In the story Jubilee by Kirstin Valdez Quade A young very bright Latin American woman, Andrea, struggles with feeling like she’s been accepted in today’s society despite all of her achievements. These feelings tend to peak and turn negative whenever she’s around the family of her father’s lifelong employer, the Lowells, and in particularly their daughter Parker. Although the Lowells, as a whole seem to love Andrea and her family, she finds that their success and good fortune directly correlates to her family’s second rate citizenship. This story reveals that obsession with being accepted as an equal can be an ever increasing stressor that can severely damage a child’s identity, social skills and ultimately lead to misplaced resentment and …show more content…
hate. Andrea’s fixation with being accepted as an equal by Parker and the Lowells stems from her resentment and envy of what she thinks they have and how they got it. Andrea has a misconception that the Lowells have it easy because they’re wealthy, which in turn infuriates her on multiple occasions. Andrea can't seem to let Parker have her own achievements for example, Andrea tells her friend Matty “I’m pretty sure she only got into Stanford because she’s a legacy”. This shows that Andrea doesn’t think very highly of Parker’s intellect or work ethic, yet this opinion seems to arise from a place of hurt rather than of a sound mind. Andrea gives of the impression that she has a peculiar affection towards Parker and doesn't know how to convey it properly because her resentment that Parker has everything handed to her interferes. As andrea says just before the aforementioned quote, “I’m pretty sure Parker Lowell isn’t even that smart. She’s too sweet to be smart”(4). It’s a little evident here the fondness Andrea has for Parker by labeling her as sweet, which is in all cases a positive personality trait. Additionally, a woman whose life achievements and education all points to a woman of sound mind and logic, Andrea here throws all logic out of the window when making this statement because she should know that being sweet and being smart have no correlation. This jaundice will continue to intrude on her judgment and prevent her from noticing the better side of her life. Andrea’s deleterious obsession with feeling like she’s not accepted as an equal is preventing her from enjoying things and events that usually makes one jubilant. Andrea can’t seem to enjoy joyous occasions without impertinently demonizing the lowells in the process. For instance, when she learns the news that her father was getting hired by the Lowells for their party she responds with “Are they kidding… You’d think they’d want something fancy”. Andrea says this with no notion that she just insulted her father and she continues to insult in her fit of disdain. This time Andrea unintentionally aims at her Mom by saying “you’re not considering going, are you, Mom”?(3) The narrator says “hurt flashed in her mother’s face, and Andrea bristled at the Lowells for causing this hurt”.(3) Even something Andrea has personally caused herself, she blames on the Lowells. This illustrates the immense hold the Lowells has over Andrea’s life and feelings to where she’s unknowingly hurting the feelings of her loved ones and then blaming the Lowells for her own actions. Andrea even manages to bring the Lowells into situations where that have absolutely no relevance and allows them to ruin her mood. An example of this is when Andrea is celebrating her acceptance to Stanford University the narrator says, “Oh, the success and wealth and greatness the future held for her! It actually made her breathless to think of it. Parker Lowell was the single blight on her joy”.(5) Andrea is literally obsessed at this point in her life, and she can't seem to operate without making her life a vendetta about Parker and the Lowells. The fact that Andrea remembers things about the Lowells that even Parker can’t seem to recall indicates that she secretly admires them and she even resents them for that. Andrea remembers going to the Lowells house as a kid with her father, she remembers the large and gleaming kitchen, she remembers the framed family photograph, that she later enviously mocks with Matty, she remembers Mrs.Lowell giving her cookies and she remembers as the narrator puts it, “tasting in the increasingly stale nibbles the calm and security and beauty of this home”.(3) This shows not only does she remember admiring the good things about the lowells and their estate, but this also reveals that even as a kid she took in this experience enviously. At every turn if the Lowells had something that she liked it made her dislike for them grow even fonder. For example, the yellow lined in red invitation the Lowells had sent to Andrea’s family, the narrator writes “why was she so impressed with the invitation?- (she hated that she was so impressed)”.(3) Andreas conflicting feelings comes to light here because she has unjustly made the Lowells her enemy, but the very reason she views them as her enemy is because she feels they have everything she wants. Andrea’s lifelong continued focus on the Lowells prevents her from actually focusing on who she is. Andrea can’t seem to find herself so she makes desperate attempts to find herself in others.
