language? Language is the foundation for any organism day to day interaction, language is not limited to spoken language, but also includes body language and gestures. Through language people connect and form bonds with each other; from personal experience, I have found this is to be essentially true when living in a foreign country and speaking a language that is not the primary language spoken in that country. One may not know anything at all about the other, but an instant connection is made when you hear a familiar language or the language of your childhood. For some people, their native language becomes who they are, in essence, their identity. I believe this is reinforced by the words we use to label people and their language, for …show more content…
We mostly learn about Diaz’s main male character, Yunior, through the language he uses. The reader learns how Yunior navigates through the close-knit community he resides in, often using words that are in Spanish unlike the rest of the text. Diaz wants the reader to learn what these words mean and for them to make a connection with the text on their own. “Imagine her old lady coming to get her, what she would say if she knew her daughter had just lain under you and blown your name, pronounced with her eighth-grade Spanish, into your ear. While she's in the bathroom call one of your boys and say, Lo hice, loco. Or just sit back on the couch and smile.” (Page 3). Diaz often points out Yunior’s ability to speak and understand Spanish when contrasting him to the possible dates he might encounter. He makes a stark contrast in that he wants the reader to be aware of the differences or the similarities between themselves and the main character.
In a sense, Yunior is the personification of colloquial Latino American language. Diaz uses Yunior to show the reader the language in everyday mundane interactions but in a way that is simple for the reader to grasp and understand. He gives Yunior a stereotypical Hispanic macho persona, further reinforced by the language he
She explains that the words themselves doe not give more to them than what they translate to in English, ‘the everyday’ (Isasi-Diaz pg.46). Isasi-Diaz explains that lo cotidiano is the experiences that we live every day, our lives and how we live them at every moment, how we perceive and how we connect to reality
To summarize I will discuss about how Victor Martinez uses writing strategies to create Manny’s character. Victor Martinez uses dialogue to show that Manny becomes the adult of the house. For one thing Manny tells his dad that his mom is in one place while she was in another, “”Where?” Where’s your mother?” he said, stumbling. “Over there!”
Oscar as a Parody of Masculinity Oscar De León struggles with his masculinity, in a sense that he is influenced to act a certain way, and treat others a certain way, in order to be considered a man. This coming of age crisis is shown The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diáz, through the life of this Dominican boy named Oscar de León. While Oscar struggles with his masculinity, the main narrator in the novel, Yunior, is shown as an exaggerated example of what a man should be like. This is shown numerous times in the novel when the reader comprehends these two character’s very different reactions to situations usually involving love and women. Because of this, Yunior is almost the exact opposite of Oscar, and Diáz uses this to his advantage.
Throughout “The Mexican in Fact, Fiction, and Folkore” examines the term “Mexican” as it is applied in Southwest literature and argues the Anglo society has made a conscious effort to misrepresent Mexicans (Rios 60). He states the people of Mexican descent are viewed as un-American because they are perceived as filthy, lazy, and dumb. Ricatelli adds to the conversation of Mexican stereotypes by examining the literary expressions of Chicanas and Mexicanas in the literature of both the United States and Mexico. In “The Sexual Stereotypes of The Chicana in Literature” Ricatelli explains how in Yankee literature, the Chicana is referred to as the “fat breeder, who is a baby factory” meanwhile the Mexican is described as an “amoral, lusty hot tamale” (Ricatelli 51). He makes note of these stereotypes in order to highlight the ethnocentric and nativist points of view that dominated Anglo literature.
