El Gorilla

You can see how Maria’s El Salvador is empty of people, full only of romantic ideas. Jose Luis’s image of El Salvador, in contrast, totally invokes manufactured weapons; violence. Maria’s “self-projection elides Jose Luis’s difference” and illustrates “how easy it is for the North American characters, including the big-hearted María, to consume a sensationalized, romanticized, or demonized version of the Salvadoran or Chicana in their midst” (Lomas 2006, 361). Marta Caminero-Santangelo writes: “The main thrust of the narrative of Mother Tongue ... continually ... destabilize[s] the grounds for ... a fantasy of connectedness by emphasizing the ways in which [Maria’s] experience as a Mexican American and José Luis’s experiences as a Salvadoran have created fundamentally different subjects” (Caminero-Santangelo 2001, 198). Similarly, Dalia Kandiyoti points out how Maria’s interactions with José Luis present her false assumptions concerning the supposed “seamlessness of the Latino-Latin American connection” (Kandiyoti 2004, 422). So the continual misinterpretations of José Luis and who he really is and has been through on Maria’s part really show how very far away her experiences as a middle-class, U.S.-born Chicana are from those of her Salvadoran lover. This tension and resistance continues throughout their relationship.

Enrique’s journey begins when he is left on the porch all alone without his mother in sight. He is confused and questions “Donde esta mi mami,”(page 1)he is only 5, this confusion leads into rebellion then anger which is what finally pushes him to go on journey to find his mother, does she not love me, he questions, he wanted answers but also missed his mother so much that he does not care or even think about how hard and risky his travel will be.

Rodriguez does not comfort whose mother even though he feels something is not right. Richard thinks that his mother is “sad” and wanted to approach her and ask however claims they are “questions of paradise.” if someone's mother felt sad or upset, usually there children would try to comfort them and understand what they are feeling, however richard feels his mother’s pain but does not even try to ask what the cause of it is. Richard compares his mother too material objects. Richard thinks that his mother “seems very small,” when compared to the “expensive foreign cars” behind her. Richard instead of notices his mother, notices the expensive foreign cars more. Richard also does not even recognize what his parents are doing. He didn't realize that his father “has” only said one thing to him all evening. Someone would notice if their father had not spoken to them all day, however richard does not realize this to the very

In this novel, the reader follows the life of René Enriquez, a lifelong criminal, drug addict, and Carnal (High ranking member) in La Eme (The Mexican Mafia). After years of drug use, theft, and murder, René gets life in prison, and wants out of the

“I was his treasure, he’d say, patting his lap, as if I were a girl in a jumper instead of a woman of twenty-three” (84). Their bond seems indestructible, but of course, everything can be broken. Papa’s dark side is exposed when Minerva discovers his second family. As expected, Minerva is enraged. She even rams into her father’s vehicle out of anger. She also now pities him because she is revealed to how pathetic his life has turned out and there is nothing he can do to change that. After almost fifteen years after the humiliation is publicized, Minerva still says crude comments about her now late father. Not only does this scandal betray Minerva, the whole family never looks at Don Enrique Mirabal, who once seemed to be the hero in the Mirabal sisters’ lives, the

As children grow up in a dysfunctional family, they experience trauma and pain from their parent’s actions, words, and attitudes. With this trauma experienced, they grew up changed; different from other children. The parent’s behavior affects them and whether they like it or not, sometimes it can influence them, and they can react against it or can repeat it. In Junot Díaz’s “Fiesta, 1980”, is presented this theme of the dysfunctional family. The author presents a story of an adolescent Latin boy called Junior, who narrates the chronicles of his dysfunctional family, a family of immigrants from the Dominican Republic driving to a party in the Bronx, New York City. “Papi had been with

Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban tells the story about three generations of a Cuban family and their different views provoked by the Cuban revolution. Though part of the same family, an outsider might classify them as adversaries judging by relationships between one another, the exiled family members, and the differentiations between political views. Although all of these central themes reoccur over and over throughout the narrative, family relationships lie at the heart of the tale. The relationships between these Cuban family members are for the most part ruptured by any or a combination of the above themes.

