“The Dreamer” by Junot Diaz is a very personal essay. Diaz pinpoints specific influences in his personal life that identify him. He introduces his audience to his background sharing with them what his inspirations have been. Before the text of the article, the publisher released background information about Diaz and his amazing accomplishments. “He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Diaz, The Dreamer)”, however these are only a portion of his accomplishments. By reading this segment of the text, the audience can conclude that Diaz is a successful writer that takes his craft seriously. The essay “The Dreamer” is rhetoric within itself. While ethos and pathos played significant …show more content…
roles throughout the text, Diaz included a small influence of logos to display that the struggles his mother endured are part of his identity.
Diaz begins his story by informing his audience of the setting and the details of the area in which this story took place. He reveals that this story took place in a rural area of the Dominican Republic. During this time children were more likely to farm with their family than go to school. This caused the youth to miss out on a social life, along with many opportunities to pursue an education due to the fact that the household chores were priority. The problem with not pursuing an education expands further than a degree; it includes lacking a greater understanding of diversity in the world. This is because as you further your knowledge about the world you become more socially aware of the larger picture of the world around us. Education during this time and in this part …show more content…
of the world was not taken as a serious societal advancement. The agriculture industry was considered a better investment. It produced faster money and means of survival. School was a long term investment in which, the benefit would not take affect right away. From the information provided about the era, Diaz’s audience can compare it to today’s society and the expectations that are set for youth. Today, in America a high school diploma is a general expectation for young individuals. In America, it is against the law for children to be kept at home and outside of school by their parents. At the age of 16, students are then allowed to drop out of school. It was a law for Diaz to gain an education by living in the United States. He lives during an educationally advance era, unlike his mother and he proves to his audience that this was made possible by his mother’s courage to force her education. Diaz used logic to show how his mom pursued a potentially better life as a nurse, although she did not accomplish her goal.
He uses logos when he reveals the roles of his mother when she was a young girl. Her job was to care for the farm hands when they fell ill. She was a very important part of their family’s maintenance due to the fact that without her they would have no working hands. From her constant role of caring for the ill, she then developed the ambition to become a nurse. Diaz’s mother created that goal and she made the necessary steps towards accomplishment. She first took a stand to go to school, she then attended school to earn an education. Diaz then emphasizes the fact that nurses must have an education and his mother was deprived this privilege. To attain this privilege she drank dirty water from a puddle and fell ill. This decision allowed her to go to school. At this point of his story Diaz uses pathos to show how important it was for his mom to go to school. When her family left her to get well, she got up from her sick bed and went to the school and requested to be put in the class. This type of determination is what set her on her way to begin the the qualifications to become a
nurse. To further his use of logos Diaz wrote this text in chronological order to display the journey of his mother and the growth she experienced throughout her life. He displayed the challenge of education she overcame as a young girl in the Dominican Republic in comparison to him being a young boy in America. According to “Dominican Republic History and Background”, “the proportion of children in the overall population is of working age (15-to-64 years old). The Dominican Republic has one of the lowest investments in education in the hemisphere” (Dominican Republic History and Background). The social expectations of the young adults are very different in the Dominican Republic compared to the U.S where Diaz grew up. In his mother’s country age 15 and older are considered “the working class”. She was expected to work to help provide for her family at what Americans may classify as an “early” age. In the United States at the age of fifteen, individuals are still considered minors. A fifteen year old is not expected to be the head of a household or the number one supporter of a family. The social expectation of each country also played a role in whether or not school is acceptable. Education had to eventually evolve into a social norm for other children like Diaz’s mom in the Dominican Republic. During this time school was not socially acceptable especially if you were a girl. Women did not need school as their role was to stay home, work the fields and raise a family. Diaz connected the reason his mother drank muddy water, the impact it had on her goal to become a nurse, and the impact it had on his identity and career. In the text Diaz made his audience aware of his grandmother’s disapproval of education and the role she expected his mother to play. Use something from the text to show this. Either that she beat her when she looked at a school house or that she felt her only role was to work like a mule. Diaz shared with his audience how his mother made