In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez shows us the struggle the Garcia family and the four daughters went through to embrace the new culture they were entering and keeping the one they had left. The Garcia girls struggled the most, having their parents constantly reminding them what was not acceptable, but in regards to the Island, and them trying to fit in their new society. Not only were the girls struggling with this cultural adaptation, but they were struggling to find themselves and who they were. The Garcia girls started their lives on the Island embracing the culture and traditions that were in their environment, then moved to a new country, America, where they had to learn, adapt and embrace their new country like they had their old. The Garcia’s struggle not knowing the American culture, but through growth and knowledge they become part of American society. …show more content…
The book starts off with Yolanda, returning to the Island after being away for five years, she has forgot much of her Spanish and has become accustomed to speaking English. Being back on the Island however, the Aunts do not let her get away with speaking English, “When she reverts to English, she is scolded, ‘ꜟEn espaῆol!’” (Alvarez 7). Over the years while Yolanda’s been living in America, where the native language is English, she learns the language, the slang, and embraces so much that the Spanish she grew up knowing is now her second language. This language change is symbolic because it shows how over the years the American culture has been embraced by Yolanda. The Island is where the girls are from, but who they grew up to be was
In “Se Habla Español,” the author, Tanya, talks about her personal experience with dealing with language issues. Tanya was born in Guatemala and moved to the U.S when she was only three years old. Tanya’s mother did not want her to speak Spanish, because they believed that when they moved to the U.S speaking only English would help her blend in. For so long Tanya believed that speaking Spanish went hand in hand with being poor and speaking only English made her feel superior. After many years she has tried to learn Spanish but has found it quite difficult because although that is her native language it was like trying to learning a whole new language for her. In “Mother Tongue,” Amy’s explains how she has come to the realization that she speaks more than one “English,” meaning that the way she speaks in front of a crowd is different than the way she speaks with her mother. The way Amy speaks with her mother is still English although it is not proper. Amy expresses how she does not really like the phrase “broken English,” because if something is broken it needs to be fixed and she does not feel that her mother’s English needs to be
There are seven billion humans living on planet earth, with hundreds of different cultures and ethnicities. As the leading species on earth, humans have further felt the need to also have a dominant gender. This title is given to the males of society. In the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, the main characters experience a firsthand look to how male dominance prevails in not only the Dominican Republic but also in America. The Garcia family is a prestigious family line in the Dominican Republic, as a result the children of the family have a traditional and very controlled upbringing. The Garcia family moves from the Dominican Republic to the United States which causes the children of the family: Sofia, Yolanda,
... level of self-awareness is necessary to navigate this journey effectively, traits which the family simply does not have. Yolanda has potential to reach some level of self-awareness and thought during her college years, but this hope is considerably dimmed as she becomes increasingly torn between her two cultures. Yolanda is the main narrator in this novel and still has a possibility, albeit slim, of a happy future. This cannot possible be achieved without thought, actual, conscious thought as to how she is going to turn her life around and make her blended cultures something for others to admire rather than something to be ashamed of. American literature does not highly value many novels pertaining to immigrants, however, it would have been helpful for them to absorb and apply the tenets of Transcendentalism and American literature in general to aid the transition.
The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States’ economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico’s history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly captures a Mexico in its true light.
In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explains the implications of living under the influence of two cultures. She begins with a story of how she was punished by a teacher for correcting the pronunciation of her name. Anzaldúa gives the reader anecdotes about her life in a dual culture society, explaining the trials of accepting her heritage, fighting to find her place in Mexican or American society, and establishing herself as a proud Chicana.
Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood by Richard Rodriguez is an essay that shows his readers a part of life that many have never experienced. Rodriguez uses this essay to show how he fights through his childhood to understand English. Speaking clear English will help him to fit in to society. He faces society while forfeiting his happy home life, to try to become a typical English-speaking student.
This book is a story about 4 sisters who tell their stories about living on an island in the Dominican Republic , and then moving to New York . What is different about this book is the fact that you have different narrators telling you the story , jumping back and forth from past to present . This is effective because it gives you different view point’s from each of the sisters . It may also detract from the narrative because of the fact that it’s confusing to the reader . This is a style of writing that has been recognized and analyzed by critics . Julia Alvarez is a well- known writer and in a way , mirrors events that happened in her own life , in her book . Looking into her life , it show’s that she went through an experience somewhat like the sisters . I interviewed an immigrant , not from the same ethnic back ground as the sisters , but a Japanese immigrant . This was a very
Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced because of her cultural background. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. By forcing them to speak English and attempting to get rid of their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that arises from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States,
In the work of Amy Tan’s “Mother’s Tongue” she provides a look into how she adapted her language to assimilate into American culture. She made changes to her language because her mother heavily relied on her for translation. She was the voice of her mother, relaying information in standard English to those who were unable to understand her mother’s broken english. She tells about her mother’s broken english and its impact on her communication to those outside their culture. Her mothers broken english limited others’ perception of her intelligence, and even her own perception of her mother was scewed: Tan said, “I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mothers ‘limited’ English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” (419) The use of standard english was a critical component to Tan’s assimilation into American culture. Standard English was an element she acquired to help her mother but more importantly is was an element that helped in her gain success as a writer. Tan changed her ‘Englishes’ (family talk) to include standard English that she had learnt in school and through books, the forms of English that she did not use at home with her mother. (417-418) Tan realized the ch...
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...
Tan’s essay on Mother Tongue depicts a story of a daughter who grew up learning different type of “Englishes” (510). The latter described as the kind of English wherein on may regard as “simple”, yet she fondly refers to as her “Mother’s English”. In addition is the “broken English” or Tan’s mother’s communication style with her. Lastly is Tan’s own translation of her mother’s English that she described as “watered down.” An impression that is distinctly different from Tan’s loving description of her Mother’s English, Rodriguez connotes feelings of detachment. Rodriguez’s childhood consist of traditional catholic educators who expected a non-native speaker communicate in English. As a result, the young Rodriguez socially withdrew which prompt the nun teachers to approach the parents regarding the language issue. Since then, life has changed for Rodriguez, thus the beginning of what seem to be a detachment from his own family. Unlike Tan’s warm story of her Mother’s broken English, Rodriguez’s childhood experience connotes feelings of
In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” author Gloria Anzaldua portrays all the negative aspects of having to dispose of her hispanic roots and taming her wild tongue to do so. She begins the article by describing her
America was not everything the mothers had expected for their daughters. The mothers always wanted to give their daughters the feather to tell of their hardships, but they never could. They wanted to wait until the day that they could speak perfect American English. However, they never learned to speak their language, which prevented them from communicating with their daughters. All the mothers in The Joy Luck Club had so much hope for their daughters in America, but instead their lives ended up mirroring their mother’s life in China. All the relationships had many hardships because of miscommunication from their different cultures. As they grew older the children realized that their ...