Part 1: Summary "Looking for Work" by Gary Soto is a narration of a nine year old boy, Gary, who is a Mexican-American who wants to become wealthy. He gets this idea during summer and sets out around the neighborhood looking for small jobs. He did a few errands and earns about a quarter. He also watches television shows and is attracted to the life of perfect white families. He wants his family to be like them too. He thought that way; the white people will like them more. His family was very different, and his sister could not understand why he wanted to be more like white people. In the end, when everyone left, he continues to search for a job. Part 2: Question I think that the narrator of "Looking for Work" is attracted to the kind of family life portrayed on American television because he also wants to have a family like those, he wants to be rich and be liked by white people. He has an idea to be rich, and he wants it fast. Being nine year old, he starts out looking for jobs in his neighborhood. After doing two jobs, he earns a nickel, a quarter and two peaches. He has money, and he can do whatever he wants. So with a friend and his sister, they go swimming. Money, to him at this age, affects him greatly already. From his own family, he learns that without money, they'll always be poor and working class. He has the need to be higher in social class and he wants to be like rich people. He also wants to have a family and life like ones on television. From the shows he learns the way white people dress up to eat, their politeness. A perfect life, compared to his. As he eats dinner, he replays the show in his mind, he notices that his family's "loud with belly laughs and marked by our pointing forks at each other." (29) He finds this different and wishes his family to change; he does so by asking his brother and sister to wear shoes to dinner. However, his family did not cooperate and continued their life as usual. He is a colored kid who just wants to be liked by white people. This is shown later on, after dinner, when the siblings talk and the little sister asks, "What is the crap about getting dressed up?
As James matures, issues of race in his life became too apparent to ignore. His multiracial family provides no clear explanations on prejudices and racism, and when "[James] asked [Ruth] if she was white, she'd say, No. I'm light skinned,' and change the subject." Ruth avoiding addressing racial issues causes confusion within the siblings, which "perplexed [James] to the point of bursting. [He] took the question to [his] elder siblings Are we black or white?' [He] asked [his] brother David one day. I'm black,' said David. But you may be a Negro.' " James' family of a rainbow of color perplexes the ideals of race for James, causing questioning and insecurities within himself, noting that "being the token Negro was something I was never entirely comfortable with " As James begins his search for identity, he is halted by his mother's avoidance of rac...
Do you have any friend or relatives that are considered to be broken or disorganized family? Do you know that many disorganized family are likely to ties with their extended family? If you know any broken or disorganized families, you may realized that a broken family usually faced many difficulties, such as financial problem, missing family members, and they tend to be unhappy comparing to others. Moreover, missing a father figure in the house for a child could cause numbers of problems. In the novel “Looking for Work” the main character and also the author who named Gary Soto, a nine year old Mexican American boy, he was from a disorganized and broken family. That Gary desire to live out a life style just like the standard white American
During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result of the greediness and desires of the main characters to become rich and wealthy. These character placed throughout the novel emphasize the true value money has on a persons place in society making wealth a state of mind.
...l in life is an absurd assumption to make, according to Nick. As we can see, he did not believe this at the beginning of the story, since his dream was to go and explore the world and be a wealthy style person. It was after certain time that his mind began to realize the real importance of being a human. Accordingly to my thoughts and experiences, society lies in a simple avariciousness, which is defined as the unreasonably strong desire to obtain and retain wealth. From my experiences throughout my life I have realized that a greater percentage of the population of the world prefers to have wealth instead of living happy. I am not going to negate that having money can sometimes pull you out of deep problems, but we as human beings have to understand that richness is not the ultimate goal of life. Before it we must accomplish our self-esteem and social value goals.
In Arthur Miller's, Death of a Salesman, we see how difficult it was for Willy Loman and his sons to achieve this so-called American dream, and these people were proud white Americans. In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Son, she examines an African-American family's struggle to break out of the poverty that is preventing them from achieving some sort of financial stability, or the American Dream. It focuses on Walter's attempt at "making it," or "being somebody." She also analyzes how race prejudice and economic insecurity affect a black man's role in his own family, his ability to provide, and his identity. What Hansberry is trying to illustrate is how Western civilization has conditioned society to have materialistic aspirations and how these ideals corrupt the black man's identity and his family.
