More handpicked essays just for you.
Turning Points in American History
Text analysis american history by judith ortiz cofer
Key turning points in us history
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the short story "American History" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, different classes, the fact that Elena and Eugene are both shy, and an overpopulated school help contribute to the fact that Elena and Eugene cannot be together. First, Eugene and Elena are in different classes at school. This is shown when the narrator tells the readers that "...Eugene was in honors classes for all his subjects, classes that were not open to me [Elena] because English was not my first language, though I was a straight-A- student" (165). English is not Elena’s first language, she is Puerto Rican, which means that she is not allowed to take higher level classes, even though she gets straight A's and is a very good student. If she were allowed to take the classes,
she could take classes with Eugene and they wouldn't have been apart for so long. Another reason Eugene and Elena are kept apart is that Eugene and Elena are both fairly shy, which is shown when Elena says "...I [Elena] decided to approach him [Eugene] directly, though my stomach was doing somersaults...Eugene liked me, but he was shy" (165). This quote proves Elena is too nervous to talk to Eugene and that Eugene is very shy. It took them a long time to become friends and it was one thing that contributed to them not being together. Lastly, Public School Number 13 is a very crowded school when Elena tells the reader that "Once school started, I [Elena] looked for him [Eugene] in all of my classes, but PS 13 was a huge, overpopulated place..." (165). This example shows there are so many people crowding the school, it is really hard for Elena to find Eugene anywhere. If there were fewer people in the school, Eugene and Elena might have crossed paths earlier. In conclusion, it takes Elena and Eugene several months to become friends because of different school classes, shyness, and a crowded school contributing to them being apart.
Women did not have many rights during 1616-1768, these three prominent women Pocahontas, Anne Hutchinson and Hannah Griffitts, will show many changes for women symbols from the Colony America, American Christianity to Boycotting British Goods. All three were involved in religious, political and cultural aspects during there time, making many changes and history. There are three documents that will be used to compare these three women Pocahontas Engraving (1616), Simon Van De Passee, The Examination of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson at the Court at Newton (1637), David D. Hall and Women’s Role In Boycotting English Goods, Hannah Griffits (1768), The Female Patriots.
In Subtractive Schooling: US-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring, Angela Valenzuela investigates immigrant and Mexican American experiences in education. Valenzuela mentions differences in high schools between U.S born youth and immigrants such as how immigrants she interviewed seemed to achieve in school as they feel privileged to achieve secondary education. However, she found that her study provided evidence of student failure due to schools subtracting resources from these youths. Both are plagued by stereotypes of lacking intellectual and linguistic traits along with the fear of losing their culture. As a Mexican American with many family members who immigrated to the U.S to pursue a higher education, I have experience with Valenzuela’s
In her book, First Generations Women in Colonial America, Carol Berkin depicts the everyday lives of women living during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Berkin relays accounts of European, Native American, and African women's struggles and achievements within the patriarchal colonies in which women lived and interacted with. Until the first publication of First Generations little was published about the lives of women in the early colonies. This could be explained by a problem that Berkin frequently ran into, as a result of the patriarchal family dynamic women often did not receive a formally educated and subsequently could not write down stories from day to day lives. This caused Berkin to draw conclusions from public accounts and the journals of men during the time period. PUT THESIS HERE! ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THE BOOK.
In Bettie’s analysis of Mexican-American and white girls, she finds that race, gender and class are extremely crucial in the outcomes and futures of these girls. The unmentioned and hidden effects of class, race, and gender provide the explanation for much of the inequality seen between the white middle-class girls and Mexican-American working-class girls. Much of this inequality is itself perpetuated within the school system, both by the faculty and students.
Richard Rodriguez' narrative, “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” and Carmen Tafolla's poem, “In Memory of Richi” have similar themes. In Rodriguez' narrative, he talks about his experience attending an American school. Similarly, Tafolla recites a story about a boy in an American school setting. Each story implies that students of another culture are subject to lose their cultural ties in order to fit in with the American society.
Abigail Adams an American Woman was written by Charles W. Akers. His biographical book is centered on Abigail Adams the wife of John Adams, the second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president. She was the All-American woman, from the time of the colonies to its independence. Abigail Adams was America's first women's rights leader. She was a pioneer in the path to women in education, independence, and women's rights.
