High Horse's Courting

Introduction

Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood by Richard Rodriguez is an essay that shows his readers a part of life that many have never experienced. Rodriguez values this essay to show how he fights through his childhood to understand English. Speaking clear English will assist him to fit in to society. He faces society while forfeiting his happy home life, to trial to become a typical English-speaking student (Rodriguez, pp: 111).

Discussion

Richard Rodriguez wrote in his essay, Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood, about the struggles he faced increasing up as a bilingual Hispanic in American society. Throughout his essay, Rodriguez considered such topics as assimilation and heritage. He proceeds into deepness about the pros and the cons of being compelled to assimilate to the American culture. This was due to the fact that he was a Spanish-speaking young man living in an English-speaking society, and he felt like he was different than the other children. Rodriguez attended a Roman Catholic school where numerous of his classmates were the children of high-class lawyers and doctors. He felt out of place because he was a child of two immigrant, working-class parents. Assimilating to the American culture helped Richard feel more at ease amidst the other American students. In school, Richard talked English, but when he got home, Spanish was the language of choice. This had a positive and negative effect on him. By speaking Spanish, it helped Rodriguez preserve his own culture, but as a disadvantage, it yielded his learning of English. A couple of times Richard heard his parents speak English, but that was only in public. Rodriguez sensed safe in his Spanish speaking dwelling because it was familiar to him. English seemed odd and tough for Richard until a couple of of Richard's teachers visited his house. They inquired Richard's parents to encourage the use of English, by using it more themselves. As Richard started to discover English more and more, the high, troubling sounds of los gringos became unnoticeable to him. Learning English helped Richard to achieve numerous things. He started managing well in school, he made friends and he started to feel more comfortable talking to people. It furthermore had a negative effect on him and his family. Richard stated, I no longer knew what words to use in addressing my parents. By speaking English so much, a gap increased between Richard and his ...