‘A date with your family’ video demonstrates the American family values in 1950’s. There were values and expectations, quiet distinct from today’s values. Everyone was expected to be punctual, neat, and tidy. Women in the house were expected to look dressed up and charming, not tired and in day-time clothes. Elder children taught good manners to younger ones. Girls in the family helped in kitchen. This era shows the value of little things in life by making this dinner time so important. Everyone in the family was allowed to talk only pleasant things that makes it look little unrealistic. What if someone didn’t have a pleasant day or someone is stressed out and this is the only family time to talk to everyone. What stood out to me the most in
One at a “joke’ and the other in disbelief and joy. With $20 the American boy would most likely waste it on some needless item. Yet the African would provide multiple meals for his family. This is due to the separate lifestyle each life, one wealthy, and the other in poverty. By being raised in two different classes the two have separate appreciation for money. The adversity that the African boy experienced gave him the traits of being appreciative and humble. The American could spot the $20 on the street and walk right pass it, while the African boy would carry cinderblocks to build a new well for his town just to earn enough to feed his family. The daily hardship that the African faces made him a caring, hardworking individual. The social class, and adversity is what gave the African his qualities and
The author seems to write the letter to his son as a warning. That since he is black, he will have to work harder and will have to carry himself in a specific demeanor in order to survive in white privileged
The American Dream defines us and is present in all aspects of our culture, including our literature and past social movements. In Steinbeck 's Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie dream of their farm, even when others tell them it is impossible. They believe the farm is obtainable despite their economic situation much like Americans believe peace and totally equality are possible , even though they seem out of reach. This idea appears again in Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby and Tan’s Joy Luck Club. Jay Gatsby longs to break free from his poor family and live a life of luxury. Through hard work and a little bit of criminal activity, Gatsby becomes one of the richest men on the East Coast. In Tan’s novel, Waverly Jong, a first generation Chinese-American, flourishes in her chess career despite the discrimination she faces as both an immigrant and a girl. Jong is victorious because she is confident and she seizes the opportunities she is given. Her perseverance and success against all odds embodies the idea of the American Dream. Countless social movements also attest to our country 's
Conley had more exposure to the idea of race than most children, growing up one of the only white kids in New York public housing projects populated by Black and Puerto Rican families. His parents were artists, whose low income and desire to break societal molds led them to apply for housing in the then fairly new projects. As most children are, Conley was at first fairly oblivious to race, a fact exhibited when, as he relates in one of several telling anecdotes, he kidnapped a black baby to be his sister, never realizing the difference in their skin color.
The opening section of this story is a third person narrative. The narrator immediately introduces a poor Chicano family with two young children. A few initial facts that the reader picks up in the opening paragraph are that both parents have to work, the children often play by themselves in back allies and carry their own keys, and the father has warned the children to always avoid the police.
The novel “The Great Gatsby” by Scott F Fitzgerald is a story with a man named Gatsby and a narrator named Nick Carraway it's about a man who lived in west egg who has all the money in the world and nick who is a up an coming rich guy. In the article “how money changes the way we think and behave” by Carolyn Gregoire it portrays the information that money affects the perception and mindset of the way humans live life. The fact that gatsby is slowly shown throughout the story has the reader always questioning what's going to happen next, it's important that some details are not shown till later in the story.
main idea discussed is whether or not being rich is a good thing. The story
The family’s poverty (which is partially due to the father’s absence) makes their future seem hopeless. The family lives in a poor, rural area, which was typical of black persons of their time. The family is crowded into a small, shabby home, so they must share rooms and beds. The family’s clothes are quite shabby too, for when James sees a mannequin in a store with new brown shoes, he looks at his own old shoes and thinks, “You wait till Summer…” The family does not even have enough money for some of life’s other necessities, such as food and medical care. For example, they eat bread and syrup every day for breakfast; and as James’ younger brother, Ty, said, “I’m getting tired of this old syrup. I want me some bacon sometime.” Beans are another bland food that J...
Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a non-fiction book written by Robert Kiyosaki. Kiyosaki takes us into his life to describe to us the difference between two separate households and how they manage money. When you first open up the book, you are immediately shown the confliction Robert has between choosing whose advice to follow. His biological father is known as his poor dad who is highly educated but doesn’t make the right choices when it comes to money. His rich dad isn’t his father but is a childhood friend’s father who is also trying to teach Robert how to manage money. Rich dad has very little education background but the way he deals with money is what made him successful. Robert’s poor dad views education as the main principle to success. As long as you do well in school, you will have a good steady job thought poor dad. Poor dad always stated “I’m not interested in money”, and “money doesn’t matter.” Rich dad on the other hand knew how to make money work for him not the other way around. He felt that in order to succeed and make a lot of money, you need to work for yourself and not others. Robert learned many lessons from both dads and he feels he is very fortunate to have had two father figures to teach him and give him examples on how to become rich and successful.