Disgraced Analysis

On the one hand, English was the language used to communicate with outsiders. It was a tool for survival and held no personal meaning. It was crucial for public success. On the other hand, in Richard Rodriguez’s own words: “Spanish was associated with closeness”. By reading the previous passage, we can clearly infer that Spanish was the key to Richard’s confort. Hearing Spanish brought Rodriguez feelings of love, acceptance, family, and security. Spanish was a reminder of home and seemed to him a private language. In other words, he was surrounded by a web built by the family love and security which is conveyed by using the Spanish language, as the following passage shows: “...Spanish seemed to me the language of home...It became the language of joyful return...”. Moreover, if we consider the following passage:”You belong here. We are family members. Related. Special to one another” it is possible to say that Spanish language made Rodriguez felt as part of his family, creating a feeling of belonging and reinforcing family ties and ethnic heritage.

By contrast, Richard Rodriquez, in his article entitled "Aria", strongly believes in surrendering to learning the proper English language, despite how strongly he feels his native tongue is a private language that once functioned to unite his family. Rodriguez creates a division of a public and a private discourse. He feels that he has a ‘right to learn the public language of los gringos'. He creates a visual clash of two worlds: a public world as represented by school and the need to learn English; and a private world as represented by his family and the use of Spanish within the home. He feels that in order to adapt and create assimilation that he needs to abandon the comfort of using Spanish to communicate and force himself to learn English – even if it meant alienating his family members.

Rodriguez lost all connection with his family. He was unable to converse with them he had grown so far apart. Rodriguez felt “embarrassed” to embrace his personal background. He spoke of when his parents came to school and could not not speak English fluently and how it made him embarrassed because he did not want to profess his ethical background.

When you associate words like shameless with everyday life you don’t think of it being a television show, one may think of shameless as a negative adjective used to describe a person showing a lack of shame, but it's a comedy/drama television show that really digs deep into real life scenarios and shows how a true dysfunctional family lives in the “hood” of Chicago. Shameless details how much leadership and mental stability Fiona Gallagher has to have in order to run a family of six in her early twenties.

Enrique would speak English while he worked in America. He would only speak Spanish to his Spanish-American friends and co-workers. It seemed as if speaking Spanish was relaxing to him because it was like being at home for him, plus it was it was easier for him to relate to other immigrants because they were all going through the same thing. Today most citizens in Mexico speak Spanish, but many small indigenous groups keep their mother tongue. (Heath 254)

In learning and speaking many different languages, the Narrator finds only another way to hide from his true identity. The metaphor of passing is also used to demonstrate the idea of not belonging. “I spoke better Spanish than many of the Cuban workmen at the factory” (73). In society, being able to communicate through speech is one way to assimilate more easily into a community. By speaking four languages by the novel’s end, the Narrator’s experience mirrors that of a person who does not belong to any one community or people. Johnson offers a social criticism that highlights how, many times, people unnecessarily will do things to fit in, rather than be true to

Like mentioned in lecture, “children learn English and some American ways, but retain parents’ language and cultural norms,” in Jose’s case, his own native language. Jose recalls how when he began elementary in the United States, he would complain that the “light was hurting my eyes because my school in Mexico did not have electricity.” Jose mentions the lack of resources in his home country but doesn’t seem to see it as negative, instead is appalled by this strange thing he wasn’t used to, light. He has learned to appreciate the English language and the American culture but prefers to stick to his native country and speaking Spanish. He said Spanish is easier. He often goes back and forth between both languages, “Now I often catch myself thinking in both languages but mostly in Spanish.” Even if he does choose Spanish over English, it is not a sign of downward assimilation, at least not in his case. Jose is 34 years old and has a Master of Arts in Education with a specialization in English Language Learners. The emphasis he decided to go for shows how much he values the language and wants to provide other students with the knowledge he has gained through his studies and personal

He explains this idea by using subtext; “I am speaking with ease in Spanish. I am addressing you in words I never use with los gringos, I recognize you as someone special, close, like no one outside. You belong with us. In the family” (Rodriguez 306.) Rodriguez describes his experience of hearing his family speak Spanish through mental subtext. In the quote, a mixture of complete thoughts and fragmented sentences are used. Rodriguez begins the quote with longer sentences, and then ends the passage in short fragmented sentences. The progression of the quote goes from ‘formal’ to ‘informal’ fragments. Through this technique, Rodriguez coveys that again, through his language ‘otherness’, he experiences

As many immigrant's descendants, Luis feels between two different cultures and languages. On the one hand, the Mexican background is a part of him, he looks like Mexican, his father speaks to him in Spanish at home and he exposes to Mexican immigrants every day. On the other hand, he was born in the United States, he is an English native speaker and defines himself as an American. It is clear that he wants to be a part of an American culture more than the Mexican. Since he does not like the Mexican tradition, he does not want to talk in Spanish because in his point of view if he talks in Spanish it shows his belonging to society around

In the books “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding and “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” by Jon Ronson, both produce the theme of savagery. The books bring out the worse in humans when their face in hidden from modern society. Although, the both books create an inhuman society, “Lord of the Flies” is in a individual civilization where interactions are face to face; while “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” has community through the internet. There is a loss of innocence between each worlds because there is freedom of savagery.

Visiting Barnard's Youtube channel and watching the video, 'Brilliantly Imperfect', I saw scrawled across a Muslim woman's graduation cap the statement, "children who carry the heartbeats of their motherland.” I thought about my parents and the journey we made from Egypt. Though they never had the opportunity to attend college, I could fulfill that dream for them. I could be like that Muslim woman.

Amir along with other muslims are living with the fear of being missed portrayed for a person who looks like him, for the actions they wouldn't dare to think of. Muslims today are in fear of not living another day because they may be accused of other individuals actions. In the play Amir mentions “The next terrorist attack is probably gonna come from some guy who more or less looks like me. (Akhtar, 1185). By saying this Amir is cautious because he might be the one to blame for the next terrorist

The book, “So You've Been Publicly Shamed” written by Jon Ronson, commences by disclosing his own experience with identity theft on social media. His story involves three educated men, who have taken over his identity by creating a twitter account. The men are careless and unashamed of their actions. Therefore, Ronson decides to meet with the three gentlemen to discuss shutting down the account. As they talked, Ronson is simultaneously recording them and realizes that the men lack empathy for his concerns and Ron’s portrayal on social media. Moreover, Ronson decides to post the video on Youtube, and later receives an abundant of supporting comments on the incident. Eventually, the account is shutdown and proves how publicly shaming someone

In scene one, from page 13-17, Amir tells his more Muslim- and Pakistani-identified nephew, Abe, why he does not want to defend an Imam (Islamic religious leader) who has been imprisoned without cause. Amir simply can’t stand being linked with Muslims or Islam and explains to Abe his reluctance to Islam through a description of his first crush in sixth grade and his mother’s outrageous reaction and vulgar anti-Semitism of him having a crush on a girl of Jewish descent.

He now has to stop keeping Spanish, his comfort zone and gets into a language of an “alienated world.” When he thinks of his parents, he probably blames them for forcing him to give up Spanish and he somehow also believes that makes him run to find some security elsewhere and makes him and his parents lose the connection. As Rodriguez always believes that Spanish at home is his privacy and he treasures it when he was young, “Like others who feel the pain of public alienation, we transformed the knowledge of our public separateness into a consoling reminder of our intimacy.” (Rodriguez, 102) Before, he felt the constraint even when he only heard English words, and he felt separated from that English-speaking world. Maybe the pain from the language that is given up makes him tries to resist it more now; he hurt. It was some sort of the revengeful mind that he had in his childhood, but it was a big loss of a native culture.