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How has culture impacted modern society
How does culture impact society
How has culture impacted modern society
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Mark Ching Professor H.O. Alvarez ENG 1A 22 April 2018 Desire of Achievement Richard Rodriguez’s chapter excerpt “The Achievement of Desire” illustrates an example of the scholarship boy. Richard Rodriguez defines scholarship boy as when a person from a working-class background desires to assimilate into a high state of being. The character, Paul, from John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation (1990), represents Richard Rodriguez’s scholarship boy, by trying to assimilate into the culture of the white upper society that he is not apart and losing his own identity by repudiation of his original “working class” language, and also putting up his scholarship boy persona to connect with the higher class by using the scholarship boy’s mimicry, his …show more content…
Although the wealthy white cultures that Flan and Ouisa characteristics show is complete disdain towards Paul in his first appearance, being a young black male integrating into the wealthy culture it is one giant obstacle he must overcome. Paul is seen as something lower than the family when he first burst into their home and again when they know for a fact that he was lying and being an imposter the whole time. Paul follows exactly as Rodriguez wrote that imitating education is the best way to become as what the scholarship boy’s intentions is. As he quotes a graduation speech and sells it as it his own, memorizing every word to make it seem as he is the one who put the paper to pen. Becoming more and more engulfed by the scholarship boy who is a different culture and ethnicity, one who is also trying to assimilate, but not simply into a higher class but a dominant culture entirely different to the one he was born into at home, who is just memorizing and spitting back everything he has locked away, not having his own thought but those of the ones he is trying to portray. Paul is not a great thinker but a great part being able to repeat exactly what he has heard without knowing exactly what it is being said. Paul is a very good actor being able to memorize a script and perform as a wealthy upper class individual. Archiving those thoughts of others he finds to be in the up upper class levels away from his own, a task he must complete to get over the racial hurdle that has held him back ever since he could remember. As he continues to do this very thing, imitating the opinions and mannerisms of which the wealthy white upper class holds, he beings to believe himself as one of them and hopes his race and culture will no longer separate the two
In the articles, the ambitions and challenges of the two boys are well understandable. They both tell the story of their quest for formal education. Being the child of Mexican emigrants, Rodriguez could barely speak English when he started school (Rodriguez 16). His working-class parents could barely pay for his education and that of his other siblings. He had to work extra hard to obtain a scholarship to go to college. Graff had his challenges too. He grew up in a rough multi-ethnic neighborhood in Chicago where he risked being beaten by other boys if he was found reading (Graff 23). Besides, he did not like reading until much later in college. Both writers, however, overcame their challenges and achieved their ambitions in the end.
Every encounter Paul has with someone he creates a new identity to bond and connect with them. Throughout the play Paul creates multiple personas for himself, he realizes that he is an empty vessel with no past and only memories of what he has done during his different personas. Paul loses control over his multiple personas which cause them to overlap with each other. Which causes him to feel lost and in search of help, when Ousia offers this help he gladly takes it which end up putting him in prison and never to be seen in New York.
Even from an early age, Rodriguez is a successful student. Everyone is extremely proud of Rodriguez for earning awards and graduating to each subsequent level of his education. But all his success was not necessarily positive. In fact, we see that his education experience is a fairly negative one. One negative that Rodriguez endures is his solitude. Education compels him to distance himself from his family and heritage. According to Richard Hoggart, a British education theorist, this is a very natural process for a scholarship boy. Hoggart explains that the ?home and classroom are at cultural extremes,? (46). There is especially an opposition in Rodriguez?s home because his parents are poorly educated Mexicans. His home is filled with Spanish vernacular and English filled with many grammatical errors. Also, the home is filled with emotions and impetuosity, whereas the classroom lacks emotion and the teachers accentuate rational thinking and reflectiveness.
Richard Rodriguez in “The Achievement Of Desire”, is a man who started to reflect on his early adolescence at the age of thirty. The author struggled to maintain a balance between a successful education and the life of coming from a working class family. At a very young age Rodriguez had decided to make education his one and only top priority, not noticing it would affect him gradually. He would rather spend his time with his books and learning than having quality time with his family and friends, however he became aware about the separation occurring between himself and his family, explaining throughout the text how he was not able to have conversations with his own family and becoming an outsider to his education and home. However, fails
The teachers represent the general society, a society of similar people with middle-class ideals and goals, as well as expectations that their students will aspire to these same goals. This society, however is hostel toward those who are different and unusual. His red carnation, as well as all his other mannerisms, belies this difference. Because of Paul’s behavior they conclude that there is “something wrong about the fellow�(Cather 178). They judge him mercilessly and so contribute to his isolation from his known society.
