Analysis Of Aria By Richard Rodrigria

Great Essays
Richard Rodriguez believes that the Americanization of a bilingual child will result in their public gain. “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez is a heart-wrenching piece of writing about the full Americanization of Rodriguez resulting in his native language of Spanish being forgotten and the full submersion into the English language. Many of the events Rodriguez faced in his life are present to many other bilingual students’ today. These events that bilingual students’ are facing will strongly influence their decision on struggling to learn two languages at a young age, stalling the development of one of their languages, or being forced to choose one language or the other in a full assimilation. Rodriguez’s viewpoint is that if you want to make a full …show more content…
Quan learned the English language because it is the dominant language of America. Being alienated from the public is a major problem for many bilingual children because they aren’t ready to step out of the comfort of their private language and enter the public language. Rodriguez explains how as a child he felt timid and shy because he couldn’t assimilate, but once he accepted his identity as an American citizen, he was able to open up and merge English as his public and private language. When Rodriguez discovered his identity he explains, “Only when I was able to think of myself as an American, no longer an alien in gringo society, could I seek the rights and opportunities necessary for full individuality. (33)” Rodriguez made sacrifices by giving up his culture and language in order to proceed farther in society and fully assimilate to the English language as well as American culture. Rodriguez claims that it is necessary to give up your culture in order to fully Americanize yourself because these sacrifices are required in order to step up and develop more in the society he is in. Quan gave up her language, but as a result she was further alienated as a result. Supporters of bilingual education believe that bilingual schooling will help students acquire skills required for public success while also giving an identity. Rodriguez’s viewpoint …show more content…
Quan disagrees with Rodriguez’s claim and actually retraces back to her old native language in order to retrieve the intimacy of her private family language. Rodriguez gave up his old language and culture and claims, “I would dishonor our intimacy by holding on to a particular language and calling it my family language. Intimacy cannot be trapped within words; it passes through words. (41)” He explains that your old native language being your sacrifice when you fully “Americanize” doesn’t mean you’re betraying your family or culture because intimacy passes through your words. Even after his family didn’t talk as much or wasn’t as close as they were when their private language was Spanish, they were quiet, but Rodriguez claims that he can see the intimacy from the little acts his mother or family would show to him. For example, Rodriguez still connected with his Grandmother even after he wasn’t able to speak Spanish. In Quan’s perspective, it was only when she relearned Chinese, she was able to reconnect with her father and retrieve that old intimacy she

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Seal Of Literacy Essay

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “The Bilingual Education Act was in acted as an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The goals of this program was to help educate Spanish speaking children in the late 1960’s. Activist argued for the use of bilingualism in schools pointing out the high dropout rates of Spanish speaking students. Slowly the atmosphere of English only, started to change as prominent politicians such as Lyndon b. Johnson advocated for the use of different languages, (Spanish in his case) in schools. Since then there have been ongoing struggles between the English only campaign and the campaign for bilingual education.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    also uses the three traditional means of rhetorical persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos to create a sense of moralcharacter,appeals to the audience’s feelingsand add more logic to his work. The author, a native Spanish speaker strongly speaks out against bilingual education. His position is based on his belief that “language gets learned as it gets used” (467). In other words, the learners master the language as they talk with other people and interact with them.…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The United States has rapidly conformed into a multiracial society. Bilingual individuals come to America in hopes to find equal rights and freedom and face discrimination by Americans. American values are forced upon these people and according to Tan and Anzaldua, a certain way of life is expected of them. The struggle of “fitting in” and accepting the cultural background is a major point in both essays, Mother Tongue by Amy Tan and How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua. Their experiences with the discrimination in the United States have given them they reason to stand against social inequality.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    During this essay, I will be discussing the differences between Gloria Anzaldua’s, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez’s, “ Aria”, as well as the similarities, to determine which one is a personal preference as an acceptable debate. Firstly, let’s go over the key details in each reading, starting with Gloria Arizaldua’s “ How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” This reading sort of threw me off in the beginning, but as you slowly and carefully read through it you gain its sense of purpose.…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rodriguez describes growing further from his family when he began to take on more and more speaking of the public language. He became more intimate with friends who spoke English as well and begins to realize the intimacy his family and family friends have with one another can’t be accomplished between them and English speakers. Even as his own siblings begin to adopt more of the public language, he becomes aware of the fact that, similar to himself, the…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Richard Rodriguez Aria

