In a college government course, it is taught that America does not share societal culture because it has been founded on immigration. This means that there are many people who live in America with many different origins. Though it (America) has been founded on immigration and does not have a national language, the dominant language is English. School is taught in English, the majority of the people speak English, street signs are in English, so on and so forth. Immigrants that come to America who do not speak English may have trouble with feeling at home in their new environment. Some people even believe that leaving one’s home language for another denotes their cultural values. In Richard Rodriguez’s “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”
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He held on deeply to Spanish because it gave him a feeling of closeness and importance. Using this language at home made him feel comfortable in the fact that he could not interact outside of home and did not have a public identity. As long as he could go home at the end of the day and hear the embracing sounds of his family’s voice, he had no desire to broaden his outside appearance and identity. The turning point not only in his life, but also academic career began whenever nuns from his school showed up at his house to ask his parents to start speaking only English at home. His parents complied with the nuns’ request. From that moment on, Rodriguez rarely heard Spanish in his home. Though he struggled from the lack of comfort, he later felt that the loss of his native tongue made for a larger gain through the formation of his public identity. Rodriguez used his experience to show the reader the importance of public identity. There are times that Rodriguez is inconsistent with his main idea which brings the reader to feel sadness for the loss of his home language. He uses this tactic to show that even though it can be a very difficult and emotional task to assimilate, it is very necessary in order to become a part of society. Rodriguez states “…while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by being assimilated into public …show more content…
He used the example of how his family members began to name their children American names so that they could fit in to society better. Also, the way his stepfather, who went by Tony instead of Antonio, used his American name as a means of “access”. (3) These examples tied in Muñoz’s idea that there is a human desire to fit in. Muñoz says, “It applies to needing to belong, of seeing from the outside and wondering how to get in and then, once inside, realizing there are always those still on the fringe.” 4His family used their names to assimilate and as a tool to prosper. If they changed their names, it changed the way someone pictured them. Instead of society seeing his stepfather as a “vilified illegal immigrant”2 it changed their perception to someone who is a part of society simply through the change of his name from Antonio to
He held on deeply to Spanish because it gave him a feeling of closeness and importance. Using this language at home made him feel comfortable in the fact that he could not interact outside of home and did not have a public identity. As long as he could go home at the end of the day and hear the embracing sounds of his family’s voice, he had no desire to broaden his outside appearance and identity. The turning point not only in his life, but also academic career began whenever nuns from his school showed up at his house to ask his parents to start speaking only English at home. His parents complied with the nuns’ request. From that moment on, Rodriguez rarely heard Spanish in his home. Though he struggled from the lack of comfort, he later felt that the loss of his native tongue made for a larger gain through the formation of his public identity. Rodriguez used his experience to show the reader the importance of public identity. There are times that Rodriguez is inconsistent with his main idea which brings the reader to feel sadness for the loss of his home language. He uses this tactic to show that even though it can be a very difficult and emotional task to assimilate, it is very necessary in order to become a part of society. Rodriguez states “…while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by being assimilated into public …show more content…
He used the example of how his family members began to name their children American names so that they could fit in to society better. Also, the way his stepfather, who went by Tony instead of Antonio, used his American name as a means of “access”. (3) These examples tied in Muñoz’s idea that there is a human desire to fit in. Muñoz says, “It applies to needing to belong, of seeing from the outside and wondering how to get in and then, once inside, realizing there are always those still on the fringe.” 4His family used their names to assimilate and as a tool to prosper. If they changed their names, it changed the way someone pictured them. Instead of society seeing his stepfather as a “vilified illegal immigrant”2 it changed their perception to someone who is a part of society simply through the change of his name from Antonio to