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Literature and English identity
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In the exert from Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quinonez the author wrote about his encounter s with various teachers of Julia de Burgos. While attending Julia de Burgos a teacher by the name of Mr. Blessington was the type to talk poorly about the Latin students and their community. He would degrade and belittle the Latin students in his class. He would tell them that they would eventually end up in the penitentiary. He felt that if they were from the Spanish Harlem neighborhood that they should drop out of school because they were not white, and felt they would never amount to a certain standard of living. On the other hand another teacher by the name Mr. Tapia spoke life into his students to make them different about themselves and their situations.
Tapia sought to challenge his students and thought that Latino children should strive for greatness because he did. Mr. Tapia often times went the extra mile for his students because he knew they were capable and believed in them. After reading the story the tension between the Latin students and their teachers were very apparent. The tension between the students and their teachers was made evident through the reading. “He kept telling us boys we were all going to end up in jail and that all the girls were going to end up hooking”. (Quinonez) The statement made by Mr. Blessington was a generalization to the Latin community. He imposed in personal feelings towards this particular community on the Latin students as well as the other students in the class. This created tension between the two because he spoke down on the students with the hopes that they would follow the stigmas he placed on them.
Often the change and transition to middle is a difficult one for students, so it is no surprise that a student of Juanita’s caliber would be having trouble as well. Her regular middle school teachers were not going above and beyond to make sure Juanita succeed, if anything it seemed as if Juanita was a burden to them. If it was not for the Ms. Issabelle’s effort, Juanita would have failed the 6th grade, and possibly fell through the cracks of the education system.
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.
It describes the immigrants point of view as they sacrifice their most beloved things. Bodega and Chino risked their love ones in order to help other people and the community. Relationships throughout the story elaborated the sacrifice that they went through to better the community. The relationship between the Chino and Blanca demonstrates that they sacrificed themselves for the better outcome of their upcoming baby. Sacrifice was also demonstrated through the business in the community being overpowered by Bodega to ensure that the white supremacy did not change the Puerto Rican community. Sacrifices that the characters made affected the development of the community of Spanish Harlem. El Barrio transformed its bad reputation to a well-know and conservative community. People give up their most precious loving memories to ensure their or someone else
A student should never be denied the right to learn and become successful because of a different skin color, or because they speak a different language. “No saco nada de la escuela” by Luis Valdez is a play that discusses the racism in schools. The play starts with students going to elementary school and then ascending to middle school and college. At the beginning the students were not aware of what racism really was because of their innocence. However, the teacher that they had was very racist and bullied the students of color. That experience made the other kids realize that not everyone was the same and because of color or language they should be treated differently. There are five different students who take part of this play, two of those students were white, and there were two Chicanos and one black. That is great diversity of cultures. The teacher that the students have in elementary school was an example of the other professors they were going to have throughout their school years. Very arrogant and not understanding of the minority students. Their teachers were not really interested in teaching the minorities and always showed her discontent of having students of color. Their teachers didn’t believe that students who were part of a minority should be placed in the same classroom as the white students. Maybe that was because they didn’t know the potential a minority student could have. One Chicano student named Francisco never denied his roots and became very successful. He had many obstacles in his learning environment, but at the end he becomes a great example of perseverance. Francisco is the student who I think showed the greatest development in the play. He had to deal with racism all the time, but that didn't stop ...
“As long as Latino kills Latino… we’ll always be little people,” stated Ernesto Quinonez. This statement comments on the integration of society within an individual’s identity and it’s long lasting effects. The perception of who we are behind closed doors and who we are in public greatly influences our state of mind and our internal well-being. Throughout Quinonez’s Bodega Dreams, the reader can clearly see how one’s traditional culture and perception of private vs. public image is valued amongst the characters. At times, the reader may notice an internal struggle within multiple characters. The thought of going against what may be considered “normal” can be quite nerve-racking for
The cyclical nature of time and the supernatural are recurring themes in Cristina García's 'Dreaming in Cuban'. Throughout the book, the members of the del Pino family find themselves reliving the same events and situations. This is characterized by the repetition of mental illness, attempted suicide, personal exile, and lovesickness that occurs over three generations. Celia, realizes that time will continue to repeat itself unless the family history is documented and carried on. She takes the responsibility of writing letters to her lover, in order to record their story, but understands more must be done, 'memory cannot be confined' (47). When Pilar is born she is endowed with specific gifts that will enable her to carry on the del Pino family history and end the vicious cycle that consumes the family. Through supernatural forces that manifest themselves as extraordinary memory, telepathy and dreams that serve as premonitions, Pilar is lead to return to Cuba where she fulfills her predetermined destiny; learning the del Pino family history and ending the cycle of lost memory that consumes them.
The novel Dreaming in Cuban, written by Cristina Garcia, is a novel following the lives of a Cuban family during La Revolución Cubana. Garcia develops her story in great detail, particularly through the struggles this family faces and how each of them attempts to find their own identity. Although the novel has many characters, Cristina Garcia primarily develops the story through the eyes of Pilar Puente. Even though she is one of the youngest characters, Pilar endures a plethora of struggles with her life and her identity. Her mother, Lourdes Puente, moved the family away to New York in order to shield Pilar from what Lourdes deemed to be an unfavorable past in Cuba. The main source of Pilar’s frustration is her internal conflict between her Cuban heritage and her American identity. This struggle stems from the relationship with her grandmother, Celia del Pino, contrasting with her life in America. Along with her struggle with her Cuban heritage, Pilar Puente has many experiences that shape her self-identity throughout the novel Dreaming in Cuban.
