In his poem “Running to America”, Luis Rodriguez writes that trying to achieve the American Dream requires many sacrifices. The beginning recounts an immigrant trying to cross over the border. “They are night shadows violating borders, fingers curled through chain-link fences, hiding from infra-red eyes, dodging 30-30 bullets.” The sacrifice starts before entering America. People sacrifice their lives, getting around guards and dodging weapons in the night, unable to see a thing. Another sacrifice that is made trying to have a chance at the American Dream is leaving home. “They leave familiar smells; warmth and sounds, as ancient as the trampled stones.” Leaving home means leaving everything you knew. Leaving the comfort and security of having
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The first sacrifice involves learning a new language, unlike their own. “The new language squeezed more color from that past, making it shameful-starving winds and nothingness.” Learning a new language is difficulty. Learning a new language that shames you is horrific. Being forced to learn a language to fit in and reminded of the past is not something that someone be required to go through. Furthermore, elders watched their memories being sacrificed. “The old thought it was a kind of madness. Everything that was so expensively forgotten.” The old worked hard and suffered to allow their children and descendents to have a chance to flourish in America. The current generation doesn’t seem to mind forgetting how they got their chance in America, forgetting their elders got them there in the first place. Finally, becoming American required people sacrificing the desire to teach their kin about their roots. “Later they prayed their children would have no accents, knowing how their own stubborn tongues kept them alien and laughable.” People didn’t want to teach their children their language. They hoped that their children didn’t carry any signs of their previous life in their old homes. They made the ultimate sacrifice of not preserving their cultural legacy in their children, hoping it would be forgotten instead. Vern Rutsala’s poem showed how becoming
The first sacrifice involves learning a new language, unlike their own. “The new language squeezed more color from that past, making it shameful-starving winds and nothingness.” Learning a new language is difficulty. Learning a new language that shames you is horrific. Being forced to learn a language to fit in and reminded of the past is not something that someone be required to go through. Furthermore, elders watched their memories being sacrificed. “The old thought it was a kind of madness. Everything that was so expensively forgotten.” The old worked hard and suffered to allow their children and descendents to have a chance to flourish in America. The current generation doesn’t seem to mind forgetting how they got their chance in America, forgetting their elders got them there in the first place. Finally, becoming American required people sacrificing the desire to teach their kin about their roots. “Later they prayed their children would have no accents, knowing how their own stubborn tongues kept them alien and laughable.” People didn’t want to teach their children their language. They hoped that their children didn’t carry any signs of their previous life in their old homes. They made the ultimate sacrifice of not preserving their cultural legacy in their children, hoping it would be forgotten instead. Vern Rutsala’s poem showed how becoming