A Short Story Of Ivan Cruz

Rodriguez begins to become more involved in his classroom by his new grip on the English language. He shares fewer and fewer words with his mother and father. His tone now transforms into guilt. As Rodriguez's public language becomes more fluent, he forgets how to speak Spanish. "I would have been happier about my public success had I not recalled, sometimes, what it had been like earlier, when my family conveyed its intimacy through a set of conveniently private sound.? He begins to break out of the cocoon as a slow or disadvantaged child and blooms into a regular kid in his white society that only uses English. He feels a great sense of betrayal of his Mexican past. His connection that held him so close to his family is destabilized.

Junot Diaz was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated with his family to New Jersey, where a collection of his short stories are based from. Out of that collection is a short story “Fiesta, 1980”, which was featured in The Best American Short Stories, 1997. This story is told from the perspective of an adolescent boy, who lives in the Bronx of northern New Jersey with his family. He is having trouble understanding why things are the way they are in his family. Diaz shows Yunior’s character through his cultures, his interaction with his family, and his bitterness toward his father.

“Salvador, late or early, sooner or later arrives with the string of younger brother’s ready” Poverty stricken Salvador is plagued daily with the responsibility of his brother’s, seen as an invisible nobody at school, and aches with not having a break from this endless cycle, but none of it breaks Salvador’s spirit. He is an engine that keeps running, despite being mistreated, uncared for, and beaten. It’s amazing that Salvador, with his “geography of scars,” and “history of hurt,” hasn’t lost hope. He hasn’t lost hope because he thinks not of how difficult his situation is at the moment, but of the better future soon to come. A future where Salvador’s mama isn’t so busy, a future where they won’t eat corn flakes from a tin cup, a future where his crayons aren’t “little fingers of red, green, yellow, blue” or “nubs of black sticks that tumble,” He remains going everyday with his hopes that keep him going locked inside deep somewhere as he fulfills his responsibilities day to day. Salvador is also kept going by the love he gets from his brothers. Salvador’s name literally means ‘Savior’ and to his little brothers, he is their savior. He provides them with everything his mother can’t give them and with the love they give back to Salvador, he finds strength and keeps pushing forward. “Helps his mama with the business of the baby” Mature Salvador is. Salvador did learn to adapt to his life and became quite mature

First of all, the setting of this novel contributes to the Rivera family’s overall perception of what it means to be an American. To start this off, the author chooses a small American city where groups of Latino immigrants with their own language and traditions, lived together in the same apartment building. All these immigrants experienced similar problems since they moved from their countries. For example, in the novel after every other chapter the author

As children grow up in a dysfunctional family, they experience trauma and pain from their parent’s actions, words, and attitudes. With this trauma experienced, they grew up changed; different from other children. The parent’s behavior affects them and whether they like it or not, sometimes it can influence them, and they can react against it or can repeat it. In Junot Díaz’s “Fiesta, 1980”, is presented this theme of the dysfunctional family. The author presents a story of an adolescent Latin boy called Junior, who narrates the chronicles of his dysfunctional family, a family of immigrants from the Dominican Republic driving to a party in the Bronx, New York City. “Papi had been with

Rodriguez begins to actively distance himself from his family and heritage. On nights when the house is filled with Spanish speaking relatives, he leaves the house as a way of breaking the connection. He begins to imitate his teachers? accents and use their diction. As time goes on, he desires more solitude. Again, this is all normal according to Hoggart. ?He has to be more and more alone, if he is going to get on?the boy has to cut himself off,? (47). This is exactly what Rodriguez does; he chooses his education and the classroom over his

This separation from his family caused a longing in his life. But this longing was superseded by what he suspected his teachers could give him. Rodriguez develops a double personality of sorts. The person he is at home, the polite child who lovingly does what his parents ask of him. And then the academic persona he

As the grandmother is arriving, Gerald describes her as ¨...four-and-a-half feet of bewigged, bejeweled Spanish spitfire.¨ (Page 3). To a child Gerald’s age, seeing this must have been intimidating in the very least, and left the impression that his grandmother is someone to be avoided. As for the grandmother, her first impression of Gerald was also unfavorable. A few days after the grandmother arrived, Gerald laments that “Nothing I did seemed to impress her, and she referred to me as el malcriado (the spoiled boy).” (Page 3). This nickname was a confession revealing what Grandmother thought of Gerald at first. Despite their unfriendly beginnings, the two of them warm up to each other as the story

One thing all human beings, have in common is the struggle for self identity. Children are raised by parents or guardians who have struggled and fought for their own identities. In many cases, parents are still trying to figure it out, while raising their own children. Such is the case with the characters in Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The theme of identity is conveyed through the characters’ Dominican culture, social standing, and in finding love. Oscar, Lola, and Yunior are three central characters in Oscar Wao, who’s Dominican cultural and family expectations were major obstacles as they struggled to establish their identity.

With all the negative thoughts and feelings about his family, Rodriguez never took the time to repair his relationship with him and his family, because books were very important to him than his family. As Rodriguez begin to separate from his family and culture, his Spanish accent also begin to disappear, which he felt very excited. In the beginning of his article he talked about the first day, he enters the class and could “barely able to speak English” (239). Rodriguez felt that he did not fit in with the rest

As a new and mysterious world awaits to be discovered, daring conquistadors leave their home country of Spain in a journey of exploration. Two men by the name of Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca set sail to thwart the untrustworthy Cortez who, behind the backs of Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca, sailed to the New World with half of Narvaez’s crew in search of treasures. However, the journey would prove to be treacherous as the conquistadors would have to encounter hostile Native Americans and strange terrain they have never seen before. Throughout the expedition, future encounters between the Native Americans and conquistadors were heavily influenced by the personalities of the individuals and past experiences the Native Americans faced.

Ivan's summer took a turn for the worst when he was faced with a devastating ant infestation that almost drove him out of his own home.It all began one day when he was enjoying a cup of tea when he spotted a tiny dot crawling across the room. "I don't know what caused it, but they just started appearing everywhere," he said. Ivan would find squirming ants in the kitchen, the bathroom, and mostly everywhere in his house. He once found ants marching into his refrigerator before killing them mercilessly to prevent them from conquering his precious food stash. The worst instance was when he spotted a few of the small devils in the cup where he keeps his toothbrush. "I constantly find dead ants in our plates and clothes, and it's not fun cleaning

In his autobiographical narrative A Summer Life, Gary Soto vividly recreates the guilt felt by a six- year-old boy who steals an apple pie. Through Soto’s reminiscent he has taken us on a journey of his guilt, paranoia, and redemption through the usage of tone, allusions, and imagery.

Throughout the autobiographical narrative written by Gary Soto, many different literary elements are used to recreate the experience of his guilty six-year old self. Different elements such as contrast, repetition, pacing, diction, and imagery. Soto narrates this story as a young boy at a time when he seems to be young and foolish, Soto foolmaking mistakes, but at the same time hoping to learn from them. Soto uses each of these devices to convey different occurrences in the narrative.

Initially, Rios illustrates a young boy perplexed by a new-found maturity. As the maturation from childhood to adolescence begins, he is facing unfamiliar feelings about the opposite sex. An example of this is