The immense pressure caused by always trying to prove to the world that she was enough resulted in a lacking of social awareness and identity. Andrea doesn’t appear to know how to act herself when she is around matty for example the text says “She was always bringing up sex around Matty so she could demonstrate how cool she was with it.”( 2) It doesn’t appear that Andrea has had a lot of practice with boys because she's been so focused on school and being accepted in society; so that now she’s trying to catch up awkwardly trying to feel her way through. This also shows that now she’s also trying to juggle being accepted by her peers and the difficulty she’s having with both. Andrea constantly tries to conform to what she thinks her peers views are before she knows them. For example, when she sees Parker for the first time in college and attempts to make conversation by ridiculing students who played in the mud only to find out Parker thought it seemed fun; the narrator says “Feeling drab to her core, Andrea searched for something else to say, but came up with nothing”.(9) Andrea is overcompensating for what she lacks by trying to act like someone she isn’t, but who she thinks Parker is. Andrea’s views on how things are or ought to be is a constant recurring flaw that prevents her from making the relationships she wants so desperately to …show more content…
have. Andrea’s hateful and mischievous actions toward Parker was apart her motive to bring Parker down to a level where she felt they could be equals, and maybe even friends. Andrea was always waiting around for something bad to happen to Parker so she could move in on and capitalize on the event in a way that made sense to her, so she can then further their relationship. For Instance, when Andrea learned of of the Lowells divorce and family problems from her parents the narrator says “ In Andrea’s mind Parker underwent a faint oxidation. She took on a patina, for the first time, of vulnerability. Again Andrea found herself seeking Parker on campus, this time so she might extend her hand in friendship”.(6) This reveals a lot about the lack of her identity and social skills that she even needs to wait for these type of events to feel like she can extend her hand in friendship. Andrea never truly disliked Parker as was evident when she was telling Parker that she was sorry for her trying to kill herself, the narrator says “Why couldn't she get the tone right? She really was sorry”.(13) Andrea couldn’t get the tone right because for years she’s had so much practice resenting her and bringing her down she didn't realize she doesn't know how to be her friend. This character driven story Jubilee follows a young woman who has everything going for her except she seems to be the only one who doesn’t notice.
For so long she has been around what she saw as the destination for her life, which was success and happiness, in the lifelong family friends the Lowells. She assumed they were just given this life without ever thinking they had to work as hard as she did to get there, consequently envy and resentment ensued. The resentment started with the whole family and then got more intense and personal when it came to the daughter of the Lowells, Parker, someone Andrea could identify with on a personal level. This story illustrated for us the unseen factors and repercussions that too much ambition to be accepted by anyone can have one's long lasting development into their own person. This journey to prove who you are to others can lead to intense emotions and motives that aren’t normal yours and can cause you to lose sight of the very person you’re trying to prove that you
are.
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.
Through the view of a young girl, this story really captures what it’s like to feel like immigration is the only option for a family. In the story, set in the 1960’s, Anita lives in the Dominican Republic, a country with a dictator named el jefe. One day at school, Anita’s cousin is called out of class, and Anita is asked to go with. She finds out that her
In “Queens, 1963”, the speaker narrates to her audience her observations that she has collected from living in her neighborhood located in Queens, New York in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The narrator is a thirteen-year-old female immigrant who moved from the Dominican Republic to America with her family. As she reflects on her past year of living in America, she reveals a superb understanding of the reasons why the people in her neighborhood act the way they do towards other neighbors. In “Queens, 1963” by Julia Alvarez, the poet utilizes diction, figurative language, and irony to effectively display to the readers that segregation is a strong part of the American melting pot.
Previously, the narrator has intimated, “She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own.” Her thoughts and emotions engulf her, but she does not “struggle” with them. They “belonged to her and were her own.” She does not have to share them with anyone; conversely, she must share her life and her money with her husband and children and with the many social organizations and functions her role demands.
