Summary Of Chris Mckinney's The Red-Headed Hawaiian

The memoir The Red-Headed Hawaiian by Chris McKinney and Rudy Puana, is about life and troubles that Rudy Puana goes through as he grows up. It explains what Rudy does in life to become the man that he is today. In this book, Rudy Puana struggles through so much, but eventually overcomes the pain that he had received.

Rudy as a young american boy had great dream’s in sports especially in Football. He wanted to be involved in this sport, but everyone around him said that he couldn’t. Now as a young man in college he is out to get everyone who tried to prove him wrong. Now he will prove them wrong now. Why did Rudy make these goals? Who did Rudy ask for help and advies? how did Rudy achieve these goals? What could have Rudy done different? These are the main questions that will be answer as you read. Rudys story is about goal setting and and rebounding from failure.

       Once in Mexico Rudy feels himself to be in "a foreign land." The foreignness of Mexico and Mexicans to Rudy is played out to represent Rudy's Americanness. For instance, in the INS van headed to Tijuana, Rudy is an outsider amongst the Mexicans. Unable to speak Spanish, he is ultimately called by one of the Mexicans a "pocho pendejo," a pejorative reference usually intended to refer to Mexican-Americans who cannot speak Spanish and who, subsequently, are deemed less Mexican. In fact, as he is captured by Border Patrol officers on one of his attempts to cross the border, Rudy proclaims, "I'm an American citizen. I don't even speak Spanish." Whereas "the Spanish language is commonly used as an identifier of Hispanics" (Oboler 12), Marin presents a pocho Rudy to make more obvious Rudy's "American" identity. Basically, to present Mexican-Americans as brown Americans,

The loss of her husband causes Amanda to develop a dependence on her children. She wants Tom and Laura to become successful. Amanda complains that Tom does not earn enough money at the shoe factory. She wants him to attend night school so he can attain a better career.

This book impacted me in a positive way by showing the inferior conflicts to avoid in my life. An example of when Rudy had to put through hardship is when he would hesitate between school or partying. “I was a joker who never took classes seriously I would party and get drunk with the townies on the weekends and go diving with my Kahaluu friends on the weekdays. School was just a big time setback” Is textual evidence of Rudy having lack of interest in progressing in his life, and preparing for his

Back in the 1960s a house would cost about $12,400. A couple of weeks after Rudy saying no to buying a house his girlfriend broke up with him. When Rudy's football season at Highschool was over he got to give one last tackle and it was on his coach. Not only was that one of his favorite tackles it was one to remember. Before Rudy went to college one of his friends that believed he would make it to Notre Dame got in an accident in front of his eyes. In the power plant that he worked in had a mess up and his friend didn't make it. Although there were good and bad parts that he went through in his high school life it gets even better in

Even at a young age, people said he had to play all time center while playing backyard football because he was to small. These doubts continued throughout the rest of his life as he only stood at 5’6 and was never the fastest on the field. These flaws of course lead to Rudy not getting any scholarship offers for his athletic ability. When people were told to get on the bus to tour Notre Dame, Rudy was told not to get on the bus because he would never get accepted into the university, and was told college wasn’t for everyone. This forced Rudy to work at a steel mill instead, rock bottom for this man. The only real bright spot in Rudy’s life during this time was his best friend Pete, who always kept his hopes up. Pete forced the first step in the hero’s journey, The Departure, when Pete died in an accident at the mill Something from Pete’s death put a fire in Rudy to make the trip to Notre

As a parent explaining Rudy’s actions, I would tell him that your admiration for one athlete can be extremely exuberant but painting yourself his skin color in this time where prejudice of different people was very high, it clearly isn’t the smartest move. The itch in my heart is that it is morally wrong to paint yourself black and if you go that extreme with your admiration, Rudy can honestly be taken and have a higher chance to be killed by Nazi Germany.

Traveling more than ten hours in a car is something that nobody wants to do; however, for Dennis Covington, it is a top priority for him to make this long journey to the redneck Riviera on the panhandle in Florida. In the nonfiction book Redneck Riviera (2004), Dennis Covington, comical southerner, teacher and soldier, describes in his nonfiction piece, the importance of his family inheritance as over the years he travels to the Gulf Coast of Florida. Throughout the book Covington tells stories of his childhood and constantly is lightening the mood for example, he writes, “I’m looking for the hawk that got one of my hens,” he said. “I know it’s illegal to shoot them, but what the hawk did was illegal, too. You with the government?”

