Analysis Of Always Running By Luis Rodriguez

Rodriguez struggles to fit in the “American Society” because he is bilingual. He feels the most safe when he speaks Spanish, hearing or speaking English sets fear in him. The first fear he encounters when hearing or speaking English that

Prior to being assigned the reading of the memoir “Always Running”, by Luis Rodriguez, I had never given much thought on juveniles involved in gang life. Rodriguez achieved success as an award-winning poet; sure the streets would no longer haunt him - until his own son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in the vivid memoir, “Always Running.” “Always Running” is the compilation of events Luis experienced during his youth in San Gabriel. The theme of the book is to always strive for the best things in life and to always take a stand for what you believe. Lured by the seemingly invincible gang culture of East L.A., he witnessed countless shootings and beatings, as well as senseless acts of street crime against his friends and family members. As a Latino in a poor neighborhood, Luis struggled through criticism, stereotypes, and mistreatment. With the help of his mentor, Chente, Luis saw a way out through education and the power of word to successfully break free from years of violence and desperation.

In Always Running, Luis J. Rodriguez recalls his time growing up in Los Angeles during the 60s and 70s. Rodriguez writes of the hardships that his family had first encountered while trying to assimilate into American society and how he would often, while growing up, be criminalized by his teachers, law enforcement, other people, his peers, his community, and eventually people who cared most for him. Rodriguez recalls the times where he and some friends came together and created a family, a brotherhood of sort, in order to fulfill his need of belonging, but as other people in the community had also formed groups to consolidate power, thus marked the beginning of rivalry and the introduction of gangs. Rodriguez’s gang life had been filled with tragedies and filled with great times, but ultimately he tried to leave the life of crime and commit to an education. Rodriguez tried stepping away from the gang lifestyle by going to school and writing poetry, but ended up back in the life of crime after a serious altercation with the police. When Rodriguez went back to his gang lifestyle, he found the same gang that treated him as a brother, had shunned him away after Rodriguez had offered a solution to wither away the gang violence.

Many young people are affected in some way by suicide, and must learn to cope with the horrible loss it has taken from them. “Dogrib Midnight Runners”, by Van Camp, “was inspired by a suicide. As far as [he knew, that was] the first published story that ever takes place in Fort Smith. And [Van Camp wanted] to talk about what a great thief suicide is: the huge, never-ending echo of its fatal decision” (Vranckx). In this short story, a group of friends are faced with their friend, Justin, committing suicide for no clear reason. Justin was remembered as an intelligent, fun individual and appeared happy. The reason why Justin committed suicide was unclear. One particular humorous, happy memory his friends had of him was that when he drank too much, he would take off all his clothes and run. In Richard Van Camp’s short story, “Dogrib Midnight Runners”, the “ritual of running” is so important to healing and rebirth because it allows the group of friends to cope with the loss of their friend while rebuilding a meaningful friendship and support system they had lost during the tragedy.

     Rodriguez's parents think they are doing the best job possible raising their three children. Being a lower class family, money was not something that was always available. His mother and father can always supply them with love and nurturing. The way they let their children know they are special and close is to talk to them in their private language. His parents could not speak good English; they could not translate their terms of endearment for the children without the saying losing its meaning. "Using Spanish, he (the father) was quickly effusive...his voice would spark, flicker, flare alive with varied sounds.? Only speaking English, the father is a completely different person.

As the film ‘Run Lola Run’ has a multiform narrative structure, it is separated into three sections in which Lola is able to repeat her journey from the beginning. The repetition of the run in which we see the same scene three times is an example of how Lola's journey is similar to the likes of a video game. This works to emphasise the fact that her life can just be rewinded and restarted just like video games. Even though, in real life we cannot travel back it time, the repetition of the run sequence shows mistakes are fixed by going back to the root of the problem. Throughout the movie, the background music is similar to the music that is heard in fast-paced, action based video games, the music is fast paced and creates suspense, which

In the excerpt from The Hunger of Memory Rodriguez faced adversity early on in his life. As a little kid he described himself to be a “socially disadvantaged” child (Rodriguez 1). This was due to the “...extreme public alienation” he and his family faced (Rodriguez 1). Being Native American in today's society makes one stick out like a sore thumb. Discrimination is still very much alive today. Assimilating what it’s like to be any race other than caucasian is a task that we are too inadequate to imagine. Following a passion will in some cases require losing things in return. Instead of pursuing a regular job Rodriguez stuck to writing. When he began this book the “...words wouldn’t come” (Rodriguez 2). The money ran dry and he was “...forced to take temporary jobs” (Rodriguez 2). This sacrifice proved to be nothing to him as writing was his life. His choice to persevere subsequently led him to towns such New York, Los Angeles, and even a cocktail party in Bel Air! With all this being said his works eventually led to non-existent relationship with his parents. This really affects Rodriguez emotionally as he says “the separation I endure with my parents is a loss” (Rodriguez 2). His parents ridiculed his decisions and that ultimately led to the absent relationship.