In “No Face”, Ysrael narrates the same events instead of Yunior. Although these two short stories do not directly feature Yunior and Rafa’s father, they are as much about Yunior’s growth and development during his father’s absence as they are about Ysrael. In “Situating Latin American Masculinity: Immigration, Empathy and Emasculation in Junot Diaz’s Drown”, John Riofrio emphasizes that “Ysrael sets the stage for the picture of masculinity which will reveal itself throughout all ten of the stories.” At this point in time, Yunior is only a nine year old boy in the Dominican Republic, at a point in life where he is on
Not only does Diaz write novels and short stories, but he also takes action towards exposing the problems that Dominican people especially women face everyday. There might be some people who consider Diaz to be an Antifeminist and also a disgrace to his country, the Dominican Republic, but the only thing that Diaz is doing with his writing is exposing the reality of what its meant to be an immigrate from another country and how machismo affects Feminism in Latin cultures. Diaz shows his feminism by exposing machismo and what women in Latin cultures deal with everyday. Machismo is a term used to describe the dominant male behavior in Latin cultures. Machismo can also be describe as a man objectifying a women as a
One of the area of conflict that rose in the book involves the usage of the English language in relation of the family’s native language, Spanish. As a Mexican-American raised in the States the exhibition of the English language, whether the use of the tongue is fluent or not, cause a strain in the Mexican culture as the culture takes in consideration of their romance and richness of history in their native tongue (Rothman 204). Language represent the supporting backbone of a person as the progress in life as the ability to communicate without misunderstands, however a person can cause the loss connection to the past romance of the culture and art of cultivation that brings the language to lifes from their inabilities to comprehend the ability/asset to its fullest potential (Rothman 204). To fully understand the true meaning behind a spoken chain of words can be understood by the method of trying to first comprehend the cultivation of the word and the definition behind them. Cisneros embeds the use of Spanish in fragments depicting a sense of reality within a fictional novel, Caramelo, as well with the use of interchangeable dialogues with spanish phrase to express the illustration of Celaya’s family and the culture in which is translate in of importance of pride.
“Fiesta 1980” father and son. Junot Diaz story “Fiesta 1980” is a story about an immigrant family that came to the US in the hunt for better opportunities. The story includes a myriad number of culturalisms to show that Yunior’s family is still new and that they still conserve their traditions. Nevertheless, Yunior’s family is not so different from many other Hispanic families in the US; a great amount of Hispanics families can be represented by “Fiesta 1980”.
Being Hispanic has taught me a whole world of things. It has taught me that the world is not what you expect it to be. Going to a public school and being th minority is completely different than going to a see my cousins where every thing is different. The way we talk, the food we eat. Its all different.
Throughout the reading, Anzaldúa constantly switched between the Spanish and English language. I believe the switching or languages has a decoding effect on people. The author wants her audience to be more engaged. If the reader doesn’t understand the language, they are more likely to either research or use the surrounding text to understand what Anzaldúa is talking
The poem fully develops the idea of the limited of privileges that some might have according to the their races and the racial division. The “borderlands” is the division of a place, but in the eyes of Gloria she makes the character grow up in a place where there is a racial division. The character is in the middle of how of her race is important as her cultural ways get in the way of trying to practice each one of them. The poet writes in both english and spanish to explain how she speaks to the different races she carries. As you read the poem you can feel how the tone changes as the author is speaking of the different events that she goes through in her life.
Cofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.
They must have misunderstood far more than they understood of each other.’ After years of marriage, they still had practically no language in common. Thus, Carlos started to retreat into silence. It is very probable that he became simply tired of being constantly misunderstood and mocked by his wife because of his weak English. In his case it was more a self-preservation than creating the identity by conscious abstaining from expressing his opinion directly.
I’m the first generation of my family to be Mexican -American, but I have been introduced to the Mexican culture since I was born. I appreciate the difficulties my parents have faced to make me the person that I am today even though I wasn’t born in Mexico my parents have taught me the language and the culture which I’m so proud of being part of. For others being Hispanic is actually being born in any Latin American countries which is not true at all. Being Hispanic is much more than my cultural background it actually describes how much I appreciate my culture and how I get to experience things other people don’t. I fit into the Hispanic community through the experiencing the culture first hand ,participating in traditions and planning to include my culture in my future.
Her choice of words in the first line “Like San Antonio, bronze in the face, white sky…” are a description of her Hispanic/ Mexican American community that she grew up in. This line also helps detail the diversity and beauty that is within her hometown of San Antonio. The use of the word “nopal”, is used to showcase an important staple of the Mexican heritage. Guerrero can resemble with a nopal, because just like her, they are able to adapt and survive in all kinds of environments no matter the circumstances. This symbolizes that you can achieve anything you set your mind to, no matter who you are or where you are from.