An individual’s identity is strongly influenced by their ethnic background and the environment that surrounded them. Due to this, a majority of the world will perceive a person differently and create stereotypes, which then compels them to treat others differently in order to accommodate to that person. In Junot Diaz’s instructional manual, “How to date a brown girl (black girl, white girl, or halfie)”, he depicts different scenarios of dates in the perspective of a boy who is Latino and from the Terrace, a ghetto neighborhood. He talks about the different ways to treat a girl based on their race and what neighborhood they came from, as well as the various reactions each kind of girl will make. He categorizes an insider as Latino or someone …show more content…
In the manual, he mentions during the date that he hopes to not bump into one of his acquaintances that may cause him trouble. Soon after, he comments about the different responses a girl may have towards the acquaintance, by explaining, “A homegirl would have been yelling back at him the whole time, unless she was shy” (Diaz 2). Only an insider would be able to yell back at the man because she is not afraid of people who come from the same area as her. As she understands how people from the Terrace will react to certain comments, she is not scared to offend them because she knows what to say. The main reason he instructs people on how to treat a girl accordingly is to have intimacy with her, but he knows every girl will not feel the same way, as he elaborates, ”A local girl may have hips and a thick ass but she won’t be quick about letting you touch. She has to live in the same neighborhood you do” (Diaz 3). As a result of being an insider and understanding what it is like living in the Terrace, she is used to the way males act towards girls, which allows her to be more conscious of her body and be attentive of a boy’s actions. Likewise, the narrator also knows what they have to deal with so he is mindful of how to act. Since both of them are familiar with the Terrace, their impetuous responses to certain …show more content…
In the same situation of possibly meeting the boy’s acquaintance, an outsider will choose to react contrary to an insider, as described by the narrator, “If the girl’s an outsider she will hiss and say, What a f*** asshole” (Diaz 2). By doing this, she is being more conservative about her actions towards people who come from a different neighborhood than her, because an outsider should not create a situation that they will not be able to handle. Moreover, by being an outsider, she feels intimidated visiting an area where she is not familiar with the people and the environment. Furthermore, even before meeting, an outsider’s parents will feel discomfort taking their daughter to an unfamiliar area, as the narrator claims, “Neither of them want her seeing any boys from the Terrace” (Diaz 1). Compared to an insider that is accustomed to the Terrace, an outsider has difficulty being comfortable in this area because they are used to being insiders in their own neighborhood, not in a different one. Even the narrator can see that encountering others from the Terrace makes an outsider feel somewhat uneasy, considering they are not familiar with the people. So due to the fact that they feel insecure staying within this environment displays how they are seen as outsiders to those who live in the
In ‘Neighbours’, Winton conveys the idea of how the lack of mutual understanding within a community may result to one's seclusion. This is displayed when we are introduced to the couple feeling ‘like sojourners in a foreign land’. The use of simile expresses their unfamiliarity and detachment to the surrounding environment as this is also shown by their ‘wary’ and ‘cautious’ behaviour. Their inability to understand their European neighbours is further established by their shocked reaction to the ‘sounds of spitting’, ‘washing’ and the
In How to date the narrator is waiting for a girl to come over to his house. While he was waiting he said, “(...) usually the out-of-towners are black, black girls who grew up with ballet and girl scouts, who have three cars in their driveways” (Diaz 2). This quote is talking about how the narrator thinks a woman's life is based on her color. In the quote the narrator said that, “usually the out-of-towners are black.’ This is stereotypical because, he is just assuming that she will be from out of town because she is black. He also assumed that she grew up with ballet and girl scouts. Everything that the boy said are stereotypical towards females of a darker color. This quote is showing how minorities stereotype other minorities and how the narrator judged the girl based on stereotypes that he learned at school or in the street. Just like the mexican stereotypes they were both given to them based on what people see from the outside not by how someone is on the inside. People using the stereotypes to assume how someone is is not good because they never learn how the person is on the inside. They just assume
The article is about a Honduran girl named Aleichia Williams, and she talks about having a “race crisis” when she had moved from New York City to North Carolina. (Huffington Post, Aleichia Williams) While she was in middle school, she was made aware for the first time of racial profiling based on first impressions. With racial profiling, people can also make stereotypical inferences of what a specific race likes when it comes to food, music, etc. Since people can occasionally label someone from first glance of what race they think certain people are; it can be seen as labeling someone based on the color of their skin.