When Alma and her family move to America, they begin their new life in a place that is strange and confusing, one that is unaccommodating, and causes Alma’s misery and guilt to almost overwhelm her. After the Rivera’s first day in America, they find their appartment and try to go to sleep. Arturo and her daughter Maribel fall asleep right away, but Alma lays awake in bed, wondering to herself if they ”had... done the right thing, coming here?” (6). In the morning, they wake up, confused, “bewildered, and disorientated, glancing at one another, darting [their] gazes from wall to wall. And then we remembered. Delaware. Over three thousand kilometers from our home in Pátzuco. Three thousand kilometers and a world away” (6). Alma and Arturo left their home, not because they wanted to come to America, but because they wanted to be able to help their daughter, Maribel. She had an accident that caused a traumatic brain injury, and Alma feels that the accident is her fault, and has been consumed with grief ever since. Although the Riveras came to America to help Maribel, Alma still wonders to herself if it was the

Spirituality and ethical behavior are related because they both require a sense of connection to something bigger than us. Spirituality involves the search for meaning in our lives and ethical behavior is sticking with those behaviors, being fair,

Marco is not successful in his attempted rape of Esther. Though his assault has detrimental effects on her mental stability, he does not break her or destroy her. However, Buddy succeeds in shifting the focus of the gaze to be socially oppressive. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood is a woman of the 1950s who goes against the belief that women should marry; in fact, she declares, “I’m never going to get married” (Plath 93) while being proposed to by Buddy Willard. In his proposal, Buddy asks the question, “How would you like to be Mrs. Buddy Willard?” (92). In other words, he asks her if she would like to serve as an extension of himself. He is adhering to the Victorian notions of marriage. Her identity of Esther Greenwood will be erased with her marriage to Buddy Willard. Not only does society want Esther to succumb to her inferiority, but a specific man does as well. Society’s convictions in regards to women were so powerful that they entrenched themselves into the mind of a man Esther knew since childhood. These convictions aid Buddy in taking on the oppressive form of the male gaze. He does not view her sexually, but rather as something for him to own – someone for him to stamp his own name onto.

The author creates a mood of being irritating by her “…awful grandmother…” and brothers “…Alfredito and Enrique…” who are occupied playing outside as “… a B-Fifty-two bomber…” [paragraph 5] and her grandmother with a “… long, long list of relatives … names of the dead and the living into one long prayer…” [paragraph 10]. Including, the imagery provided in the short story described the character’s actions by watching her grandmother pray while she counts her grandmother’s mustache hairs. Later, an unknown lady and man start talking to her brother asking if she could take a picture, than judging by their looks, they assume they do not speak English but only

In “The Secret Lion,” Alberto Alvaro Rios establishes the theme as loss of innocence in a young boy. The narrator brings to life a boy who must leave behind his youthful perceptions about girls, the arroyo, and his green haven. All preconceptions are shattered, and each glimpse of bliss is taken away. Through this the boy gains perspective, and begins to see the world with a new awareness. Rios ingrains the loss of innocence theme through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy who exhibits maturity, autonomy, and disillusionment.

Collectively, these literary images go to describe a young ethnic man, probably of Latin descent, who lives with his mother in a poverty stricken area. The careful recitation of instruction given to the younger man seems to demonstrate an intricate knowledge the narrators has accrued from both predecessors and experience. Singularly, this part of the story is very powerful in that it shows a young man having to hide who he is and where he comes from in an effort to seem appealing to women, and speaks volumes about the deception that both genders go through all in name of the chase.

A wife and husband find a way to wealth and royalty and risk everything just to find that their insanity is more powerful than them and ends up consuming them. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth it tells a tale about a man who stumbles upon a vision of his future of riches. He and his wife become so obsessed with their new fate that they were willing to take drastic measures to get there.

I am only working part time. My new supervisor has reduced my office hours to 15 hours a week. With additional appointments, to tutor students, I am averaging approximately 20 hours a week. She has tried to discharge me; however my previous supervisor would not allow her to do so. Therefore, she has reduced my office hours to circumvent this.