In Carol Berkin Revolutionary Mothers, Berkin goes beyond the history books, and argues that the Revolutionary period was not just a romantic period in our nation history, but a time of change of both men and women of race, social class, and culture. Berkin describes women involvement in boycotts, protest, and their experiences during the war and on the home front. She goes into a whole different level and focuses her views on women of lower social classes, the Native Americans and African Americans – groups whom faced difficult obstacle during the Revolution. She brings to life the importance of Revolutionary Women. Berkin gives us true stories introducing us to ordinary women of all social classes who were involved and affected by the Revolution War.
In the story “American History”, by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the setting takes place on a cold gray November day in Paterson, New Jersey as described by the narrator. The narrator is a 14 year old 9th grader named Elena who is Puerto Rican. Elena lives in a melting pot tenement called, “El Building”. Music is constantly playing in this building and joy is always trying to be spread. Elena goes to Public School 13 and she highly dislikes the environment in her school. On the day John F. Kennedy was shot, her city changed in an interesting way.
Morton recognizes that the achievement gap goes much deeper than the education realm and she believes However, the students that are on the lower end of the achievement gap are caught between being members of a disadvantaged community and aspiring to be a part of the middle class. This causes them to have to adapt to the communities that they are a part of. This act of adapting to the difference in normative expectations is what Morton refers to as “straddling the gap” or “code switching”. These students not only have to navigate differences in language and dress codes but they have to switch dispositions to ones that are unfamiliar to them, which can come into conflict with those at home (Morton 276).
The novel “Women Without class” by Julie Bettie, is a society in which the cultural you come from and the identity that was chosen for you defines who you are. How does cultural and identity illustrate who we are or will become? Julie Bettie demonstrates how class is based on color, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. The author describes this by researching her work on high school girls at a Central Valley high school. In Bettie’s novel she reveals different cliques that are associated within the group which are Las Chicas, Skaters, Hicks, Preps, and lastly Cholas and Cholos. The author also explains how race and ethnicity correspondence on how academically well these students do. I will be arguing how Julie Bettie connects her theories of inequality and culture capital to Pierre Bourdieu, Kimberle Crenshaw, Karl Marx and Engels but also how her research explains inequality among students based on cultural capital and identity.
White supremacy was widely present in the readings “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza” by Gloria Anzaldua and “A People’s History of the Untied States” by Zinn Howard. Both readings had vast examples of how white supremacy had run economic, social, political conditions of non-white peoples, land, and everything in between. White superiority was the belief that motivated them to conquer lands that originally did not belong to them; by doing so they converted natives to aliens or unwelcomed and inhabitants to slaves or casualties. In Gloria Anzaldua article “Borderlands/La Frontera; The New Mestiza” she describes how the Southwest of U.S (Aztlan) was conquered by the whites and how they used the border as white mans way of segregation
In the short story “American History” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, Elena has always felt alone in her small New Jersey town. The only person who was actually there for Elena was Eugene, one of her new neighbors. As Elena finds out that Eugene and her share similar interests, the two friends become closer and closer. Elena soon begins to fall in love with Eugene, but she doesn’t realize that some things aren’t meant to be.
Cokie Roberts’ Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation examines women's role in the establishment and development of the United States of America. Throughout the book, Roberts attempts to prove that women have natural characteristics in which they use to their advantage to build a foundation for the future of all women. She examines the lives of some of the most important women in U.S. history, such as Abigail Smith Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Sarah Livingston Jay, Martha Washington and Mary White Morris. Roberts researched all of the women who “had the ears of the Founding Fathers,”. She believes that since these women lived in such a strange and wonderful time period that they must have strange and wonderful stories to tell. The book
To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.
Today in society, women are accepted and praised, but women used to not even be able to choose who they are going to marry and spend the rest of their life with. Angela Vicario lives in a Columbian society in the 1950's. The society she lives in controls women from when they are born but the men are controlled by the idea of Machismo. The idea of Machismo is a big idea in her society and is followed be everyone including the women. The idea of Machismo is men being superior to women and the idea of them having control of the women. The women's lives are laid out for them and they are able to do almost nothing to be able to change it. Angela Vicario has been controlled since she was born just like all of the other women within the society she