the decision to drink muddy water in order to make her dream come true. His mother’s dream of being a nurse ultimately came from the role she was forced to plan within her family. Following the display of logos, Diaz also uses pathos many different times to appeal to his audience. Diaz displays the mistreatment his mother endured and the intolerance of pursuing an education within society during her time: “Any time my mother was caught near the schoolhouse, my grandmother gave her a beating. And not the beatings of the First World but the beatings of the Third—which you do not so easily shake off” (Diaz, “The Dreamer”). The statements he used above appealed to the sympathetic emotions of the audience. In modern society, it is illegal to beat children because they want to attend school. Education is viewed as a good thing and the attendance of youth is critical. Not only did he show his mother’s determination to attend school he showed her influence After all her courage and bravery, Diaz’s mother never accomplished her goal. However, Diaz used ethos to display how her attempt at education and attempt to be a nurse turned him into a success:, “ strange how things work—her son became a reader and a writer, practices she encouraged as much as possible. I write professionally now, and life is long and complicated, and who knows how things might have turned out under different circumstances, but I do believe that who I am as an artist, everything that I’ve ever written, was possible because a seven-year-old girl up in the hills of Azua knelt before a puddle, found courage in herself and drank” (Diaz, “The Dreamer”). Diaz states that his mother fell short of her goal due to the fact that she could not quite master the English language, but where she lacked, he filled in. From her failure, his mother pushed and motivated him to master the language, however, not only did he master it, he became one of the best writers of all time. Diaz’s mother instilled in her son what she could not quite grasp herself, and from this essay, Diaz informs his audience that his mother’s story made his goal of becoming a writer possible for him. Her motivation, determination, and relocation to America helped Diaz establish a career and molded his persevering character.
Junot Diaz is Dominican American, and he came from a very poor family with five other siblings. Since they were not that wealthy, they lived in a simple way. Even though his mother was basically the bread winner of the family since his father could not keep a job, she still manages to send money back home every six months or so. When they got home from their vacation, they had found out that someone has broken into their house and stole most of his mother’s money. It was easy for them to be a target because they were recent immigrant, and in their neighborhood cars and apartment were always getting jacked. His mother was very upset; she blamed her children, because she thought it was their friends who had done such a thing. “We kids knew where
Slick showed Rios the “hotspots” where life shapes these youth environments. The structure, as well as the constraints, that shape these young boys life in the neighborhood, slick points out a corner where one of his best friends got shot by a drive-by shooting. The lifestyle of these young boys is tragic.
Generations past guide our futures. The sacrifices and triumphs of our elders shape the environment in which we are born into, how we grow, and where we are today. My great-great-grandmother was able to leave Budapest, Hungary and come to America. My great-grandmother was able to obtain an education that would not have been readily available to her in her homeland. This has allowed me to be born into a free world, where education is the norm. Likewise, in the essay "The Dreamer", Junot Diaz describes the childhood dreams of his mother to obtain an education while living in the third world, rural area of the Dominican Republic. Diaz uses the struggles of his mother
Throughout life you encounter a numerous amount of obstacles. These obstacles don’t define you, how you handle them does. In the book “The Running Dream” by Wendelin Van Draanen, Jessica encounters the biggest obstacle that life could throw at her. Jessica has had to learn to adjust her life from what it was. Her life is changing and she has to decide if this accident defines who she is going to be while being surrounded by the love and comfort of her family.
... educated so he decided to bury himself into his studies and leave his family life as an afterthought. Rodríguezes parents were always supportive of him and his academic success but he did not embrace them as he should have. Next, Rodriguez rightly points out that at his graduation ceremonies throughout life his parents would attend and someone would always say that “your parents must be proud.” and those words always registered with him. Rodriguez’s influences were his teachers during his school years. Rodriguez wanted to obtain the same knowledge that his teachers possessed so he would be able to concentrate on the benefits his education could bring him. Later he realized that he alienated himself from his parents. Rodriguez indicates the time he was in the closet reading a book and his Mother finding him was something he looked back on as one of his regrets.
He grows up to become a nerdy, fat, and awkward adolescent with few friends and even less interest from girls. This phase persists throughout his life and he never develops out of the nerdy boy he was as a child. The Dominican Republic was a hostile and poor place during the time of the novel. The dictator Trujillo controls the lives of the people of the country. This influenced the de Leon family’s present and future.
Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is focused on the hyper-masculine culture of the Dominican, and many argue that his portrayal of the slew of women in the novel is misogynistic because they are often silenced by the plot and kept out of the narration (Matsui). However, Diaz crafts strong women, and it is society that views them as objects. The novel recognizes the masculine lens of the culture while still examining the lives of resilient women. In this way, the novel showcases a feminist stance and critiques the misogynist culture it is set in by showcasing the strength and depth of these women that help to shape the narrative while acknowledging that it is the limits society places on them because of their sexuality
People who work hard enough become successful and build a good life for themselves and their family. Millions of Americans and others who admire America have believed this for generations. However, is this still true? Brandon King debates his interpretation of the American Dream in his published work, “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” During his essay, the speaker highlights how important the American Dream is to the economy and providing a distance from inequality. The speaker emphasizes his belief that the American Dream is still alive within America and that people must work hard to achieve it. When discussing the American Dream, King will agree that the idea is alive and thriving in the minds of Americans; yet, I argue that the idea is on hold within American society due to lack of upward social independence and economic mobility.
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.
According to our system, it is very unlikely to have teachers like Tapia. When we read the conclusion part of the article written by: Meroni’s, Vera and Costas, when they say: “As it turns out, not just education itself but also the skills acquired through education and taught to students drive socio-economic performance.”(pg. 14) we understand that this wheel gap, we face the embarrassing reality that our performance in real life is inefficient, as it is in reading, the example of "sapo", when the author said: ‘“Because Mr. Blessington told me I was going to end up in jail, so why waste my time doing homework?”’(Quinonez 171) all these internal and external influence received, led him to surrender and not only that, it is understood that our economic performance also depends on it. This allows us to understand why, in reading of Quinonez, this school has teachers like Blessington, the economic deficiency plays a role in determining the quality of teachers who work in different schools; And Julia de Burgos high school is not the exception. The skills acquired in our outer life, they also have a large weight in our future success or failure. But what can one develop skills in a neighborhood lacking? What kind of friends generates a neighborhood so? Understandably the position of "sapo" if we see the external
Even from an early age, Rodriguez is a successful student. Everyone is extremely proud of Rodriguez for earning awards and graduating to each subsequent level of his education. But all his success was not necessarily positive. In fact, we see that his education experience is a fairly negative one. One negative that Rodriguez endures is his solitude. Education compels him to distance himself from his family and heritage. According to Richard Hoggart, a British education theorist, this is a very natural process for a scholarship boy. Hoggart explains that the ?home and classroom are at cultural extremes,? (46). There is especially an opposition in Rodriguez?s home because his parents are poorly educated Mexicans. His home is filled with Spanish vernacular and English filled with many grammatical errors. Also, the home is filled with emotions and impetuosity, whereas the classroom lacks emotion and the teachers accentuate rational thinking and reflectiveness.
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.
Ahead of the decision by current president Donald J. Trump to phase out the DREAM Acts’ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, (DACA), dreamers are pursuing amnesty options the ensure their stay within the United States. The Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals program, (DACA), grants two-year deferments to immigrant minors and young adults facing deportation because of illegal immigration status. In a response to the current president’s decision to phase out of the DACA program, former president Barack Obama included that, “dreamers are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper” (Obama, ). Dreamers have become model citizens, quite parallel to Americans. Dreamers attend school, go off to college, obtain degrees, and become employees, even owners of businesses, and corporations. Dreamers make contributions to the economy by working, culturally adjusting and honoring the laws put forth by the United States of America. Although dreamers do not live in the country legally, dreamers feel a part of its fabric. And with the uncertainty surrounding the ending of the DACA, dreamers are pursuing the amnesty option to
Sapo and Chino’s sociological background play heavily into their interactions with the world. Quiñonez utilizes, “With Nazario I intend to own this neighborhood and turn El Barrio into my sandbox.” (Quiñonez, 25) Metaphorically, he’s comparing the neighborhood to a children’s play area, giving the readers a tidbit of information of their world. “I would count how many floors they had. I would ask my cousin, looking up at one six- story tenement, "Do you think they have an elevator?" He replied, "No, stupid, they only have elevators in those fancy buildings on Park Avenue.” (Rodriguez, 1) While in the real El Barrio, there is a socioeconomic divide between the people that lived in the same neighborhood and everyone were all well-aware of their circumstance and how they were going to live together as a community in El
In the excerpt, “Dreams Dissipated” by Mark Twain, one must look closely in order to see the author’s main argument. This excerpt describes the events before and after the 1865 San Francisco earthquake, and under more scrutiny, its citizenry. Throughout his work, Mark Twain implements several examples of strategies such as loaded diction, imagery, personification and use of litotes in order to reveal that during these times of trouble, a facade had dissipated along with the earthquake, one where it revealed the citizens true identity; a deplorable one.