Immigrants have morphed American culture and cultural identity by bringing diversity and teaching us what it means to be American. In Richard Rodriguez’s essay titled “Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” the author converses about American culture and cultural identity. Rodriguez proclaims that using race as a basis for identification is completely fallacious. The author also conversates about the recognition of assimilation similar to “Op-Ed: American identity crisis? What’s an ‘American’ identity” by Paul Wallis. Wallis discourses about assimilation, his definition of an ‘American’, by giving examples of races mixing to create a culture.
I like to believe everyone has felt different, but that might not be the case. I know for a fact I have felt different, which is one of the reasons why I am the person I am today. Contact zones are Pratt’s biggest point in her essay, but she also discusses about ethnographic texts. An Ethnographic text is basically a biography, but it is not just based on your life but how your ethnicity affected your life. Rodriguez writes about his social and cultural difference and how he overcame them.
In Paul’s Case, a short story by Willa Cather, she shares the story of Paul. Paul is introduced as a boy who in the beginning is a suave young man, but we slowly come to realize that he is, in fact, flawed. Paul is a boy who’s struggles to separate himself from his every day, common life. As a young boy, Paul is taken with the opulence of the theater. He admires everything from the lights and wardrobe to the colors, perfumes, flowers and the champagne. He realizes that it isn’t possible to have all these things, so he throughs away his life. Paul’s character shows us that because he focuses on what he didn’t have, he couldn’t live at all.As we take a closer look at Paul’s character, we will see that he is driven to have these feelings by his misunderstanding of money his overpowering love of art and the alienation of his sexual orientation.
For example, as Paul watches the coming-and-going of his neighbors, he feels uncomfortable in their company, as if he doesn’t belong among them, as if he was destined for more. Another example is, when in comparison to the neighbor man his father idolizes, Paul is apprehensive of the man’s stories, since he has somewhat settled in life, and is disdainful that his father pays the man so much attention. It is evident that Paul has deemed himself of a higher status than his neighbors and will only be civil when amongst them for the sake of
When Paul is introduced, his vivid daydreams become apparent immediately. Paul works as an usher at Carnegie Hall, where he is exposed to the excellent music and art that is made there. For Paul, “...instruments seemed to free some hilarious and potent spirit within him; something that struggled there like the Genius in the bottle
Paul absorbed these language skills by standing in on lessons offered to boys of the Madison extended family. But the only image of Paul shows a man whose face reveals all his genetic heritage, and shows him as an African American Indian. During their eight years in the White House, the Madison’s, and Jennings, moved back and forth between the president’s house and the family plantation. Washington in the summer was something you couldn’t bear, while Montpelier was also comfortable. There Jennings, besides being the master’s valet, was the butler or houseman and held the responsibilities of head servant. He greeted people at the front door and he presided over the dining room table and sideboard. It was his responsibility to ensure that its enslaved members were fit for skilled
In Willa Cather’s Paul’s Case, is about a young boy that is depressed about his life, and loves his job in a theater, because he He is looking for fame, wealth and is not interested in his studies; when he is discovered by his lies he ends up committing suicide. The meeting between his teachers and Paul shows his indifferent and rebellious attitude. There is no good relationship between Paul and his father. He is not happy with himself and does not accept his reality. In his attempt to live a false life he makes many mistakes. He does not enjoy being in school or at home, he just feels good in the theater where he works and in New York. The theme in this story is the American dream. The subthemes are: materialism, ambition, rebellion, adolescence,
Rodriguez, Richard. “The Achievement of Desire.” Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Eds. David Bartholomae and Anthony Pertosky. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2011. 515-532 Print
The use of Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy in this story is very thought-provoking. While we are presented with the image of a young Richard Rodriguez and his struggle to deal with his education and family life. We are also presented Hoggart’s image of the “Scholarship boy” the student who has ...
In the beginning of the story, Paul seems to be a typical teenage boy: in trouble for causing problems in the classroom. As the story progresses, the reader can infer that Paul is rather withdrawn. He would rather live in his fantasy world than face reality. Paul dreaded returning home after the Carnegie Hall performances. He loathed his "ugly sleeping chamber with the yellow walls," but most of all, he feared his father. This is the first sign that he has a troubled homelife. Next, the reader learns that Paul has no mother, and that his father holds a neighbor boy up to Paul as "a model" . The lack of affection that Paul received at home caused him to look elsewhere for the attention that he craved.