Burro Genius, Book One: The author Victor Villasenor first starts this memoir by telling his readers how dedicated he is to writing his book and how a close friend had told him to give up writing how he had no talent. Yet, he didn’t want to give up writing, he had put so much hard work and energy in his writing he just didn’t want to give up. He had gotten 256 rejections before he became published author. He didn’t care if not a lot of people had reviewed or read his book. All what mattered is he was happy about was getting published. Then one day his agent told him to go to an English teacher convention where authors had talked about their books and give workshops. He was kind of scared about going due to him not having no idea what to do …show more content…
He did not want to go and leave his family and especially his mother behind. When he first got to school, he did not want to let go of his mother, and it took the teacher to pull him off from his mother in order for him to take his seat. He was not allowed to speak Spanish at school with the other kids. His teacher hated Mexicans, thought they were dirty and ugly, and how they will bring knives and guns to school. Then Victor tries to run away from home instead of facing the punishment from his parents. One his way of running away, he meets these two cowboys and he is so fascinated with them, he tells them they can stay at his family’s ranch. When he talks to his father and his father decided to let the cowboys stay at the ranch. When Victor learns that the cowboys told his father about him running away and how it deeply upset his father. The cowboys were surprised because usually the white kids are the ones who always run away how the Mexican kids the ones are known as good people. The story then jumps to when Victor started going back to school where he had a teacher who was actually nice to him and cared about him. He was very good at mathematics, but was not very good at reading and would try anything to get out of it. His teacher started to notice that he was not reading aloud and how he was paying some the other students a nickel in order to get out of reading. His teacher thought since he was so good at math he would be able to catch up with his reading by the end of the year. Yet, when the end of the year ended up rolling around his teacher had to call his parents to let them know that Victor had to be held back a year. Yet, he father ended up becoming angry that the teacher did not even truly know his son and how his teachers kept pushing them around. Then he asked how much it would take to buy off the teacher to let Victor go to the next
The strong lines from: “Burro Genius” that stood out the most for me are in chapter one, page fifteen. The first strong lines is: I wrote for ten years before I got published! I’d written over six books…sixty-five short stories and four plays… and received more than two hundred sixty rejections before I got published! The reason why this strong line stood out for me is that Victor Villasenor have worked so hard, he put his effort into the books, plays, that he had written and did not give up even though he received more than two hundred rejections.
Victor not being able to read made him dread going to school because his teacher would require students to read out loud. Victor states how having to read out loud was not his only fear but many other things as well. He was also extremely fearful of facing the world without his mother. That is another reason victor also hated staying at school because his mother could not stay with him. After a while, Victor learned soon enough to adapt to being without his mother, realizing that everything would be Ok. He also began to make friends at school, which helped him be a bit more comfortable at school. One of the boys he hung out with the most was his friend Ramón. This boy Ramon inspired and motivated Victor to become brave like him. In Chapter four we see an example of this where Victor states “I quit crying, just like that. My God, I couldn’t believe it, this boy Ramon had to be the bravest boy I had ever seen” (Villaseñor 64).Victor makes it clear about how he admires Ramon for his bravery and also refers to Ramon’s personality as his motivation for courage. I learned how Victor in this book changes from a young fearful boy to a brave gritty young man proud of his Mexican roots. Fear is a great motivator.
Manuel Munoz discusses topics that may be considered controversial to many people, but this doesn’t stop him from creating brilliant pieces of writing.
It is this issue of forgiveness that is the most valuable from this film. The viewer can benefit from this by being able to notice how Victor got through his problems. If the viewer has problems of his or her own that are similar to this, then maybe the viewer can apply the film’s lessons to his or her life. The issue of forgiveness is the main point, but there are other great lessons and morals such as the importance of friendship, the danger of alcoholism, handling family conflicts, etc. Not to mention, there is a lot to be learned about Native American culture from this film.
In “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona”, Victor has become psychologically troubled because he has put his own traditions behind. Throughout the story, the readers find out that Victor has an internal conflict due to the unhealthy relationships in his life. His father abandons him at a very young age, which causes Victor’s loss of guidance and self-identity. The day that Victor’s father abandons his family, Victor gets “really drunk and beat[s] Thomas up for no apparent reason at all”(276). If no one would have stopped Victor, Thomas-build-the-fire would have died which clearly shows the readers that Victor is mentally troubled. Not only does he lose his father but, Victor also loses his best friend on that same day. In other words, Victor is mentally traumatized after the abandonment. In fact, Rothe Eugenio, a professor in the department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health at Florida Inter...
