicate with each other and that our intellect is judged by the way we speak. She uses language as a way to observe experiences that assisted her in realizing the many “Englishes” she uses. Tan defines “Englishes” as Chinese-English. As a child Tan had to speak two types of languages because she was born in a Chinese culture. The first language she learned was “broken English.”