Preview

American History

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
345 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
American History
American History Précis
In the short story American History by Judith Ortiz Cofer encourages us to understand our own feeling and being sensitive to the situation around us before we act. Cofer supports her claim by describing Elena’s insensitivity to the president’s death visiting Eugene while everyone was still mourning. Eugene’s Mother assumes that Elena, her family, or Puerto rico immigrants in general are insensitive to the tragedy. “I don’t know how you people do it,” pg 301 Eugene’s mother also doesn’t understand immigrants and believes herself superior to both Elena and people who are similar to Elena, she believes that she is not sorrowful enough about president Kennedy’s death to want to study with her son. However she doesn’t understand Elena’s feelings of simply wanted to spend time with Eugene, whom she liked and could connect to.” In the same was Elena also fails to understand the situation around her. The author uses dialogue as her mother warns her “you are heading towards humiliation and pain” pg 300. Unlike Elena, her mother understands the situation around her knowing that Eugenes mother won’t be happy that Elena want to study with her son. The author encourages to understand people feelings around us in order that we can be sensitive to them, which will prevent “humiliation and pain.” The speaker in this short story is an innocent young girl called “skinny bones” who goes through hardships and trouble at school. She lives in the crowded el building that houses immigrants from Puerto Rico like herself. Her tone can be described as unhappy and uncontent with her life “I hated my skinny flat-chested body, and I envied the black girls who could jump rope so fast their legs became blurs. The author writes with a serious tone as she portray the hardship immigrant children faces during this time period. Judith Cofer writes for other young adult who are also developing through hard times, portrayed Puerto Rico – American immigrant life and the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Furthermore, she recalls “Cynthia” as another girl to whom she has little affiliation with. Similarly, the readers can conclude that a change our surroundings may not always confer a change in identity. In contrast the information concerning the immigrant’s past justifies her desire to learn; Mora uses a vivid description, “she opens the ugly, soap-wrinkled fingers of my right hand... my hand cramps around the thin hardness” From this use of imagery, it becomes clear that the immigrant is accustomed to hard work in…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ap us history

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages

    3. John Smith might have made an agreement with Powhatan, but the Indians had promised that the sky would fall before the peace between the colonists and Indians would dissolve. The Indians broke this promise though and attacked the colonists killing 347 men, women, and children. John Smith might have said that this was the reason the colonists could not be peaceful with them.…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Section 2 The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution to define clearly the rights and freedoms of…

    • 521 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    American History Quiz

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages

    25 questions will be chosen from the list of the following 61 topics. 3 points are required for each topic. Read the question alone very carefully; be aware of what exactly he is asking for.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    American history section 1

    • 4348 Words
    • 18 Pages

    How did British mercantilism affect the colonies? Mercantilism greatly affected the society and culture of the colonies. The colonists adopted customs of England, bought English goods, and also took on most of England’s ideas about politics and education. Most people believed that the colonies were outposts of the British world.…

    • 4348 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    stereotyping latin women

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Judith came from a Puerto Rican family that lived in Jersey. Throughout her life she was put into situations of others stereotyping her for being a Latin woman. One of those times was for Career Day at her catholic school. The girls were supposed to dress formal with the tailored skirts and silk blouses to look professional. However, she wasn’t dressed appropriately to the occasion and that caused her teachers as well as her classmates to look at her as a “negative models” Another one of her experiences was at first formal dance where the boy she went with kissed her, and when she didn’t go along with it his response was “I thought you Latin girls were suppose to mature early.” The next thing that happened at a hotel she was staying. As she was walking to her room she ran to a man and her daughter. He soon began to sing part of a song, “Don’t cry for me, Argentina”, and after that a famous Spanish song “La Bamba”. To the men and the others around him it was an innocent joke to make others laugh, but for Judith it wasn’t funny at all, she took offense to it. Simply because they were Latinas the man found it perfectly fine to sing Spanish songs, to make it seem funny. Latin women are often portrait as only working in factories or having housemaid jobs because of the lack of skills they have and because of the little English they know. She stated “The big and little screens have presented us with the picture of the funny Hispanic maid.” I come from a Mexican family and throughout my whole life have also experienced some form of stereotyping. I was born in Mexico and came to the United States when I was eight. Some people assume that my family was poor in Mexico and that’s the reason why we came here, and that’s completely wrong. My parents were teachers, we had a decent house and we had a car. The most common one that most Hispanic girls have to deal with is being asked about their quinceanera. Of course it’s a tradition for girls to celebrate…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Afican American History

