Gary Soto’s “Looking for Work” is based on a nine-year old Mexican-American boy who wants his nontraditional family to imitate the “perfect families” he sees on television. Television shows seem to have impacted Soto’s way of thinking when it comes to his family; Believing theirs to be dysfunctional. Soto shows evidence of his family being dysfunctional when we see unorganized dinner gatherings and improper manners at the dinner table, as opposed to the ones in his shows. In the story, Soto demonstrates the want for change when he shares a vision of wealth he wants to imitate by stating, “For weeks I had drunk Kool-Aid and watched morning reruns of Father Knows Best, whose family was so uncomplicated in its routine that I very much wanted to …show more content…
In doing so young Soto is showing his form of support for his family, no matter the circumstance. When wanting to rake leaves for money, his neighbor states,” It’s summer, and there ain’t no leaves…but she had a job for me and that was to get her a Coke at the liquor store” (20). In “The Color of Family Ties” Gerstel and Sarkisian remind us that family is not just about the ways we look and speak to each other, nor about an absent father or the amounts of money we have, but they clearly state, “These findings remind us that love and family connections are expressed both through talk and action” (51). His persistence is admirable, although his siblings disagree for we can see unity, strong family connections, and happiness when Soto describes one of his family gatherings stating, “Our own talk at dinner was loud with belly laughs and marked by our pointing forks at one another” (22). Although Soto’s family is not perfect they manage to prove to us that functionality within a family does not come from wealth, but in showing full acceptance in one another financially and psychologically, and to support each other no matter the
Family is one of those words that have a significant meaning to various individuals. Family may be viewed one way to an individual and another way to someone else. Family consists of those who have played a particular role in one’s life, whether it is positive or negative. In this paper, I will assess Reymundo’s family both nuclear and extended and speak of how his family has become significant in his life and how they have played a role in his decisions. I will also speak of my personal reactions to the story as well as address ways that as a social worker I could work to impact the gang problems in Orlando.
"Looking for Work" by Gary Soto is a narration of a nine year old boy, Gary, who is a Mexican-American who wants to become wealthy. He gets this idea during summer and sets out around the neighborhood looking for small jobs. He did a few errands and earns about a quarter. He also watches television shows and is attracted to the life of perfect white families. He wants his family to be like them too. He thought that way; the white people will like them more. His family was very different, and his sister could not understand why he wanted to be more like white people. In the end, when everyone left, he continues to search for a job.
It’s not easy to build an ideal family. In the article “The American Family” by Stephanie Coontz, she argued that during this century families succeed more when they discuss problems openly, and when social institutions are flexible in meeting families’ needs. When women have more choices to make their own decisions. She also argued that to have an ideal family women can expect a lot from men especially when it comes to his involvement in the house. Raymond Carver, the author of “Where He Was: Memories of My Father”, argued how his upbringing and lack of social institutions prevented him from building an ideal family. He showed the readers that his mother hide all the problems instead of solving them. She also didn’t have any choice but to stay with his drunk father, who was barely involved in the house. Carvers’ memoir is relevant to Coontz argument about what is needed to have an ideal family.
The Frontline documentary “Two American Families” produced by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), portrays the life of two typical middle class families living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Frontline Video, 2013). This follows the life of the Neumann family and the Stanley family as they pursue the ideal type of life, The American Dream, from 1991 through 2011 (Frontline Video, 2013). However, the pursuit of their fantasy quickly turned into a fight for economic struggle (Frontline Video, 2013). These struggles were all brought about by the new shaping economy (Frontline Video, 2013). At the beginning of the documentary, the Neumann family seemed well put together (Frontline Video, 2013).
Do you have any friend or relatives that are considered to be broken or disorganized family? Do you know that many disorganized family are likely to ties with their extended family? If you know any broken or disorganized families, you may realized that a broken family usually faced many difficulties, such as financial problem, missing family members, and they tend to be unhappy comparing to others. Moreover, missing a father figure in the house for a child could cause numbers of problems. In the novel “Looking for Work” the main character and also the author who named Gary Soto, a nine year old Mexican American boy, he was from a disorganized and broken family. That Gary desire to live out a life style just like the standard white American
That feeling of leaving his parents in the Philippines to go with a stranger when he was 12 years old is truly unfortunate, but his mother was looking looking out with his best interests in mind. She just wanted her son to get a taste of the American dream, and have a better life in America rather than suffering with her in the Philippines. Vargas’s essay moves the reader emotionally as he explains when he was finally successful in getting the highest honor in journalism, but his grandmother was still worried about him getting deported. She wanted Vargas to stay under the radar, and find a way to obtain one more chance at his American dream of being
Supporting your family members is something we all do. We will do anything for the ones we love and care about. Some families have to do more than others when it comes to this. Especially those with family members living in struggling countries. Junot Diaz reminisces in his story “The Money” of the time during his childhood when his mother collected remittance for his grandparents in Santo Domingo. After returning from a short road trip he discovers the money collected for his grandparents has been stolen, and after some investigating he finds that his friends are the culprits. Diaz steals back what is left of the remittance and returns it to his mother who hides it in a safer place. Money was tight in Diaz’s home, but his mother still took
“Born worker,” by Gary Soto, is composed of a short story of how a lower-middle class boy, José, learns a lesson by involving himself with his cousin, Arnie, and his ideas. While most people around have the money to buy new things often, José’s family only has enough to survive; they must work to get rewarded. Arnie, however, is spoiled with many valuables inaccessible for José, and lacks integrity within himself. After saving the life of Mr. Clemens, José realizes that your actions speak for what you need to be proud of yourself for.