In Celeste Ng’s novel Everything I Never Told You, being an outsider is shown to a difficulty because making relations becomes very difficult. For example, when Nath is playing in the pool with other children in his grade, they make fun of him by saying,”’Chink can’t find China!’ and the other children laughed. A rock formed and sank in Jame’s belly. In the pool, Nath paused, arms outstretched on the surface of the water, uncertain how to proceed. One hand opened and closed in silence” (Ng 90). In the small town of Ohio where the story occurs, Asian people are pretty scarce, so because Nath is an Asian-American, he instantly becomes an outsider to the children around him. Because most of the children grew up never really knowing anything about
Anzaldua describes how she experienced the feeling of being deviant towards society and not belonging to the community she lives in, “The queer are the mirror reflecting the heterosexual tribe’s fear: being different, being other than and therefore lesser, therefore sub-human, in-human, non-human” (Anzaldua, 1987). Acknowledging that someone is different from you in their thoughts, opinions, behavior, and appearance is not as easy as it may seem when these qualities matter to you. But acknowledging that being different is not better or worse—it is simply not the same—is what many people fail to do, often without even realizing how intolerant they are. The author herself, however, shows that she is in every way broadminded about her beliefs, her opinions, and even the language she speaks—the book is written equally in English and Spanish. The author naturally switches from one language to the other, showing not simply that she is bilingual, but that she is a human being above all other qualities, and it is the content, the meaning behind words that matters, not the form or language in which they are written.
Our idea of gender norms shape not only how we act around others, but how we treat others as well. Diaz utilizes the narrator 's point of view and imagery to demonstrate how gender norms let us quickly judge others, often not for the best. He states, “A local girl will have hips and a nice ass but won’t be quick about letting you touch her. She has to live in the same neighborhood as you do. She might just chill with you and then go home. She might kiss you and then leave. Or she might, if she’s reckless, give it up, but that’s rare. Kissing will suffice. A white girl might give it up right then. Don’t stop her. She’ll take her gum out of her mouth, stick it to the plastic sofa covers, and then move close to you. You have nice eyes, she might say” (Diaz 650). Diaz describes what his character believes is the “norm” for the girls he is attempting to have sex with. Rather than actually get to know a girl and have a relationship, the author chases after the norm of flirting around and as a result ends up objectifying the very women he is trying to impress. As demonstrated in the text, masculinity and being “the man” are the most important ideas in the minds of some men and as such, cause men to not only disregard their own feelings and ideas, but to also ignore and condemn the individuality of others. By putting these expectations and limitations on both women and men, we
Instead minorities are strained mentally and economically. They must face backlash from the public, “getting passed over for jobs… or shut out of housing” all of which strikes a chord and increases the stress of daily life (Martin). The neighborhoods in which these poorer classes are left to congregate in are normally dirty and unsafe. Chiquita Turner a thirty-two year old who lives in one such neighborhood “is aware of at least three crack houses nearby, and regularly encounters debris, glass, broken metal, and other remnants of car accidents and break ins” (Seervi). This neighborhood in which she lives is one filled with fear and unrest, a neighborhood ruled by violent crime. It is this unsafe feeling that, “prevents people from walking around or doing other outdoor exercise”, chaining people to their homes (Seervi). Young children are forced to grow up in neighborhoods surrounded by “violence, gangs, drug addicts, or homeless on the street” (Seervi). Any of which can become negative influences on their lives and allow them to fall into bad lifestyles, thus perpetuating the negative cycle. These neighborhoods are no place for children or people alike to live. Yet, it is all they can afford due to racial and social biases associated with skin
How he was treated differently, and was neglected by everybody around him. He knows that he is different. And he knows that's why he was bullied by everybody else in school, or in his life. He pitied everybody else, but in retrospect he also pities himself. “ I sat back and watch them grow skinny from self- pity. Back on the reservation, my mother stood in line to get us commodities. We carried them home, happy to have food, and opened the canned beef that even the dogs wouldn't eat. But we ate it day after day and grew skinny from self pity.” (Sherman Alexie.) He is pitying everybody else, but retrospect he is pitying himself. Everybody has their own opinion on somebody, even if it's wrong or correct. They use their own judgment to judge other people. “ Hey,” he said. “What's that boy been drinking? I know all about these Indian kids. They start drinking real young.” Sharing dark skin doesn't necessarily make two men brothers. (Sherman Alexie.) The Chicano teacher is judging the boys based off of his own view, of what he thinks is correct. What he thinks are his beliefs, aren't always
In the areas of self-esteem, what the adolescent demonstrated was Baseline self-esteem where it’s stable, enduring sense of worth and well-being, and Healthy identity, where its establishing clear and definite sense of who they are and how they fit into the world (PP. Chap 6: The Self). From what I observed, he used terms that are more abstract such as “nonchalant,” forgiving and confident. According to the self on chapter 6, adolescents are trait-focused, traits that are more abstract, less concrete compared to children and use personality characteristics. Also for the 16 year-old, he mentioned how he liked his Hispanic background as one of his best qualities, so in the area of ethnic identity, what the adolescent is showing is bicultural identity, he loves being part Cuban and part Venezuelan. He has a dual identity, where he would go back and forth to his ethnic/majority culture, and he is aware of social and political issues of his ethnic
This is why the theme for the Outsider is that no one should have jealousy over others life styles but they should appreciate their own. After Ponyboy told her a story of the stuck
The narrator of the story feels like an outsider from different times in the story because she feels perhaps she can not fit in into anything going on around her. She first begins to feel as an outsider due to the fact that she lives way out
Middle school can be a tumultuous for students, especially in regards to relationships a general social interactions. Students can be quick to make assumptions about the people around them based on nothing more than superficial observations, which can result in unrealistic perceptions of those people. Because of this, the name of this thematic unit is “Don’t Judge a Book by It’s Cover,” and focuses on the importance of not drawing conclusions about people based on appearances or initial observations. The text set for this unit reflects this theme, as the books and resources included deal with characters or stories dealing with prejudice or discrimination. My hope is for middle school students to think deeply about their own prejudices and
Just like Staples, every single person should have the choice to believe in what they want to believe, act the way they wish to act, and be the individual they want to be. Nell Bernstein explores the self proclaimed identities of teenagers at a San Leandro high school in his article, “Goin’ Gangsta, Choosin’ Cholita”. The teenagers in Bernstein’s article have all made the decision to claim their own ethnic identity. One of the teenagers is an Anglo-American girl named April Miller who has chosen to identify herself as a “Mexican cholita”, a persona that is very different in style, dialect, and culture than the common white teenage girl. Bernstein expresses that for April and her friends, “identity is not a matter of where you come from, what you were born into, what color your skin is, [but] what you wear, the music you listen to, the words you use-everything to
"The Outsider" explores the relationship between the individual and society and posits that certain individuals are placed at the margins of society because they challenge social codes that control human behaviour. All societies have restrictions in which they deem to be a fundamental process to their fabric and survival. However, these social codes only make sense within the confines of their context, so that when the context changes, values may seem meaningless, restrictive, prejudice, homophobic or cruel, as seen through the text, setting and contexts of the Scarlet Letter and Far From Heaven. The Scarlet Letter presents a restrictive Puritan Society which does not tolerate disobedience/any violation of its strict religious code, in which