Each little thing that goes on reminds him of what happened with his brother. His friends, and his home life is hard on him everyday. He goes home and gets reminded by his mother on how he is not his brother Buck. She will not look at him the same or treat him the same way she did when Buck was around. Now that he is gone she only gives him the physical needs, no emotional support on his life. Beth never asks her son how he is feeling and how his school life is going. Conrad feels unwanted and not needed in his home life. He has no support and so he always feels like he has to put on a show just to get by. Conrad finally realizes that he needs someone to talk to, so he finally goes to a psychiatrist to get some help. The psychiatrist helps Conrad go through all his thoughts and help him realize what he needs to say and do. He finally has enough confidence to tell his best friend why he is avoiding him and never wants to hang out with him anymore. When he had a chance he striked back at his mother's harsh remarks to him.He got tired of trying to walk around her. He had enough courage and confidence to tell her how she made him feel. When Conrad and his dad was putting up the Christmas tree, and she walked in without an hello and started questioning him why he quit the swim team. Conrad finally found out how to fight once he got enough of being put down. Conrad learned to step out of his comfort zone and take flight on his

The second aspect that was noticed bout Rudy was the dedication that he kept consistent. No matter how hard times may have seemed to Rudy, he was too stubborn to give up. He didn't have the grades to attend Norte Dame, so what did he do? He walked into a small catholic school and applied there. He did this to earn credit and to eligible for the fall semester at Norte Dame. That fall semester Rudy got into the school of his dreams and immediately became a hitting dummy for the Football team. Kenneth Turan wrote a review on the movie and he states "It meant a lot for Rudy to play football for Norte Dame, his obsessed determination begins to look more inspirational as the movie goes on" (1).

During the course of the school year, Charlie has his first date and his first kiss, he deals with bullies, he experiments with drugs and drinking, and he makes friends, loses them, and gains them back. Sam and Patrick smoke very often. Charlie likes Sam a lot but she begins to date an older boy named Craig, until she learns he has been cheating on her the whole time. Craig's friend, Peter, told him enough was enough and that if Craig didn't tell Sam, he would. He ended up telling her and they broke up. Patrick is homosexual. His partner, Brad, is a closeted homosexual that has to abuse drugs

The mom leaves because of financial situations, so the dad, Chris, has to take care and provide for his son, Christopher, who is five. Chris is a hardworking and smart man and decides to apply for a job as a stock broker. What Chris didn’t know is that he has to go through an internship for 6 months first and there is no salary. Eventually the father and son lose their house and have to spend nights at a homeless shelter. This doesn’t stop Chris from studying and still working hard to pass the test to become a stock broker. After lots of determination and hope he finally gets the job and is able to provide for his young

His goal of not failing is short-lived. He is falling into the same depression that he was in but he is unable to stay in his room all day because his landlord kicks him out. Writing seems to be the only reason he is not swallowed by the depression. He see his friend George at his friend’s Alice’s house. George is about 28 years old and very successful George gives Wainaina a marketing job. He moves to Cape Town and starts a small catering company. Big family events keep happening without him, His little sister Chiqy has a baby and Jimmy gets married. He promises to make something of himself before he returns home. He sends an email to his friend Charlie Sweet about his trip to Uganda. Sweet tells him to publish it. Wainaina sends it to the Sunday Times and they publish

Culture is who you are. Your culture represents you as a person and gives people an idea and example of who you are. Culture can be as little as what you wear or eat to something bigger such as your religion. Cultural differences is when two or more cultures are different and “butt-heads” or “don’t get along”. The book The Red Headed Hawaiian which is about a young boy by the name of Rudy is trying to discover himself and decide where we will go in his near future. He is trying to follow his culture but he has to decide between following his hawaiian or haole culture. I argue the Rudy does come face-to-face with cultural differences throughout the novel. These cultural differences challenge Rudy’s sense of identity because he is stuck between deciding to make his dad proud and stick with his hawaiian culture or make himself happy and successful by following his haole culture. I will show his struggles with cultural differences with these examples: on page 53 he talks about his last name and how he believes he will not be successful with the last name Puana, on page 73 he talks about only doing “good enuff” and how that’s basically being a “panty”, and on page 95 he talks about people who didn’t like up to his expectations and how therefore he partially believed they shouldn’t be friends. These events ultimately help to reveal the theme of the novel, which is: while it is important to be ambitious and not accept “good enuff,” it is equally important to stay true to your root.