I Want To Be Miss America Essay

In “I Want to Be Miss America”, the defining moment came late for the two girls. Every year they would watch the Miss America beauty pageant with their parents and strive and wish to look american. “So we painstakingly rolled our long, curly hair round and round, using our heads as giant roller, ironing it until we had long, shining hanks, like our classmates and the contestants, only darker.” (92) They just wanted to fit in and to them that meant they needed to

The miss america pageant has been around for 76 years and there has only 1 immigrant woman to win the pageant. ¨I Want to be Miss America¨ is about an immigrant girl and her family and how she tries to fit in so that she can feel more like she belongs. Julia alvarez and her 3 other sisters are learning about the USA and as a family they watch the Miss America pageant and that inspires them and they look up the the girls and try to look like them. In ¨I Want to be Miss America¨ Julia Alvarez shows that sometimes change doesn't benefit the person by using imagery, similes, and characterization.

In the story, “How I Lost the Junior Miss Pageant” by Cindy Bosley, the narrator tells her story about how she lost the Junior Miss Pageant. She takes us on a journey about how she watched pageants and rated the females as if she was the judge and how she got into the pageant and practiced. She told us about her and her mother’s struggles with money, men and ultimately how she lost the pageant. She went even further after the pageant was over, to tell the reader how disappointed her mother was because she did not win and her mother’s ultimate sorrow, her loneliness. This descriptive narrative allowed me to understand the text's main point: being accepted by others.

The essay “I want to be Miss America” is narrated by Julia Alvarez, a hispanic teenager who was willing to change the way she looked just so that she looked more like an "American" girl. When watching the Pageant with her sisters, Julia’s thoughts were: “I knew I would never be one of those girls ever... she was - An American- and we were not" ( Alvarez 22). They started complaining about their height, the texture of their hair, their body, and even their style, They started making changes to their way of clothing, and all of a sudden The colorful outfits that mom would pick for them like “fuchsia skirts with matching vests, flowered dresses with bows at the neck” (Alvarez 13) were described by Julia as “something someone might wear in a foreign country”(Alvarez 13). When Julia realizes that being an American girl isn’t the only definition of beauty, and sees that the ethnic looks, that she once used to have, became more popular is when she finally realized that she could’ve stayed beautiful in her own way. She felt “a gratifying sense of

Both of these excerpts come from a new title called representation, and this is accurately shown in both excerpts. It fits into this category, because it shows how Americans think of beauty as a representation to your mentality . We see in " I Want to be Miss America " that Americans have a predicament in the way we see women in terms of beauty and capability . The author of this excerpt describes the ambition of young a girl , which is adjusting to an American lifestyle , to be Miss America . The Immigrants now understand that fitting in is an important part of the American lifestyle , and affects our daily lives .

The first thing I will write about is a person, Jacob Riis. A esteemed author of the book “How the other half Lives”, published in the 1890s. Riis was a pioneer in the time when photography was first starting to catch on. In Riis’s photos he took pictures of people who lived in the slums of the major cities and how they lived. He was termed a Muckraker by our late president Theodore Roosevelt, because journalists like him would, as he would say, rake through all the good things and bad on the ground and only report the bad of the world. But Riis was one of the men of his era

Significance: In regards to the significance of these claims, the examination of how women are objectified spans a wide spectrum from appearance to persona. To hone in on this, the reading “No More Miss America” provides clear evidence as to why beauty pageants are a negative influence

all day to taking care of her family, Julia becomes a very wise and down to earth

Modern America has a problem, which unfortunately consists of American’s placing more value on unimportant issues. This problematic lifestyle is the focus of the essay. In this essay she addresses her audience of Americans and reminds them that we should do activities that we have a passion for and never let it go. With an array of rhetorical devices such as repetition and similes, she effectively persuades the audience.

The caliber of young women is astonishing. These women excel in the top of their classes, student body presidents, authors, traveled performers and founders of organizations. Each of them remain true leaders in their society, and part of the reason for this is from the standards that the Miss America Organization sets. What sets apart

Certain emotions cannot go unfelt. For me, gratitude and pride rush through my veins at the sound of Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” or the image of Ole Glory against a painted sky. Paul Tsongas once said, “America is hope. It is compassion. It is excellence. It is valor.” The list goes on. Undoubtedly, listing what America isn’t would be much easier.

In 1890, Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant worked as a police reporter and photographic journalist in New York City. “How the Other Half Lives,” prompted legislative reforms, focused attention on the desperate lives of poor urban immigrants and left an enduring mark on the history of documentary photography.” (NY TIMES). During this time, America was going through social and economic stress due to rapid industrialization. It was a time full of greed and neglect from the wealthier class leaving the middle and poor class helpless and suffering day to day. Jacob Riis used his photography to document real lives that were being affected by this crisis and presented these photos to the public to open their eyes to what was going on. The economy, society, and government started to be controlled by large corporations who were owned by immigrants filled with greed and materialism. With this industrialization, Riis documented the over worked lower class who were given low wages and placed in overpriced slums. The real world did not notice the truth behind this madness until Riis’s photography opened their eyes.

“I came to America at seven years-old hoping for better. For once, my hazel green eyes were adored instead of ridiculed. Still, I did not feel a sense of acceptance. I was bullied I had no friends; I felt frustrated, anxious, and antisocial.

The film “American Beauty” is a motivational and inspirational movie based around the modern day-to-day lives of two families in a middle class suburban life. This movie shines by showing viewers an introspective on the emotional and mental challenges that the average person goes through internally that challenge them and who they are. While all of the characters have their own background and context behind their motivations in life the main character’s is by far the most interesting. Lester Burnham is a middle aged man who is living an unfulfilled life. He has family problems, work problems, no friends and no aspiration.

Bright lights and city sounds and surrounded by different people and walking in boulevards, driving in freeways, is what I want my American dream to be. America was such a fast-paced environment and felt overwhelming. The cultural differences was very eminent. I was unsuccessful with m y escape for I gave up the idea of escaping. I didn’t want to run away and take things for granted. I chose to embrace where I was and what is instore for me. I told myself that “You’re only lost when you chose to go back” and God wouldn’t give you something that isn’t supposed to be