How can one stay on the right path when confronted with so many obstacles? Overcoming hardships is not an easy task, and when faced with poverty and displacement, succeeding in life may seem like the impossible. The novel Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez is about a family that confronts a lot of difficulties in their life. They move from Jalisco, Mexico to California in the 1940s to leave their impoverishment behind and to start a new chapter in their lives. Jimenez expresses the exertion of keeping his family together while living in poverty, forced labor and discrimination. Despite hardships, success is not impossible for those willing to work hard. The Jimenez family experienced difficulties when going to Santa Clara illegally. …show more content…
They had to hide from police officers sometimes in school or outside the school. Finally, one day an officer caught the whole family and they all got in trouble. This was a big obstacle in their path. When they reached in their country, Mexico they felt sad, but they believed in themselves and thought positive. They were patient and as a result, they got their immigration visa. As it says, “After several days, we were notified that our petition for an immigrant visa had been approved”(28). However, Francisco and Roberto had to go back alone to Santa Clara for the reason that it was hard for their family to move again. But his father wanted his sons to get a good education and he wanted them to be successful. In life, people run into a lot of hardships and they do mistakes, but by experiencing them. It sooner or later makes easier for one to face it. For instance, I missed being with Roberto. While I worked, I daydreamed about going to the Vets dances and played rock ‘n’ roll tunes in my head. Most of the time, I studied things I needed to learn for school”(65). Francisco had to work all by himself as Roberto was doing job. He had to study for school and also had to take care of all the work that has to be done for house. Francisco did not give up and included all the effort. Moreover, Francisco experienced hardship when his family was sent back to Mexico, but he and Roberto worked hard to support themselves and send money to the family.
They both had a lot of trouble in doing all the work. As he says,“Roberto and I worked picking carrots and thinning lettuce after school and on weekends when it did not rain. We thinned lutece using a short hoe. When our backs hurt from stooping over, we thinned on our knees” (37). Francisco and Roberto worked really hard and did their best. They could overcome their difficulties much lightly and they learned how to face them more easily. When Francisco joined the school he thought that the classes would be easy, but they were hard. He studied hard to reach the level of his classes. He observes that “the class in which he thought it would be the easiest to get a good grade, P.E, turned out to be one of the hardest. He was preparing for the physical fitness test at the end of the quarter, doing push ups, sit ups, and chin ups and climbing ropes, running sprints, and lifting weights”( 99). Difficulties in life are to test people. It does not make one feel hard, but it realizes people that they have more potential to do even better. For example, in this case, Francisco had trouble in doing P.E, but when he realized that he came to Santa Clara to have a better life. Then he overthrew all the struggles and worked
hard. Furthermore, Francisco faced one more hardship when he was told that the driver’s education was easy, but in reality, it was not. Francisco already had encountered so many problems, but along with that he learned how to handle them. Francisco says,“ Everybody told me that driver education was an easy A, but not for me. Every time I got behind the steering wheel I got nervous because I remembered the time our Carcachita was hit from behind by a drunk driver in Selma”(135). At first, he thought he could not do it and he will back down, but then he left his fear behind and did his best to achieve his goal. As moving ahead Francisco and Roberto were in charge of cleaning their house regularly as written before. It was challenging for them to do all work and to concentrate on their studies at the same time. This was distressing for them and somehow overworking too. Because they both had to do multitasking such as doing the housekeeping then going to school. However, when coming back to school they had to study and do all the cooking by themselves. Francisco, “hated taking out Folgers coffee can and emptying it in the outhouse every morning before I went to school”(35). On account of this, experiencing hardships, after all, makes a person to succeed in life. In conclusion, Francisco and his family worked persistently hard to accomplish their goals and to succeed in their life. They never stopped and they moved on. They faced many obstacles and many bumps in their road. But they did their best and as they encountered their difficulties they learned how to face them much comfortably. Thus, experiencing hardships ultimately contributes to a person’s ability to succeed and get ahead in life.