Instead of loving and caring for her baby, and forgetting about Danny, she became worse than him. Rodriguez presents many aspects of the minority class that live in the United States, specifically the South Bronx. Even though the cases presented in Rodriguez’s short stories are difficult to mellow with, they are a reality that is constant in many lives. Everyday someone goes through life suffering, due to lack of responsibility, lack of knowledge, submission to another entity or just lack of wanting to have a better life. People that go through these situations are people who have not finished studying, so they have fewer opportunities in life.
... is directed towards schoolteachers and how they need to teach differently, it also points towards the growing of the next generation. It is amazing the thought and compassion behind Baldwin’s works and how much he has put into arguing such a touchy subject. He literally instills fear into his audience to the point where they cannot prevent taking action to change the way they teach. Whether or not someone argues with Baldwin’s argument it is still inevitable that the tension within the essay is creatively and wonderfully done. With Baldwin’s educated status and his persuasive personality his work is beautifully pieced together to create an undeniable force of authority for change in the education system.
Jonathan Kozol is a teacher and nonfiction writer who was born on September 5th, 1936 to psychiatrist/neurologist Harry and social worker Ruth. He grew up in Newton, Massachusetts with his sister and parents. They were a middle-class Jewish family. Kozol received an education at Harvard and had previously lived a comfortable life until he decided to move to Boston to teach in a poor neighborhood. This began his new life of dedication for the education children were receiving and began to make it known how unequal education was. Kozol’s works were based off of personal experiences in his life. For example, he wrote about his fourth grade class in Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools. He advocates for those who are receiving a lesser education even though America wants to claim discrimination is no more. Kozol wrote about the experience as his mom and dad’s health degenerated. The couple both died at 102, 2 years apart. The book is a very intimate description of Kozol’s relationship with his parents as their lives came to an end. Kozol continues to write today, and still participates in the battle against discrimination in schools. He currently lives in Byfield Massachusetts with his dog Sweetie
Esperanza, a strong- willed girl who dreams big despite her surroundings and restrictions, is the main character in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Esperanza represents the females of her poor and impoverished neighborhood who wish to change and better themselves. She desires both sexuality and autonomy of marriage, hoping to break the typical life cycle of woman in her family and neighborhood. Throughout the novel, she goes through many different changes in search of identity and maturity, seeking self-reliance and interdependence, through insecure ideas such as owning her own house, instead of seeking comfort and in one’s self. Esperanza matures as she begins to see the difference. She evolves from an insecure girl to a mature young lady through her difficult life experiences and the people she comes across. It is through personal encounters and experiences that Esperanza begins to become sexually aware and acceptance her place and self-definition in her community.
Imagine seeing 10,000 of your classmates walking out of your school because they wanted a better education - a better way of life. In the 1960s’ Chicano students were being “pushed out”(Esparza) of school or being pushed towards vocational programs. East L.A was home to schools were “one out of every four Chicano’s completed high school”(Esparza). Instructors and the school board alike did not have an interest in helping Chicanos finish school to become someone other than a laborer and was expected of them to keep being a laborer. In “Taking Back the Schools”, Sal Castro a high school counselor claims, “I think the bottom line is the lack of concern of the teachers towards the kids and whether the kids were really getting an education or not...the reality set in that the teachers weren’t really concern for the kids.”(Esparza).
This source really focused on all the different types of struggles the Chicano people went through for their education. Such as being excluded from enrolling in public school institutions and special school programs. The source uses pathos by describing that at some schools they would only speak English, something the Chicano people didn't know, and sharing their struggles with going to school not knowing the language, the author really grabs the audience attention with this because it makes you think about the Chicano's people's emotions about going to schools not being able to understand anything when they are there to get an education and shows the suppression of Spanish in the schools by being
Different social classes come with different perspectives and challenges, usually the belief is that higher society is much happier than those in the lower rank, but not including race into the education does not give all sides of that story. By evaluating parts in Cane by Jean Toomer, Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston story of class and race is being told. Color and classism have gone hand in hand for many years and evaluating the lives of characters that are considered the lowest of the low and yet made it up the totem pole brings up an important discussion. The conflicting ideas of race and class actually encourage racism and ruin the lives of characters in the black bourgeoisie.
The exhaustion of the long commute to Monroe Elementary School everyday had upset me, the feeling of being powerless overcame my mentality. I constantly thought to myself about the all whites elementary school only seven blocks away, what made them so surprior? I, as a third grader, grew up to the discriminatory profiling. Of course it was nothing new, but I could not comprehend why. Recalling back to Monroe Elementary; the broken ceiling tiles, the wore down floors, and the cracked windows was not an ideal place for any education to take place. It had only proved to me that the segregation of white and black children made us African American students feel inferiority to the white American students.