    • 1343 Words
    • 6 Pages

    He said that he had classified English and Spanish into two categories, English was the public language and Spanish was the private language. He stated “Spanish seemed to me the language of home, it became the language of joyful return” (Page 325). To Rodriguez Spanish was his comfort zone, it acted as a connection between him and his family, hearing it brought back good memories of security, it was a blissful language and every time he heard that language it made him happy. Spanish was what made him feel safe and joy, whereas English made him feel isolated from society. Eventually, though, through his parents’ encouragement he finally determined to learn English, the process to learning English was tough…

    • 1343 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While Rodriguez speaks from his personal experience about bilingual education, his experience can not be extrapolated to all bilingual people. Espada’s arguments focus more on fairness and justice for bilingual people as a…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The poem “Bilingual/Bilingue”, by Rhina. P. Espaillat describes how a young girl is struggling with her combined cultures and two separate languages. The girl was born in a Mexican family who speak Spanish, but she is bilingual(bilingue) and speaks both Spanish and English. The girl must must struggle with the fact father fears that, because she is bilingual, that she will lose the part that connects them together, that being their shared language. The poem utilizes language, imagery, as well as form to convey the overall message.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Amy Tan Comparison

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Assignment 3 Comparison Although Richard Rodriguez and Amy Tan both had a distinct perception of the importance of their intimate family language, they both had the same similarities of facing the struggles they perceived society required of them which was learning the English language. Both Tan and Rodriguez faced these struggles at different points of their lives and had to manage whether they would let the English language conflict with their family’s language. They are fighting to identify whom they want to be in society and whether they want to maintain their roots and language of their culture or adapt to where they now reside. Aside from their differences the similarities they both shared with each other was significant due to them being in the same position and deciding whether they wanted to…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For Rodriguez because his primary language was Spanish he he didn 't feel like he was treated like a true citizen; only when he was able to speak English fluently did he gain societal citizenship and the advantages that come with it. Krashen shows that student who are taught in both languages have been known to have both higher knowledge and literacy. Giving them a greater advantage and better opportunities than students in monolingual schools. This brings up the question that if Rodriguez had attended a bilingual school as child, would he still have the same opinion on…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Ricardo describes his childhood as a child of Mexican immigrant parents studying in an English school in America, where he had problems in communicating at school because he did not know the “public language”, English. At first, he was shy and timid at school because he was feeling uncomfortable with English, but with his parents’ and teacher’s help he “raised his hand to volunteer an answer”, from that day he “moved very far from the disadvantaged child”(288). He then started feeling as an American citizen. Although Rodriguez admits that he lost the strong intimacy at home with his parents, he emphasizes that the “loss implies the gain”(291).…

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Richard Rodriguez: I believe that the central point of the story is his family, and him had to learn the “public language” of English. He expressed that because his family had to learn English their whole demener changed. He reminisced about how he would call his mother and father when he was a child; he also talked about how he did not like the sound of the “ all American sound of the words” that the children use to refer to their mother, and father. I believe that this writer is very passionate about this topic. His tone is one of passion, as well as reflecting on what he likes, and does not like.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis: Positivity of Bilingual Education Bilingual education has positively affected foreign children with their overall lives. Kenneth Jost’s, Harvard College and Georgetown University Law Center alumni, article, “Bilingual Education vs. English Immersion” is about the positive significance of bilingual education in public schools. Jeff Bale’s, a language education professor at Michigan State University, article, “Bilingual Education is the Best Approach for English Language Learners” also explains why this type of education is effective for foreign students. Together, both of these authors provide an effective argument with the use of reasoning, credibility, and emotion, but also include logical fallacies. Jost’s and Bale’s…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is interesting how Diaz has chosen to make English a central theme in this section of the story -- English is of course the language the most spoken in America, yet sometimes we forget how important it is to be able to speak it. Also, when Eulalio says “you’re going to have to practice”, he says it so that it sounds like a requirement in order to fit in with the Americans. Although Ramón likes…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Statistics show that the Mexican-American race has the highest number of people that populate the United States, and this demographic continues to grow even more. A Mexican-American is an American of full or partial Mexican decent. My parents, both born in Mexico, migrated to the United States in search of a better future for themselves and children. Because of my Hispanic roots, and my birth in the U.S., I am considered a Mexican-American. As a result of my equivalent exposure to two different cultures, I grew up being bilingual.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays