Rodriguez V. Inc Case Brief

Another way Rodriguez explores and conveys his conflicted feelings is with use of tropes. He uses rhetorical question, which is asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely. The most effective rhetorical questions in conveying his feelings is in the second to last paragraph. He questions things such as “How shall I present the argument between comedy and tragedy, this tension that describes my life? Shall I start with the boy’s chapter, then move toward more

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.

Rodriguez family was in the middle class, both his parents were not really educated. Growing up he could not go to them for help with his education because they struggled to understand it as well. Rodriguez felt that education was the path to success because that is what his teachers taught him. His core beliefs changed into ones of a scholarship boy. He drowned himself into reading and learning. In the essay Rodriguez never mentions anything of friends which is not surprising since he had disconnected from his family for his education. Therefore him disconnecting from his family also means he must have disconnected from friends. His parents were unable to help him with his school homework which made him decide that he did not want to be like them. Since he was a young child,

Rodriguez also shows us that he has gained the “sociological imagination” by writing about his appreciation and understanding

Richard Rodriguez states himself he was an “imitative and unoriginal pupil” (Rodriguez 516). He takes what he reads and goes along with it; there is no analysis or individual thought. Unlike his brother or his

Rodriguez also shares that he also chose his own identity like when Bill Moyers asked

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.

Through both Tan and Rodriguez lives, they were faced with the challenge of choosing between the private languages that they spoke and shared with their family and the public language that was accepted by society. In Tan’s home, her mother combined their native Chinese language with English words she was familiar with. This subsequently formed a comfortable language that was only used within their family. Similar to Tan, Rodriguez grew up sharing Spanish, his native language, as a private language between parents and

2. What does Rodriguez mean when he says, “[I]n a way, it didn’t matter very much that my parents could not speak English with ease…. And yet, in another way, it mattered very much” (para.15)?

A prime example of this is seen directly after Rodriguez completes his initiation into the Lomas Loco gang. “I looked back at everyone standing around the driveway. My right eye was almost closed. My lip felt like it stuck out a mile. My sides ached. But I had done well” (Rodriguez 2). In this moment, Rodriguez describes what he felt after fulfilling his initiation requirement. These descriptions of the pain he felt throughout his body is not only an example of the horrible actions committed by Mexican-American gang members but it also shows the pressure individuals face choosing to join a gang. Towards the end of the excerpt, Rodriguez describes his direct experiences with him and the Lomas Loco gang attacking the four individuals, who were sitting in the 1952 DeSoto. His vivid descriptions establish an emotional connection. This then establishes an understanding of the pressure Rodriguez faced in this moment to follow through with the horrific orders he has been given. “The dude looked at me through glazed eyes, horrified at my presence, at what I held in my hand, at this twisted, swollen face that came at him through the dark” (Rodriguez 3 – 4). In this moment, Rodriguez was given a rusty, screwdriver by a fellow gang

Rodriguez took on tremendous amount of responsibility for these changes. He took more responsibility than he probably should have; due to circumstances beyond his control he reached the stage he was in. Rodriguez portrayed this feeling when he mentioned, “I felt that I had shattered the intimate bond that had once held the family close. This original sin against my family told whenever anyone addressed me in Spanish and I responded confounded.” (231) His family members and his Americanization had taken that bond away. He felt that losing his ability to speak Spanish removed his ability to communicate with his family on an intimate level. Spanish used to be a secret bond between them and what tied them together.

Rodriguez initially uses Hoggart’s book to categorize and describe his own experience as a student. Once he reads Hoggart’s work he finally feels that he has identified himself. He recognizes the separation of home and school and how it is necessary to have this separation to become the type of student he desires, an elite student. Separation from his family and culture is necessary because Rodriguez sees the two as separate worlds. He must be removed from his original culture and family life to achieve the scholarly elite status. He had to devote himself to his studies, which leaves him no time for a family. After Rodriguez claims himself a to be an elite student, he justifies the steps he took in

Rodriguez became a receptacle in every way possible. He basically left the fate of his education up to his teachers by allowing them to dump information into his mind. However, unlike the banking concept, his teachers did not dispose of knowledge in the form of narrated harangues. Instead, they used narrated literature in place of diatribes. Rodriguez read important books such as The Scarlet Letter and Great Expectations. "But I was not a good reader," Rodriguez claims, "merely bookish, I lacked a point of view when I read. Rather, I read in order to acquire a point of view" (633). Rodriguez was a container in a sense that he retained the ideas of the books he read, but Rodriguez did not have

The prosecution side decided to record the examination of the witness in Australia and play the disk during proceeding as evidence. They

From an early age Rodriguez had an undeniable talent for playing musical instruments such as the guitar and later on his talent for writing poetic lyrics was imminent. After he left school he began to play at local bars, strip clubs just about anywhere that would allow him to play, this included mainly covers by his favorite artists at the time. His talents were soon recognised by record label scouts and during the 60’s and 70’s he produced two albums: ‘Cold Fact’ and ‘Coming to Reality’. Both of which were complete flops in America but never the less were prolific in ways that he would only realise decades later. It is unknown why the American public never took to him, at that time it may have been because he was a dark skinned Latino, or the fact that his lyrics evoked the sadness of a city such as Detroit that was on the brink of a national recession. Rodriguez often thought he was ready for the world but