Oftentimes, societal problems span across space and time. This is certainly evident in Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents a novel in which women are treated peripherally in two starkly different societies. Contextually, both the Dominican Republic and the United States are very dissimilar countries in terms of culture, economic development, and governmental structure. These factors contribute to the manner in which each society treats women. The García girls’ movement between countries helps display these societal distinctions. Ultimately, women are marginalized in both Dominican and American societies. In the Dominican Republic, women are treated as inferior and have limited freedoms whereas in the United States, immigrant
Ever since she was a young girl. Jeannette had set high goals for herself. Since she was so advanced in school and genuinely enjoyed learning, it made sense that she would want to do big things with her life. Whether it was being a veterinarian or a geologist, her dreams extended far beyond her homes in little desert towns or Welch, West Virginia. However, because of her poverty-stricken home life, many people believed it didn’t seem likely that she would be so successful. One day, while living in Welch, Jeannette goes to the bar to drag her drunk father back home. A neighborhood man offers them a ride back to their house, and on the ride up he and Jeannette start a conversation about school. When Jeannette tells the man that she works so hard in school because of her dream careers, the man laughs saying, “for the daughter of the town drunk, you sure got big plans” (Walls 183). Immediately, Jeannette tells the man to stop the car and gets out, taking her father with her. This seems to be a defining moment in which Jeannette is first exposed to the idea that she is inferior to others. Although this man said what he did not mean to offend her, Jeannette is clearly very hurt by his comment. To the reader, it seems as if she had never thought that her family’s situation made her subordinate to those
In this book, the lives of two wealthy American citizens and two illegal immigrants collide. Delaney and Kyra were whites living in a pleasurable home, with the constant worry that Mexicans would disturb their peaceful, gated community. Candido and America, on the other hand, came to America to seek job opportunities and a home but ended up camping in a canyon, struggling even for the cheapest form of life. They were prevented from any kind of opportunities because they were Mexicans. The differences between the skin colors of these two couples created the huge gap between the two races.
The United States is known as the “land of the free” attracting many immigrants to achieve the “American Dream” with the promise of equal opportunity for all. However, many groups, whose identities differed from the dominant American ideology, discovered this “American dream” to be a fantasy. In the 1960s, movements for civil rights in the United States of America included efforts to end private and public acts of racial discrimination against groups of disadvantaged people. Despite the efforts made to empower the disadvantaged groups, racialization and class differences prevailed leading to social inequality. The novel My Beloved World is an autobiography written by Sonia Sotomayor illustrating her early life, education, and career path, explaining the unresolved contradictions of American history and how they continue on in society. Prejudice against certain socioeconomic classes and races prevented equal opportunity. Sotomayor’s text explicates the racialization and class differences that many Puerto Ricans experience while pursuing a higher education, revealing the contradictions between the American promise of equal opportunity and discrimination against Puerto Ricans.
In a country like the United States of America, with a history of every individual having an equal opportunity to reach their dreams, it becomes harder and harder to grasp the reality that equal opportunity is diminishing as the years go on. The book Our Kids by Robert Putnam illustrates this reality and compares life during the 1950’s and today’s society and how it has gradually gotten to a point of inequality. In particular, he goes into two touching stories, one that shows the changes in the communities we live in and another that illustrates the change of family structure. In the end he shows how both stories contribute to the American dream slipping away from our hands.
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie is a normal teenage girl who is approached outside her home by a guy named Arnold Friend who threatens to harm her, and she obeys, if she does not get in the car with him. Connie is the main character in this story who teaches us that sometimes we might search for adult independence too early before we are actually ready to be independent and on our own. Connie is so focused on her appearance that she works hard to create a mature and attractive adult persona that will get her attention from guys. This search for independence conflicts with Connie’s relationship with her family and their protection of her. Connie’s insecurity and low self-esteem is triggered by her fear of intimacy. Connie confuses having the attention of men with actually having them pursue her in a sexual way.
Lareau, Annette. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011. Print.
The subject of equality and inequality are a sensitive and controversial topic. Both equality and inequality were portrayed in the short story, “The Lesson.” In this short story by Toni Cade Bambara, Miss Moore, a well known woman in the neighborhood, gives the children in her local area a lesson about the brutal inequalities that are in existence within the socioeconomic status system. This leads the children to ponder about the equality and inequality that exists within society. Toni Cade Bambara uses her short story, “The Lesson” in order to shed light on the injustices and racial inequalities in society. The goal of the story is to not only fight for racial equalities, but socioeconomic equalities as well.
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.
Oftentimes the children of immigrants to the United States lose the sense of cultural background in which their parents had tried so desperately to instill within them. According to Walter Shear, “It is an unseen terror that runs through both the distinct social spectrum experienced by the mothers in China and the lack of such social definition in the daughters’ lives.” This “unseen terror” is portrayed in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club as four Chinese women and their American-born daughters struggle to understand one another’s culture and values. The second-generation women in The Joy Luck Club prove to lose their sense of Chinese values, becoming Americanized.
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. "The Myth of the Latina Woman." Bullock, Richard, Maureen Daly Goggin and Francine Weinburg. The Norton Field Guide to Writing. Ed. Marilyn Moller. 3rd. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2013. 806-812. Print.