Steinbeck meets his standard by celebrating the migrant workers’ drive and sense of community in the face of the Great Depression. The Joad family and many others, are dedicated to conquering all odds: “[t]hus they changed their social life–changed as in the whole universe only man can change” (Steinbeck 196). There are no other options available for these tenant families than to take the trek to California in hopes of finding work. The fears they once had about droughts and floods now lingered with
It is influenced by her grandmother, Esperanza Ortega’s life story and her experience from when she fled from Mexico to California. While it may be a fictional story, it is personally inspired by a close family member who lived through similar challenges. In addition, I appreciate how the author has done extensive historically based social research to allow the story to be as authentic as possible. Moreover, I chose this novel because it takes place during the Great Depression period focusing on the agricultural labor camps. I have no previous knowledge specifically in this area, and would like to learn and understand how this certain place and era affected people’s lives, society, environment, and
In closing, Francisco faced many hardships throughout his life. He had to adapt to his life here in the United States, deal with being a male in his family, as well as face discrimination. Through all the hard times, family and getting a good education were always his top priorities. With the help of his teachers and counselors, he was able to succeed in school, unlike the majority of the students. Francisco is a true hero in the eyes of many Hispanic immigrants who come to the United States and strive to be the best they can be.
Life for young Elva Treviño Hart was less than ideal and in her autobiography, Barefoot Heart she vividly explains the back-breaking work, financial hardships, and emotional struggles a migrant worker faces. Influenced by the struggles of day-to-day life, migrant work, school life, and society, Elva was shown over and over again what life would be like if she did not make an effort to change her predestined life. All too commonly people like Elva Treviño who are born into poverty will remain living in such conditions for the rest of their lives; however, growing up in poor conditions will have a great positive influence the life decisions someone like Elva makes.
In The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, Oscar Martinez comments on the injustices that occur while migrating from Central America. Central Americans are forced to leave their countries in fear of the inevitable consequences. The systematic abuse Central Americans endure while migrating is founded on that fear which results in more repercussions for migrants. The psychological effects of migrating is used by Martinez to give insight on the atrocities that happen in Central America. The corruption involved while migrating in Central America is against human rights and should be brought immediate attention internationally. Martinez uses the experiences of migrants to expose Mexico’s passivity on the subject and to expose readers’ to the hard truths that occur while migrating.
These two novels spoke about real powerful momentous events that occur in the authors’ lives. The authors emerged from the shadows and transformed their mishaps into motivation of overcoming life’s hardships. These two stories exemplify ways of overcoming Life’s hardships and finding sense of oneself. These authors break their vows of silence to prove the beauty of a broken person. They both converse on racial discrimination, relationships with God, & coming into themselves.
The narrator, ever since he was young, never really stuck by the traditional family standard of living: his father decides to start a new family with someone else that is not his mother and given the freedom to choose to live with his Aunt as his parental guardian. The narrator defines his relationship that he has with his Aunt that allowed him to truthfully say that he was “proud to be her nephew and her son” (52), which displays the narrator’s perception that although he is not her direct son, he is a huge impact and part of her life. He is able to define himself as her sole son. As the story goes on, the narrator realizes the conflict that he is soon stuck between. His life is molded into a mixed culture where he would: still have strong holds to his Native American heritage along with accustoming to the white’s expectations of attending college while maintain a strong relationship with his Aunt. Through his aunt having “so much love and knowledge to share, which she passed onto [the narrator] naturally” (53), the narrator is able to witness first-hand about the Native American tradition and beliefs. As compared to Gary Soto’s work, both narrators were able to view their culture under a new light with a positive perspective. By the end of the stories, both narrators were able to associate themselves with their cultures without feeling the need to change it or contemplate over, something that is irreplaceably taught to them through the power of family. Through this process, they have materialized that they did not have to alter the structure and way of life of their family in order to find clarity with who they are. However, the difference between the two stories is that each narrator learns these lessons through different means. The narrator from “Looking for Work” learns through
...showed how immense the heat outside was. He was light-headed and nearly fainted. This perspective was different from what it would have been with the other family members. Mama would have been taking care of her young children, Papa would be working the fields doing harder work (but would have probably lasted longer on his feet than Francisco), Roberto would have lasted longer than Francisco because he is older, and other extra characters would have been living different lives. His perspective shows how difficult it was to be at school, with nerves and English. This perspective wouldn’t work for the other characters though. This is because Roberto didn’t go to school, Mama and Papa are too old to be going to elementary school, and the younger siblings are too young. Francisco’s classmates wouldn’t work because they aren’t the ones who were working in the field.
