Of Being An Outsiders In How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents By Julia Alvarez

In the book, How the García girls lost their accent, by Julia Alvarez, who utilizes rhetorical devices in the passage chosen to develop the conflict that Yolanda is facing in the story by using imagery, simile, and anaphora in order to evince how Yolanda’s conflict with her husband John plays a role in her horrible breakdown and her journey to revive the love she had for her native language and culture.

One of the main sources of tension in How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, written by Julia Alvarez, are the sisters search for a personal identity among contrasting cultures. Many of the characters felt pressure from two sources, the patriarchal culture that promotes traditional gender roles and society of nineteen-sixties and seventies America. Dominican tradition heavily enforces the patriarchal family and leaves little room for female empowerment or individuality, whereas in the United States, the sixties and seventies were times of increasingly liberal views and a rise in feminist ideals. This conflict shaped the identities of the characters in Alvarez’s novel and often tore the characters apart for one another.

Every individual, no matter who they are, will all face challenges that result from their backgrounds and cultures. Born in Calcutta, India and later moving to the United States, Amin Ahmad was an individual who discovered this harsh truth first-hand. In his essay, “I Belong Here,” Ahmad reflects on his experience of being treated differently from those around him based off his cultural background. He analyzes the emotional barrier that forms between the journey of immigration and the continuous feeling of inferiority based solely on the desire to belong. The article is written to provide a different point of view; one focused on introducing to the world the challenges and emotions immigrants face after starting the journey towards a new life.

In Richard Rodriguez's essay , “ Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood ” he writes about how he struggled as a child who only spoke Spanish language but lives in a society where the “public” language is English . He believes that speaking proper English will somehow help him fit into society and find his “true” identity. Throughout the essay he contrast the Spanish language identity and English language identity. As a young boy, Rodriguez finds consolation and safety in his home where they only speak Spanish. He feels that he only has a true identity when he is at home surrounded by those who speak the same language as him . On the contrary , he becomes trapped and disoriented when not being able to speak / understand the English language . He feels as if he is not part of “their world” and has no identity in society. By comparing and contrasting Spanish language identity and English language identity . Rodriguez's essay is an example that speaking different languages should not make anyone choose an identity . In fact being able to speak and understand multiple languages in his case Spanish and English makes the language a part of his identity, but with two different sides .

You rarely hear of a situation in which an immigrant is welcomed into a new country and makes an easy and happy life there. The American Dream most people look for is very difficult to reach. There are many things you have to go through and many stages of life you will be held back on but there are some people who change the views of this and push through. Garnette Cadogan was a walker, but little did he know his walking would change the way people saw him and the same goes for Older, he didn’t know his letter to his wife would relate so closely to the way other people lived. In “Black and Blue”, Cadogan discusses his life as an immigrant. When Cadogan moved to the United States, he realized that being a different color made the people around you automatically fear you. While attending college in the US Cadogan completely changed the way he acted around the police and other people. In “This Far: Notes on Love and Revolution” author, Daniel Older writes a letter to his wife explaining why she should not fear moving to a new place and bringing a child of color into the world. In both “Black and Blue” and “This Far: Notes on Love and Revolution” the authors Older and Cadogan tell us about their fears of moving to a new place. Not just because of their race, but because of how limited their growth could be due to moving to a new country.

Unconsciously, we all speak different languages; we categorize the way we speak by the environment and people at which we are speaking too. Whenever a character enters an unfamiliar environment, they experiment with language to find themselves and understand reality. For immigrants, language is a means to retain one’s identity; however, as they become more assimilated in their new communities their language no longer reflects that of their identity but of their new cultural surroundings. When an immigrant, immigrates to a new country they become marginalized, they’re alienated from common cultural practices, social ritual, and scripted behavior. It’s not without intercultural communication and negotiation

Unfortunately, many migrants that come to Australia find themselves in this situation, struggling to feel included and comfortable with their changing identities. However, these differences make it harder to belong to one group; they can also strengthen bonds with one another. The most immediate and obvious indicator of difference with migrant is that of

Identity crises are common problems for immigrants coming into any country. Deciding whether to stay true to their roots or to assimilate to a new culture puts pressure on many immigrants and their families. Both Jake and Babbitt, from Hester Street and Babbitt respectively, define what means to be American on superficial terms, even though they both believe that being an American does not merely stem from racial identity. They both become obsessed with being as seen as Americans through their social status, physical appearance, the pursuit of wealth, and freedom. While both Jake and Babbitt try to assimilate to American culture, only Babbitt truly succeeds in achieving this goal.

The term immigrant is defined as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence” (“Immigrant”). In her autobiography, Barefoot Heart, Elva Trevino Hart speaks of her immigrant ways and how she fought to become the Mexican-American writer she is today. She speaks about the working of land, the migrant camps, plus the existence she had to deal with in both the Mexican and American worlds. Hart tells the story of her family and the trials they went through along with her physical detachment and sense of alienation at home and in the American (Anglo) society. The loneliness and deprivation was the desire that drove Hart to defy the odds and acquire the unattainable sense of belonging into American

Alien in Own Land. This microaggression served a distancing function, and sent the message to participants that they did not belong, For instance, Silver was told that he was “less American” than a White person because he was Latino. These were experiences of feeling like their identity was aberrant, and communicated a message that they did not belong in the United States.

Cristina Henriquez’, The Book of Unknown Americans, folows the story of a family of immigants adjusting to their new life in the United States of America. The Rivera family finds themselves living within a comunity of other immigrants from all over South America also hoping to find a better life in a new country. This book explores the hardships and injustices each character faces while in their home country as well as withina foreign one, the United States. Themes of community, identity, globalization, and migration are prevalent throughout the book, but one that stood out most was belonging. In each chacters viewpoint, Henriquez explores their feelings of the yearning they have to belong in a community so different than the one that they are used to.

“But on other levels, James’s gaze at “new immigrants” a racially inflected term that categorized the numerous newcomers from southern and eastern Europe as different both from the whiter and longer established northern and western Europe migrants to the United States and from the nonwhite Chinese and other “Asiatics” opened for him new possibilities and alien drama”, stated by Roediger (2005, 5 & 6). With white’s being on top of everything and the new immigrants are not being accepted very easy as to pass under the government’s regulations, it makes them confused of what they are really supposed to be and what identity they belong

English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize

What is an outsider? An outsider is a person who is not excepted by or is isolated by society. Have you ever been an “outsider”? Everyone experiences a situation where they weren’t able to fit in. The feeling of not being able to fit it is universal. Not everyone is the same and in certain situations you may not be able to bond with everyone. Everyone is focused on being judged or being the person who is judging someone. If you are not like everyone in your society group, those people don’t except you. Nowadays our society feels that if you aren’t up to people’s expectations, you are known to be an “outsider”. Being an outsider is universal because not everyone is social, not everyone can afford nice things and not everyone is popular.

In both Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, by Dinaw Mengestu, the feeling of being an outsider is a prevalent theme throughout the stories. In both of these novels, a protagonist from an African country is living in America and creating a life for themselves. What is different between these two novels, however, is how the theme of being an outsider is written. In TBTTHB, the protagonist is an Ethiopian immigrant who is the proprietor of a convenience store in Logan’s Circle, Washington, D.C.. He is unhappy and struggles with what his life has become. He has a hard time fitting in anywhere. He feels as though he has lost his identity and now lives in a deep valley between two cultures he either