The Roles People Undertake in Almost a Woman by Esmeralda Santiago

The Roles People Undertake in Almost a Woman by Esmeralda Santiago

The different roles people undertake in society are very important. Roles are usually as important as society perceives them. Many roles I society do not get enough recognition. For example, being a housewife is sometimes seen as a role for someone who does not like real work ands who is lazy or in welfare. Yet the role of being a working mother is also put down by society. How can she do two jobs successfully at the same time without slacking of in one? This is the question that society sometimes imposes on working mothers. Well my opinion is that women have been doing exactly that for thousands of years: working while taking care of the children and raising them. Women have to be in their roles 24 hours a day while men could slack of and go to bed and put their social roles to rest. Women have to take on many roles and are expected to be suce4sful in all of them. They are almost expected to be like superheroes that have supernatural powers, strength and energy. They have to be wife, mothers, daughters, sisters, housekeeper, cook, teacher, doctor, grandmothers, etc. Negi, the character in the book " Almost a Woman", struggles with all those roles. As a student, she tries to get good grades. As an actress and dancer she has to practice her hardest to make her mother and everyone around proud of her. As a lover and as a daughter she knew she had to be good. As a sister she was expected to be a role model. Not only did she have to face the fact that she was of a differen...

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...d not acting like women. Society is very hard to please, and as Puerto Ricans it is even harder because we are neither one of their states but we also are not independent, so we are somewhat stuck in the middle. Somewhat like Negi, all Hispanics have to come up with their own middle ground. To her the responsibility of doing stuff for her people was more like doing some for your family, such as her mother, cousins, sisters, etc. But for Jamie, that was his people as a whole, all Puerto Ricans. Who is to say that one is right and not the other? Their mentalities are actually closer than what they thought. If you do things to better your Latina family, and everyone does the same, then as a whole we are helping all Latina families get ahead. Is like the saying little by little one can make a difference.

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Almost a Woman by Esmeralda Santiago