And The Earth Did Not Devour Him Analysis

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Given the choice, would you choose hate or love? Most people easily answer “love”, but their following actions show hate. Fear of difference creates hate, and the difference is easily found in an ethnically divided country. Etel Adnan writes of the Civil War in Lebanon in her novel, Sitt Marie Rose, Tomás Rivera writes of the struggles of Mexican-American migrant workers in …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, and Zitkala-Sa writes of the mistreatment of Native Americans in American Stories and Old Indian Legends. These three authors speak of social issues in the 20th century caused by direct discrimination and by the following feelings of the minorities in question. As a result of long-standing micro-aggressions, large-scale and direct …show more content…

Similar to Adnan and Zitkala-Sa, Rivera writes of discrimination towards a specific group of people, however, Rivera writes of direct discrimination for no apparent reason. The discrimination can not be justified because of a fight for land in the case of the Palestinian-Christian and Native American-American cause, instead, the hate is caused solely off of the difference in skin color. The main character is picked on and socially excluded at school due to his Hispanic heritage. There is a specific boy who often makes him feel mad and embarrassed. Rivera describes an encounter with this boy, ““Hey, Mex… I don't like Mexicans because they steal. You hear me?” “Yes” “I don't like Mexicans. You hear, Mex?”” (Rivera, 93-94). Besides the obvious racism, the boy is badgering the main character—trying to get under his skin. The boy stereotypes the main character based off of the main character’s skin color and accordingly acts in a hateful manor. Sadly, many Americans stereotype minorities without personally getting to know the individual. Based off of the main character’s Mexican heritage, the American boy assumes that he steals. However, this sort of racism towards other races on American land is rooted in an even deeper hate, the hate of the Native

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