The attitude of Victors mother reflects th... ... middle of paper ... ... ment haunts him through the rest of the novel. Victor is weak and it is only near the end of the novel that he attempts to face his creature and to destroy it to restore nature's order. Finally the pursuit of his creation destroys him.
Victor grows up in school both on the American Indian Reservation, then later in the farm town junior high. He faces serious discrimination at both of these schools, due to his Native American background. This is made clear in both of the schools by the way the other students treat him as well as how his teachers treat him. His classmates would steal his glasses, trip him, call him names, fight him, and many other forms of bullying. His teachers also bullied him verbally. One of his teachers gave him a spelling test and because he aced it, she made him swallow the test. When Victor was at a high school dance and he passed out on the ground. His teacher approached him and the first thing he asked was, “What’s that boy been drinking? ...
Victor’s father left his family because according to Thomas, “when they were seven years old, when Victor’s father still lived with the family, Thomas closed his eyes and told Victor this story: your father’s heart is weak. He is afraid of his own family, he is afraid of you. Late at night he sits in the dark. Watches the television until there’s nothing but white noise. Sometimes he feels like he wants to buy a motorcycle and ride away. He wants to run and hide. He doesn’t want to be found” (512). When Victor’s father left, he never truly forgave him. Readers know that because of the details told at the beginning of the story and through the quote that was used in the second paragraph. Although he felt some resentment towards his father, he still felt obligated to bring him back to the reservation. That is where the theme of family comes into the story. Victor’s father died in his hot trailer and was not found for at least a week. Victor knew the trailer his father was staying had to have smelt ripe. But he did not care, as explained in the story, he says,“but there might be something valuable in there and I was talking about pictures and letters and stuff like that” (515). The trip that Victor made to Phoenix was a family journey. That long trip had taught Victor about himself and most importantly about his father. The grief that was bottled up inside was finally being put to rest now
The use of Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy in this story is very thought-provoking. While we are presented with the image of a young Richard Rodriguez and his struggle to deal with his education and family life. We are also presented Hoggart’s image of the “Scholarship boy” the student who has ...
His ambitions are what isolate him and bring to life a creature whose suffering was unfairly conveyed into his life. The creature is isolated from everyone, including his creator. He had no choice, unlike Victor. Finally, as the story starts to change, the creature begins to take control of the situation. It is now Victor being isolated by the creature as a form of revenge.
and Other Greats : Lessons from the All-star Writer's Workshop. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.
When Victor abandons the monster he runs away and tries to forget about his failed creation. It was extremely dangerous for Victor to flee his experiment because the monster soon becomes aggressive with hate and is curious to know why Victor left him; furthermore, the monster becomes obsessed with self-learning and knowledge.
The only person he claims to be scared of was Michael White Hawk, but other than that any and everyone was fair game for him. The problem with the way Victor went about is that he had to hide behind a mask of masculinity. The song Father and Farther captures his essence completely by stating “Are like a warrior. Who can only paint half of his face. While the other half cries and cries and cries.” (Alexie 93). It helps the perception to see that just because Victor is considered a bully, he had a rough past that he may not be able to cope. The built-up rage that he feels over situations that were out of his control is the reason why he became such an aggressive person. The incident with the pastor that was noted but wasn’t a topic that went into detail about. Andrea Smith, a Native American studies scholar, and activist, in her book, Conquest, goes into how rape was used as a tool for genocide. Smith goes into what rape is “...’nothing more or less’ a tool of patriarchal control...” (7). That’s exactly how it is said to be in many cases, a power play. It is used by men with high standings, typical a white man, to belittle someone they feel is less than them. The pastor using a young Native American boy for his own sick pleasure is nothing short of an injustice, but the problem lies with that many won’t convict them based off this alone it needs more than just a child who is a minority. Victor was also ruled by his abandonment issues which
Victor has a lack of respect for the natural world that leads him on the path to becoming a monster. In creating the monster Victor is trying to change the natural world. He is trying to play the role of god by creating life.
Vogler, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. 3rd Ed. Studio City: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007.