Both stories, Response to Executive Order 9066 and "Mericans", establish a common American Identity theme. The main idea of these two stories is how people may or may not relate to their cultures. Both are narrated by teenage girls, and both establish a common theme that your appearance does not define you. In "Mericans," the girl narrating thinks that her grandmother is awful. Her grandmother does not like America and prays for it because it is "barbaric." The narrator does not agree with her grandmother, and feels very disconnected to her grandmother's religion and culture. Throughout the story, the narrator is vicitimized by the boys for being a girl, and they often make fun of her. Instead of crying, she acted tough. Towards the end, a tourist couple thinks that she only speaks Spanish just because she is Mexican, she proves them wrong by responding to them in perfectly fluent English. In "Response to Executive order 9066," Okita, the narrator, is a 14 year old Japanese school girl. She has a friend named Denise, but after the news of Pearl Harbor, Denise assumes that Okita is the enemy. She was blamed for something she didn't do. In this story, the narrator observes how different her friends family is from hers, and she doesn't understand why they can't be friends anymore just …show more content…
Both works of literature go into depth on appearance, and how your cultural background does not determine what kind of person you are. This can be displayed in "Mericans," when Michelle is assumed to be a Mexican girl who only spoke Spanish and followed all Mexican traditions until she proved them wrong. This can be displayed in Okita's poem when Denise assumed that Okita was the enemy because of her Japanese heritage. A difference between the stories in that one is free verse poetry, and one is a short story. The common theme in both is that appearance does not determine what kind of person you
One of the more apparent themes seen in both texts is that of discrimination against marginalised groups. Both texts send a clear message, that regardless of the circumstances,
In conclusion both short stories were great at allowing us the reader to see the way that women were repressed in their society in the 1900s. We don't hate the men; we just wish women did not have to be so subservient. Freedom is achieved in very unconventional ways in both of these stories, but the kind of freedom these narrators achieve is not available to most women of this time era.
...etely different in the stories, the feeling of isolation and detachment each of the characters had to cope with was remarkably similar. The stories demonstrate solid evidence that society needs to change the racist view they have towards minorities and their cultures. Reading these stories brings awareness to the reader, the importance of recognizing the need to be more accepting of others and their need to belong. The problems associated with these stories affect us all and as a society we collectively need to begin to change our attitudes towards minorities and their cultures.
One topic that was compared between the two novels was racism. The definition of racism is the belief that all member of each race possess characteristics
Both books are told in the first person; both narrators are young girls, living in destitute neighborhoods, who witness the harsh realities of life for those who are poor, abused, and hopeless, although the narrators themselves manage to survive their tough environments with their wits and strength intact. Books are more than simple literary exercises, written merely to amuse or delight their audiences. Both authors attempt to provoke their readers to think about the social issues their novels present.... ... middle of paper ...
Therefore, a similarity that both authors share is how they both connect heritage and ethnicity to the central idea. Like Trumbull stated, “living inside a culture allows members to become familiar with the total cultural heritage of that society, no individual actually internalizes the entire cultural heritage,”(Trumbull, P.8). Also like Williams had stated,” Do I even have an ethnicity? I wondered. It was like suddenly discovering you might not have a belly button. I tell you, I had to go to the dictionary. What were the flavors, accents, and linguistic trills that were passed down to me over the ages?”,( Williams, P.1). They both talk about the heritage and how it affects the culture because like Trumbull said that living inside a culture allow people to come familiar to their cultural heritage of the society. Williams says it differently but the she explains how she tries to learn more about her culture and her families and what they do eat and are like. Another similarity that they
Both stories show feminism of the woman trying to become free of the male dominance. Unfortunately, the woman are not successful at becoming free. In the end, the two women’s lives are drastically
The most prominent concept that can be noticed in both stories is that both of the stories revolve around relationships that have been affected by ethnicity. In the story by Gish Jen, the most obvious relationship that suffers is between the mother and daughter. The Chinese immigrant grandmother, who is depicted as Natalie’s mother in the story and the narrator, has a very strong character due to strong instilled morals. For instance, she states that “creative” is not a word they talk about in China. Creativeness is linked with the connotations of being very accepting and flexible. By her stating that there is not Chinese word for “creative”, the author implicitly states that the culture is very rigid and strict. This rigidity in Grandmother’s character is also noted when she describes how she believes Sophie, the grandchild, should be raised. She promotes the idea of hitting Sophie. Although this may seem improper, it is a very common practice among nonindigenous people. The misbehaved child takes her clothes off, and the grandmother believes the only way to fix this problem is to hit her. The mother is against this punishment; this is the main source of tension within the relationship. Grandmother represents the old world. The new world or new generation mother d...
