In Charles Reis Felix’s novel DaGama, Cary Grant, and the Election of 1934, Felix describes various characters in the fictional town of Gaw. The characters introduced in this novel are varied in a myriad of ways, ranging from their ethnicity to their personality. The focus of the novel is on a young boy named Seraphin, who comes from an immigrant Portuguese family, and his interactions with the people of Gaw. The story is set against the backdrop of the election of 1934, which, when viewed through the eyes of Seraphin, provides an interesting perspective on how the Portuguese in Gaw act and what kind of image they project in relation to the arguments of modern day sociologists and anthropologists. The first argument, made by Maria Gloria de …show more content…
This view is echoed in Felix’s novel from the very beginning, when Seraphin sees Johnny the chicken plucker. Johnny is only 14 years old, but is forced to drop out of school to work. Seraphin relates “Ernest had told him that Johnny had been smart in school, but his father wanted him to go to work. So he had quit school and this was the only job he could get (Felix 2).” This quote illustrates that Johnny’s father forced him to quit school so he could help bring bread to the table. The setting of this novel is vital for understanding the context of this statement, particularly since this novel is set in the 1930’s, at a time when education was not valued as highly as it is today, especially since this novel takes place after the greatest economic depression in the history of the country, a time when money was scarce. The Portuguese in Gaw were not preventing their children from going to school due to cultural beliefs that higher schooling was useless, rather they had no choice because of the need …show more content…
Moniz defines the Shadow Minority as “they have been subjected to the same kinds of social exclusion faced by legally codified minority groups, yet they lack the concomitant legal framework and political vocabulary that “minority” classification confers (Moniz 428).” While this may hold true for the Portuguese of today, this cannot be applied to the Portuguese of Gaw. The Portuguese of Gaw in Felix’s novel lived in the 1930’s, at a time when the civil rights movement had yet to occur, and racism ran rampant and unchecked. Therefore, while the Portuguese did not have any type of minority rights, neither did any other minority group at that point in time. In actuality, the community of Gaw is described as fairly multi-ethnic, and from Seraphin’s description of various people in Gaw, it does not seem as if any ethnicity has a leg up on another, particularly since Gaw is a community of immigrants. The best evidence for this is during the election, when several different groups have someone representing their ethnicity during the mayoral election. Even though none of the candidates are able to unseat the incumbent, they put up a fight, and even work together, with the Portuguese Secundo B. Alves backing the French Armand Langevin during the final election. At
In Spain and the Spanish colonies in South America in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, gender roles were distinct and the opportunity gap was enormous. Catalina de Erauso compares the two roles through her memoir, “Lieutenant Nun,” where she recounts her life as a transvestite in both the new and old world. Through having experienced the structured life of a woman as well as the freedom involved in being a man, de Erauso formed an identity for herself that crossed the boundaries of both genders. Catalina de Erauso’s life demonstrates the gap in freedom and opportunity for women, as compared to men, in the areas of culture, politics and economy, and religion.
One of the major causes of underachievement is the lack of economic capital, proposed by Pierre Bourdieu (1984), that a working class family possess. As item A states, ‘sociologists claim that factors outside the school, such as parental attitudes and parental income, are the main causes of working class underachievement.’ Children who belong to a working class background may not be able to afford the necessary equipment or meet the
In this essay, female oppression in La Casa de Bernarda Alba will be discussed and analyzed. However, in order to be able to understand the importance of this theme and the impact it has had on the play, one must first understand the role of female oppression in the Spanish society in the 1930s.
In his article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto criticizes America’s system of schooling children, arguing that the whole system is bad and unfixable. In the majority of the essay Gatto relies on personal anecdotes, historical examples that do not correspond with modern day society, and bold unsubstantiated claims. Due to this, instead of convincing parents to take their children out of school and rethink our societies schooling structure, he just leaves the reader confused over what the problems he’s criticizing truly are.
Primary education, Supplemental tutoring, summer camps, secondary education, family activities, higher education, first full-time job, subsequent employment, present employment with the age of the person, present residence, second residences"(pp.336-340). He lets you look into the life of different people, some from upper-class families and some from lower class families. The reader can see for themselves that the way they are brought up, whether it is from and upper-class family or lower-class family, it affects them. It
School is now part of the boy that completely separate him from his family and society. The boy does not have enough friends to play with after school. This shows how lonely the boy felt and he does not realize that. Education is good, but at the same time cannot forget your roots. Knowing your family background is very important because you are able to understand and question why your parents are acting some type of way or why your parents what you to do something that you do not want to do. With that knowledge, you are then able to connect with them.