In Gary Soto’s short story “Looking for Work” support, and happiness are the essentials to be a successful family. Those two points goes “hand in hand”, a lot of families in todays society gets ripped apart because they have lack of happiness and support. Happiness is nothing that comes over a day or two, it comes when we are surrounded with people that we love. Support and trust are also something that does not comes over a night, that is something that takes time to build. However, support does not mean that we need to support each other economically, we can support each other in many different ways, like be there for someone when they feel down.
That state is filled with a quest for knowledge and experience. In the poem “Chuy,” the young speaker may be naïve or mistaken in his idealized love; however, he does manage to pass through his experiences and gain some wisdom, and he does not give in to cynicism. In the later poems, Soto contrasts the bleak conditions of his childhood with the innocence and privilege of his own daughter. In “Small Town with One Street,” for example, he shows his daughter a young boy in Fresno whom he says is an image of himself as a child. The daughter is shocked to see that poor and troubled image of her apparently powerful father. Soto did not alter his pessimistic view of the world as he grew older and prospered. In “The Way Things Work,” the speaker inventories the expenses of the day and worries about meeting them. The culture of poverty cannot be overcome by relative affluence; it continues to mark Soto’s view of the world, as the wind and dirt marked the workers in the
Sennett's comparisons between the lives of the father and the son illustrate the huge generational changes within the workplace. Jobs in Rico's time are no longer long term, making job security a thing of the past. While he earns a great deal more money than his father did, he faces an unpredictable future, as he doesn't know where his employment will take him, or for how long it will last.
Throughout Society, many families have seen struggle and lived through poverty. The economy is not always thriving which takes a toll on people who suffer through unemployment or low wage jobs. The Frontline documentary, “Two American Families”, is the perfect example of struggle in the United States. It shows the lives of two struggling families and their efforts to survive. Two essays, “The Sociological Imagination” by C. Wright Mills, and “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All” by Herbert J. Hans, support the analysis of the video strongly. They express many ideas that relate to the world and struggle throughout society. Also, there are many sociological terms that depict the events that occurred in the documentary.
Sara and her three sisters beg for work, waiting in lines in order to be able to put food on the table. Sara describes her experience at ten years old saying, “heavy on my heart the worries for the house.” Immigrants, like Sara, worked long, hard hours at the factory and often left school early to enter the workforce and provide for their starving families. This portrayal of immigrant life in The Bread Givers shows a more holistic image of American life through the lens of an impoverished, hard-working, second-generation immigrant, who had to grow up too soon. Many immigrants today empathize with these financial
A seven year old boy, Edilson, had a tumor on his neck that prevented him from being able to swallow. When his death came up in conversations he remarked that he was “not afraid” and “ready” (p. 142). Seu Tomas, a bedridden member of the population describes his home as being “a poor house but rich in children” (p. 182). This subtle joke or spin of optimism isn’t much, but maintains the value of family so prevalent in the Alto do Cruzeiro people. Their poverty is seen by outsiders as a destructive force, but after years of living in it their culture has learned to push through. Most of the community is illiterate because they feel that what they learn in school is inapplicable to their lives. Most kids can’t retain any information in class because of their conditions of nervoso (p. 156). Most outsiders would view their illiteracy as a sure sign of poverty, however the people of Alto feel that they can be of more use to their family through extra hands in the field or at home then trying to obtain unneeded knowledge at school. Essentially, by not going to school they are helping their
A set of circumstances contrary to the American dream is that of the family in I Stand Here Ironing. Their situation on many levels is the opposite of the ”ideal” American family. The story is about a young mother who’s husband leaves her, saying he could no longer bear sharing want with them. So initially, she and her daughter are in a bad position. As a single mother during the era of the Depression, work was hard to come by. She often had to leave her young child with neighbors while she was out looking for a job. Her oppor...