Elena Poniatowska escrita durante una epoca de cambio en Mexico. Antes de sus obras las mujeres mexicanas eran sometidos, docil, y pasivo. En la tiempo de sus obras las mujeres estaba tratando salir de los estereotipos de antes. Esta problema social tomo un afecto en Elena. Aunque ella no viene de un movimiento literatura directamente, ella escrita con el concepto de compremetido. En su narrative El Recado ella crea un mujer estereotipical que no puede controlar sus emociones. La titula es eso porque ella viene a ver su amante, pero el no esta, asi ella escribe las cosas que sentia. La perspectiva es de un personaje y ella nunca interacta con otros personajes. En facto la unica descripcion de un personaje otro de la protagonista es de su amante Martin. Habla de otros personajes, pero solamente de sus acciones. Porque ellas es la unica perspectiva que tenemos es sencillo a sentar compasion para una protagonista de quien nombre no aun sabemos. Ella da la descripcion de toda que vea, y mas importante todo que se sienta. Tambien tropos y figuras retoricas dan un tono significante al poema. Estos sentimientos de la portagonista y el tono emocional de la narrativa transporta una tema de una mujer estereotipical y debil quien quiere ser reconocido.
I believe these two stories can be compared because they are both dealing with young black people trying to figure out why they are being discriminated just because of their skin color. They both feel like they should be just as free or equal as white people and not judged so harshly for being born black. They both are attending school during a rough time for colored people. They both just want to make a difference and make people realize that they are not bad people and that they are just as smart as white people. I would say that they both were very unlucky to be born colored during this time period because of the hatred but at the same time they are the ones who could have the biggest impact on changing lives and making it better for colored
These essays seem to have different stories, but both have many apparent similarities. In Brent Staples’ essay he discusses how society treats him like a threat and how he can do nothing about it. Likewise, in Richard Rodriguez’s essay, he talks about how he feels that society judged his skin color to be too dark and ugly. Both men felt like outcasts in their surroundings and neither could do anything to change that. Because of this discrimination, both men had to change their lifestyles. Staples adapted to how society viewed him and learned to live that way. For example, he always made sure to keep a certain distance between him and other pedestrians at night to make sure they felt safe. Rodriguez states many times in his essay how much he wanted to just be shirtless in the sun, but could not do it because he was sure his friends would judge him. So although he had urges to do certain actions, he held them back to adapt to the way he felt that his family and his friends saw him. Another similarity these two authors share is how they handled this hate. Staples writes that he learne...
The United States of America a nation known for allowing freedom, equality, justice, and most of all a chance for immigrants to attain the American dream. However, that “America” was hardly recognizable during the 1940’s when President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering 120,000 Japanese Americans to be relocated to internment camps. As for the aftermath, little is known beyond the historical documents and stories from those affected. Through John Okada’s novel, No-No Boy, a closer picture of the aftermath of the internment is shown through the events of the protagonist, Ichiro. It provides a more human perspective that is filled with emotions and connections that are unattainable from an ordinary historical document. In the novel, Ichiro had a life full of possibilities until he was stripped of his entire identity and had to watch those opportunities diminish before him. The war between Japan and the United States manifested itself into an internal way between his Japanese and American identities. Ichiro’s self-deprecating nature that he developed from this identity clash clearly questions American values, such as freedom and equality which creates a bigger picture of this indistinguishable “America” that has been known for its freedom, equality, and helping the oppressed.
The author of this short story, Sandra Cisneros used this myth to make herself different from other American writers. She used ideas from things and stories she heard growing up as a Mexican-American woman, living in a house full of boys that got all of the attention (Mathias). Cisneros also grew up in the 19...
In both of these stories there are certain characteristics of females that are the same, they are inner strength, obedience, honor and respect, the good of the family is better than the good of the individual.
The struggles both characters face demonstrate character development and contribute to the themes of the stories. Both short stories prove to be literally effective in that they disclose the main themes at the outset of each story. Although the themes may alter over the course of the stories, they are clearly defined in their respective introductions.