In the narrative called ‘Scholarship Boy’, by Richard Rodriguez. One can say that the biggest turning point is when Mr. Rodriguez himself realizes, at the age of thirty. The biggest attribute to his success and determination is schooling as a young boy. This is when Mr. Rodriguez had to live two separate lives. One as a young boy eager and willing to learn and develop, and another as a son and sibling to his family. At the age of thirty he finally is able to come to terms with this fact and be able to talk about in public and not have to keep it bottled up any longer. During this time in his life he is writing his dissertation and finds a written piece by Richard Hoggarts called, ‘The Scholarship Boy’. At this point in his life he sees that he is not alone with his life struggles. This was figuratively like lifting weights off of Mr. Rodriguez’s shoulders, you can see how while telling this part of the story stress is taken off of him. It is interesting to see that during the entire narrative Mr. Rodriguez seems unappreciative and ungrateful for the life his parents had given him. He is obviously resentful to the idea that his parents didn’t appreciate or value the idea of education, or at the very least learning the primary language of a country they moved to. Nothing in the story states that they were ignorant parents and didn’t know how to do simple math, the struggle that kept his parents from being able to give Mr. Rodriguez the attention and affection but most of all
Jonathan Kozol, in the chapter entitled “Other People’s Children, discusses and justifies the kinds of limitations placed on children who must attend poorly funded, educationally inferior school. Kozol argues that children in the inner-city schools are not fit to go to college and that they should be trained in schools for the jobs they will eventually hold, even though these jobs are less prestigious, lowest-level jobs in society. Kozol’s argument is based on the fact that students from the inner-city or rather from the societies that do not have enough job opportunities are not supposed to learn much because their society cannot accommodate most of the courses that are often found in the urban settings. For example, there is a point where Kozol cites one of the businessman’s statement which says, ‘It doesn’t make sense to offer something that most of these urban kids will never use.’ The businessman continues to argue, ‘no one expects these ghetto kids to go to college. Most of them are lucky if they are literate. If we can teach some useful skills, get them to stay in school and graduate, and maybe into jobs, we’re giving them the most that they can hope for’ (Kozol 376). This statement clearly indicate that the society should accept the inequalities and exercise the same inequalities even in education.
In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the reader gets a sense of what the expectations are of Dominican men and women. Junot Díaz uses Oscar in contrast to the other male characters to present the expectations of the Dominican male. On the other hand, Díaz presents the women in the text, especially Belicia, La Inca, Lola, and Jenni, as strong characters in their own rights, but the male characters, with the exception of Oscar, have a desire to display their masculinity to maintain power over these women. It would be unfair to say that the women bring the abuse unto themselves, but rather it is their culture that makes the abuse acceptable and almost to a certain extent—expected.
In her text, Lowe highlights the forcible separation among economy, polity, and civil society. She claims that the political demands that are left unmet of the terrain of political participation “erupt into culture”. It is my belief that this eruption into culture Lowe references is the constant disregard of minorities and how it is left unobserved because there has not been any attention paid toward the issue.
Lope de Vega’s play touches upon several key components and ideas that were brought up in many of the other stories read throughout the semester. This included the role of gender and how men and women are viewed differently in the Spaniard town of Fuenteovejuna. Another topic included the importance of family, love, and relationships and their connection on loyalty, trust, and personal beliefs. The last major influence found in other literature and in Fuenteovejuna, were the political and religious references made throughout the play. Even though Lope de Vega didn’t make these views obvious, the reader could still pick up on their connotation and the references made towards these specific ideas. With all of this in mind, each of these
Reading “Chapter XVI: The life of the peasants” from Harper and Brother’s Life on a Mediaeval Barony lead me to contemplate the work life and attitude toward the education of the less glamorous lifestyle that medieval peasants lived, “Their help is so important that many peasants look on large families as assets of so much unpaid labor, rather than as liabilities… Education is almost unknown” (Davis). I contemplated what this attitude towards education could mean in modern society and how it relates to the lifestyles of urban families of a lower income. In “A Letter to My Nephew” by James Baldwin, Baldwin addresses the socioeconomic education status of the early 20th century to his nephew, “The limits to your ambition were thus expected to be settled. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity [that]... You were not expected to aspire to excellence”(Baldwin). Baldwin is stating that students of a lower social standing are automatically assumed to not succeed in school due to limitations on resources. I found this to be a very applicable concept in the education system of urban schools because numerous students that attend urban schools are of a low social standing with limited opportunities for success. Students can only take full advantage of their education in respect to the circumstances that they are raised in. According to Torrey Marable, a recent graduate from Phelps High School, many students who attend urban schools have
Jose understands at a young age that in order to escape the indentured life of working in a sugar cane plantation like his ancestors before him, he must do something different. In the classroom, Jose is a very bright student as seen through his peers and especially his professor who eventually helped Jose get into a prestigious school because of his academic excellence. He assures his grandmother who is his sole provider and family that one day she’ll no longer have to work tirelessly in the sugar cane plantation. Jose dreams of taking work in a more profitable and higher field then the plantation his community is chained to all being done by attaining
She engages extensive social theories in her analysis of everyday life. There is a an elaborate discussion of Cultural production theory, feminist theorizing on the body and resistance, Michel Foucault’s theories of power, Mikhail Bahktin’s theories on carnival, and Patricia Hill Collins’s theories about controlling images and the matrix of domination are employed to develop the theoretical relevance of the everyday lives of Gloria, her family, and her neighbours. Wherever there is a gap that the existing theory could not fill, she points them out and suggests a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of lived experience. This is especially true in her discussion of the “carnivalization of desire” and women’s ambivalent relationship to the “sex-positive” atmosphere of Brazil. The ethnographic and theoretical richness of the text is supplemented by a brief political history of Brazil that helps to contextualize the current scenario within a history of slavery and
In 1891 primary education became free and compulsory for all children between the ages 5 and 13. Although some may see this as a great step towards equality, many found this an inconvenience as their children could no longer work for them; this in some cases meant families lost out on money and business. A Marxist would explain this as the Bourgeoisie transmitting the ideology to the Proletariat that capitalism is just and reasonable. Marx (1848) considers this ‘exploitation of the many by the few’. This can be seen in the schooling environment as it teaches you to compete with your fellow pupils by trying to achieve higher than them for a grade or position, similar to that society. They would also see it as training