As a school teacher and with limited income from teaching and a family to take care, the narrator is still stuck with housing project in Harlem, he cannot make a bail or hire the best lawyer to defend his brother. The distress from losing his baby daughter; the feeling of guilt, desperation and failure to care and protect his younger brother from the deadly touch of drugs weight down the narrator’s life. Damaged while getting out of Harlem’s trap, and like his descended father, the narrator sees the darkness in every corner of
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.
The authors from all four memoirs overcame their childhood obstacles by realizing that one action can fix their problems. Gary Soto accepted working in the fields after he realized that coming back to work would fix his problems. Laurence Yep chose to go with his father to kill the rat after he noticed that choosing to go with him would make them bond. Barack Obama and his friends were able to accept Barrack after his dad gave a presentation to his class about heritage. Julia Alvarez’s mother helped Julia through the process of moving to the United States, when Julia didn’t realize that the Dominican Republic was doing anything wrong. All four memoirs describe overcoming obstacles to teach readers that it is possible to overcome any problems that happen in life.
Recently, President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban have once again divided the country into differing sides. Similarly, an illegal Honduras immigrant’s action divided his family forever. On March 8, 2017, Idaho Statesman published an article titled “Teen, in country illegally, said he beheaded his mother ‘because I felt like it’”. This national news focuses on the subject of government because the article demonstrates how our new President's policy affected a mentally unstable teen’s actions and his sentencing in court.
Growing up in the San Joaquin Valley I have always heard about Cesar E. Chavez and all of the accomplishments he helped achieve for field workers. In school whenever he was mentioned he was always portrayed as a local hero as he had been involved in the beneficial advancements of the Delano's field workers community. Therefore coming from a high school named after the man himself I have always had a positive view towards Cesar E. Chavez’s movement and what he stood for. Hence after watching the two short videos and reading the New York Times article, my perception of Cesar E. Chavez has changed as I have learned new information about Cesar E.Chavez’s ideology that I did not know prior. I believe that Chavez had the right idea when it came
Tim Walberg once said “Americans are hard working innovative, proud people who want bad government policies and high taxes to get out of the way so they can take care of their families and pursue their dream.” We live in a world where all we want is to be able to have sustainability and purpose for ourselves. We all our constantly striving and in some cases fighting for the ‘American Dream’ of a successful occupation, roof over our heads and a family. However, is our ability to believe enough to guide us? In today’s society we don’t have the most supportive government when it comes to things such as lowering taxes, housing for the homeless and educating the youth. The poem “Courtyard of Clothesline”, Angel Hill by Orlando Ricardo Menes, represents
...pulling though lacking a clear view of what would happen, or where it may lead us all to. Coming to think of it, we could have not endured in a place where the culture gazes down at the working class, additionally more on the working woman who try’s to get ahead as a single mother. Inside the mind of my mother she had to comprehend the challenges. She must have acknowledged that it was a tough journey, tougher than anyone she had to have been. My Mother had to out do any impediment thrown her way. Without any assistance from her husband, no sustainable income, and no help She made one of the most daring and unbearable maneuvers possible. She knew how vital it is to secure a better life for her and most important her children, even when no one put a bit of faith in her. It’s difficult to do the correct thing, but it’s not unattainable. try telling that to my mom.