Always Running by Luis Rodriguez includes several different social issues. For example, there is a lot of hate towards Luis because of his ethnicity. He was constantly bullied because of the language he spoke and where he came from. If Luis spoke Spanish in school, then he

The particular focus of Rodriguez’s story is that in order to feel like he belonged to the “public society” he had to restrict his individuality. Throughout his story, Rodriguez discussed such topics as assimilation and heritage. He goes into depth about the pros and the cons of being forced to assimilate to the American culture. Growing up Hispanic in America was a struggle for Rodriguez. This was due to the fact that he was a Spanish-speaking boy living in an English-speaking society, and he felt like he was different than the other children. Rodriguez writes, “I was fated to be the ‘problem student’ in class” (Rodriguez 62). This is referring to Rodriguez’s improper knowledge of English. It made him stand out as the kid that was behind. He wanted to find the balance between the public and private face. He believed both were important to develop. As I read this story it changed the way I looked at people who speak different languages, and how it must be hard to fit in with society if you are not all fluent in English.

In hat way does the distinctively visual influence your understanding of people and the events within texts?

Although the book’s titular character is Oscar de Leon, he shares chapters with his sister, his mother, his college roommate, Yunior (revealed to be the book’s narrator), and his mother’s parents, the Cabrals. By representing a family with different personalities—Oscar is overweight, and nerdy while Lola is powerful and independent, for example—Díaz creates a microcosm for all Dominican immigrants. Each chapter (and character) in the past is melded into the story in the present, and in this way, the momentum and excitement is never lost until the very last

The United States has a different education system than Mexico. Elementary school is from kindergarten to fifth grade, ages 5 to 10. Then it goes to middle school or junior high school which is grades sixth through eighth and ages 11 to 13. After that is high school which are grades ninth through twelfth which is ages 14 to 17 or 18. It is illegal in the United States not to go to school, but some immigrants do not have enough money to go to school. Most kids in Mexico do not go to school because of the money or because they need to work instead to help their family. America and Mexico have different laws and systems as far as the education systems go.

“I glimpse in the distance certain roads , clearings silent in the morning after the nights demons have fled: the future . The ageless future where there is always time to create”, this quote means that no matter what you've been through or what you've done or how bad it was, what you've done can always come back from that and start all over and I think thats what happened with Grillo in the novel Always Running. Within the novel Always Running by Luis J Rodriguez , the author mentions how the main character changes when he engages in violent act, his pursuit of education, and fighting against social injustices.

To begin with, Rodriguez’s first step to finding his identity began when his parents decided to move to the states to start a new life. At first, he was completely lost because he couldn’t understand the language. However, as time went by his English began to improve with the help of his parents helping him practice English at home. As he becomes more educated, he felt that a distance grew between him and his parents. “Here is a child who cannot forget that his academic success distances him from a life he loved, even from his own memory of himself” (Rodriguez 51). Rodriguez was connected with his family through his private identity. However, his distance with his parents began to appear as he advanced in English. As he starts to become fluent in English, he would talk to his parents less and less. His Spanish skills also started to deteriorate. Spanish is the language that gave him a sense of closeness to his family and is what separated him from the public. However, once he started to develop his public identity, he started losing his private identity. Rodriguez’s parents provided him with his own private identity and help him and supported him in developing his public identity to success.

Mexican Americans in the education system have been treated unfair. From the Mendez v. Westminster to the low number of students graduating from high school and moving to a higher institution shows that the system has done nothing to help these students. By the help of the community wealth theory many of the few numbers of scholars who have been able to reach these higher institutions have been able to put families, schools, peers, and other influences for their benefit and for helping them enter these systems which are not welcoming to them. Various aspects of these systems need to be change from the diversity of teachers and desegregation in and within schools around the US which would influence the communication and thoughts that Mexican