Rodriguez’s essay, Aria, shares his experience of growing up bilingual, and what it was like to go to an American school after speaking only Spanish for his entire life. He wanted people to understand and connect to his life story, which I did because I also grew up bilingual. I wanted to share the transition I went through from my elementary school years, which was tough, to my life right now because both experiences are interconnected. Both Rodriguez and I used antithesis, first person pronouns, and diction to convey the struggle that our younger selves went through and how it connects to our current perception of school and society.
Modeling Rodriguez's essay, I contrasted my younger self’s perspective on language compared to now. The antithesis …show more content…
There is a deeper meaning when first person pronouns are used within our essay because people can see what we are reflecting back upon. By using “I” we become vulnerable and it is easier for a person to relate, since the reader is in the person’s shoe. I attempted to paint an image of my first day of school, when I felt separated from my mom, “Slowly, dreadfully, I tried to buy time by making a scene on the my first day of kindergarten. For 30 minutes, I grabbed onto my mom’s blouse until the teacher separated us; the action that created a barrier between society and me.” This was a mirror of Rodriguez’s introduction, “I remember to start with that day in Sacramento-a California now nearly thirty years past-when I first entered a classroom, able to understand some fifty stray of English words.” (303) If Rodriquez and I formed our essay upon third person pronouns, the entire thing was like, “Rodriquez did this” and “Jacquelynn did that,” which loses the meaning of struggling in American society as a bilingual student. By doing this, the reader sees through our eyes what it is like to grow up in a household that didn’t speak English and then obligated to attend a school that only speaks the language.
The reader wants to learn about the life of a bilingual person because she may feel connected to our background, so Rodriquez’s and used antithesis, diction, and first person pronouns, to make the essay more relatable. It was important that within our anecdotes, we provided a vulnerable side to ourselves because
Modeling Rodriguez's essay, I contrasted my younger self’s perspective on language compared to now. The antithesis …show more content…
There is a deeper meaning when first person pronouns are used within our essay because people can see what we are reflecting back upon. By using “I” we become vulnerable and it is easier for a person to relate, since the reader is in the person’s shoe. I attempted to paint an image of my first day of school, when I felt separated from my mom, “Slowly, dreadfully, I tried to buy time by making a scene on the my first day of kindergarten. For 30 minutes, I grabbed onto my mom’s blouse until the teacher separated us; the action that created a barrier between society and me.” This was a mirror of Rodriguez’s introduction, “I remember to start with that day in Sacramento-a California now nearly thirty years past-when I first entered a classroom, able to understand some fifty stray of English words.” (303) If Rodriquez and I formed our essay upon third person pronouns, the entire thing was like, “Rodriquez did this” and “Jacquelynn did that,” which loses the meaning of struggling in American society as a bilingual student. By doing this, the reader sees through our eyes what it is like to grow up in a household that didn’t speak English and then obligated to attend a school that only speaks the language.
The reader wants to learn about the life of a bilingual person because she may feel connected to our background, so Rodriquez’s and used antithesis, diction, and first person pronouns, to make the essay more relatable. It was important that within our anecdotes, we provided a vulnerable side to ourselves because