Comparing The Hunger Of Memory By Richard Rodriguez And Sherman Alexie

An immigrant's life is impacted by many things when arriving to the United States. For example, when arriving to the United States they have trouble communicating with others or fitting into a new life that awaits for them. Alvarez uses imagery and symbolism to show that American Identity can be heavily impacted by the need to fit into society and adapting to a new culture while trying to stay true to one’s native culture. Author Background and Historical Context

Richard Rodriguez’s use of irony in his essay “Blaxicans and other Reinvented Americans” supports his main claim that assimilation occurs naturally by exaggerating his ideas to the point that they sound fallacious. In turn, this causes his point to vibrant, stronger and more reasonable. During his interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, a woman asked Rodriguez if he was “in favor” of assimilation. Rodriguez replied, “One doesn’t get up in the morning, as an immigrant child in America and think to oneself,”“How much of an American shall I become today?’... “One doesn’t walk down the street and decide to be 40 percent Mexican and 60 percent American” (Lines 146-148).

Many individuals from another culture strive to live the “American Dream.” In the excerpt from the novel, The Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez, he leaves Mexico to become a middle-class American man and further his education. Sherman Alexie writes “Superman and Me,” which shows how Alexie, a Spokane Indian, teaches himself American literature. Both of these stories intertwine to show how different cultures step out of their own and try to live the American Dream. This leads the audience wondering if culture affects how far individuals go in life? Whereas Alexie describes the ideology of an American Dream as an Indian young boy teaching himself how to read from comic books, Rodriguez describes the ideology of American Dream by escaping Mexico to seek higher education in America.

A similarity in the two articles is seen in the desire of the parents to make their children acquire formal education. Rodriguez’s parents took him and his other siblings to parochial schools because the nuns, in their opinion, taught better than other teachers. Although they were uneducated and held low paying jobs, they struggled and paid tuition for their children (Rodriguez 16). Besides, they made their children learn English even though they were Mexican

In Richard Rodriguez autobiography, Hunger of Memory, Richard himself writes about his educational journey. Rodriguez wrote such book in 1982. The book revolves around the life a young immigrant child, whom has a difficult time understanding how to adapt himself in the given environment. Furthermore, the book navigates the readers though Richards transition form boyhood to adulthood. Not only so, but Richard discusses how the opportunities that were presented to him altered his viewpoints in life as well as education.

In The Hunger of Memory, written by Richard Rodriguez, he addressed education by describing his life after he became educated. One of the issues that arise in the piece is his identity. Before Rodriguez became a known speaker, he thought of himself as an unintentional “classmate to children of rich parents” (Rodriguez). From a young age Rodriguez considered himself to be different, especially because he was a mexican growing up in “extreme public alienation” (Rodriguez). Richard Rodriguez questioned his identity. Not because he embarked on a journey from being a “‘socially disadvantaged’ child” to becoming a fully assimilated American, but because that assimilation of the American identity was achieved only after a painful separation from his past, family, and culture. Rodriguez wrote in his piece, “Consider me… a comic victim of two cultures” (Rodriguez). One reason Rodriguez’ identity was questioned, in a “cultural sense,” (Rodriguez) was because he “wasn’t able to use his spanish in school” (Rodriguez). This not only had an impact on his journey of assimilation, but also on his relationship with his parents.

Enstad mentions words such as “invisible” (57, 58), “unanticipated” (61), and “threaten” (60). These words indicate the unknown which stirs a sense of terror among her readers. The unknown remains a mystery, and there is no way to predict its movements. By doing so, she underscores the direness of the spread of this toxicity by pushing against this fear. Enstad even blatantly acknowledges the emotions she’s evoking by jeering that after reading her essay, readers might want to “sanitize one’s own environment” (63). As an author, she empathizes with her audience’s thoughts on her essay which allows her to relate to her audience thus, igniting a need to take charge and further analyze this toxicity that plagues Americans. It is common for a community of people to begin scrambling for solutions to an issue when the danger is imminent compared to a future problem. On the other hand, Kim’s article not only brings together a community for a common cause like Enstad’s but, she appeals to a different emotion through her use of a history strand. Kim’s history strand consists of phrases such as “imperialism” (3), “political turmoil” (4), and “immigrant” (4). She motivates her Asian American audience to unite due to the shared histories of the community. The cultural roots of Asian Americans are not often portrayed in American media and is not commonly discussed. Kim

To begin, the first pivotal revelation is the concept of white privilege. White Privilege, as Peggy McIntosh specifies in her essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, is a set of unearned assets which a white person in America can count on cashing in each day yet they remain oblivious to. This theme resonates as prior to this course, though aware of certain advantages as a seemingly “white” person in society, I was unaware of its official terminology. Also, as a person with one quarter American Indian blood I’m classified as a minority, however, I’m

In Hunger of Memory, author Richard Rodriguez describes his experiences as a Mexican immigrant. He tells anecdotes about his childhood in order to analyze the pressures which culture change imposed on him. Rodriguez also experienced guilt because he felt he had abandoned his Mexican roots by learning English, ceasing to speak Spanish. He then comes to the realization that intimacy is found in the feeling between two people conversing, not in the language in which they are conversing. Richard in the process of self-visualization becomes annoyed with himself and certain things that he sees around him.

In the selected readings that we were asked to do as a class, the most pertinent and interesting chapter that stood out to me was Chapter 38, “The Model Minority Myth”. In this chapter, the main subject of discussion is Asian Americans. In this discussion, the chapter tackles the discrimination that Asian Americans face due to the perception of media caricatures of them in the past as many other minorities have also had to unjustly endure. This in turn has made it harder for honest, hardworking minorities to shed the giant bullseye known as stereotyping from their backs. It can be noted that this model perception is in fact a stereotype that has easily hindered Asian Americans.

Richard Rodriguez, the author of Hunger of Memory, is a Mexican man who rose above prejudices to become a distinguished member of society through education. Sherman Alexie, the author of “Superman and Me,” is a Native American man who grew up on an Indian reservation with a love of books and a penchant for learning in an attempt to exceed further than the predetermined path set in front of him. Rodriguez perceives education as something that has built a division between him and his family but allowed for assimilation into American life and achieve more than the initial expectations of him, meanwhile, Alexie, who remains close to his family and defied all odds, perceives education as a life-saving tool that could potentially change

In Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez situates his individual experiences with education in such a way as to expose what he sees as the fallacious logic behind bilingual education and affirmative action. He uses arguments to propagate the systematic problems with such programs. His autobiography explains in great detail the entangling problems all American children face by instituting bilingual programs and affirmative action endorsements.

     Through our readings of the Mexicans in the U.S. and the African-American experience modules, we begin to understand the formation of identity through the hardships minorities faced from discrimination. In this paper, I am going to compare and contrast the ideas of identity shown through the readings. These two modules exemplify the theme of identity. We see how Blacks and Latinos tried to find their identity both personally and as a culture through the forced lifestyles they had to live.

Dinaw Mengestu, Richard Rodriguez and Manuel Munoz are three authors that have been through and gone through a lot of pain to finaly get accepted in their societies. They are all either immigrants or children of immigrants that had trouble fitting in America’s society at the time. They struggled with language and their identities, beucase they were not original from the states and it was difficult for others to accept them for who they are. They all treated their problems differently an some tried to forget their old identeties and live as regulalr Americans others accepted themselves for being who they are, but they all found a way to deal with their issues.

American society shapes minorities by using culture as an aesthetic playing ground rather than celebrating it. During the scene