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparing and contrasting urban/city slavery in the north with the rural/plantation slavery in the south in the 1700s have many differences but there are some similarities during this historical time. Institution of slavery was profitable in both the North and South. Slavery was more profitable in the South than North due to the South being much suited for farming. African slavery is so much the outstanding feature of the South, in the unthinking view of it that people often forget there had been slaves in all the old colonies. Slaves were auctioned openly in the Market House of Philadelphia; in the shadow of Congregational churches in Rhode Island; in Boston taverns and warehouses; and weekly, sometimes daily, in Merchant 's Coffee House of New York. Such Northern heroes of the American Revolution as John Hancock and Benjamin Franklin bought, sold, and owned black people (Harper). In addition, both regions suffered with racial equality.…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    us history

    • 2005 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The American Revolution was a war between the thirteen colonies of America and the British that took place from 1775 to 1783. The colonies, which had not yet been unified, wanted freedom from the domineering British and their "taxation without representation". This saying, coined up twenty years prior to the beginning of the war, was a major slogan for the revolutionaries. The quote means, "If citizens are not represented in the government, then the government should not have the authority to tax them" . In the French and Indian War that lasted from 1754 to 1763, the British, ultimately victorious, fought the French over the control of territories in America that both sides claimed they owned. The war was very expensive for both sides, and the British decided to make up the money by taxing their colonies in America. Debating the validity of England's legal power to tax them like this, the colonies grew resentful of their mother country. Multiple taxes came about, and the most crippling one to the colonists was the tax on tea, which was "an entering wedge in the great dispute that was finally to wrest the American colonies from England" . The infamous Boston Tea Party in 1773 would result from the tax on tea, and the continuous conflicts escalated to a war about a year and a half later. Saving the contents of the war for the rest of the paper, the colonists, against all odds, managed to defeat the British and maintain their independence they established during the war. The answer to "How were the Americans able to fight their way to victory?" is still debated over today. Many historians claim that the group of colonists was just the mouse in between the two elephants, the French and the British, fighting and that the elephant on the mouse's side, the French, was victorious. However, this is untrue because the Americans did in fact play a major role in the gaining of American independence in the mid…

    • 2005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Julia Alvarez “arrived in the United States at a time in history that was not very welcoming to people who were different.” Alvarez was stereotyped and hurt because of her ethnic background. Her tone emphasized the depressing nature of the situation and the disappointment of losing everything and the treatment receive in the USA. Her tone of depression and disappointment emphasizes the pain she experienced because of the judgment in America. As her essay comes to a close her tone shifts to hopeful and relaxed. Alvarez is accepted into America “through the wide doors of its literature.” Her introduction to literature allowed her to begin to feel accepted into society. Since Alvarez is accepted into society because of her assimilation through literature she becomes hopeful for her new prospect and relaxed to finally be understood. Overall, the tone shift from depressed and disappointed to hopeful and relaxed is significant because it emphasizes the central idea of mistreatment occurring within a new society and leads to acceptance with assimilation.…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “American History X” is a movie that depicts the life of a young white supremacist named Derek Vinyard and his younger brother Danny. Growing up in the suburban area of California, the boys are faced with many ethnic backgrounds and cultural differences. When their father, a fireman, is shot and killed by a black man Derek strives for white supremacy in his small area. Following the most infamous leader and supporter of white supremacy in southern California, Cameron, Derek creates a following of “Skin heads” that include his younger brother Danny. The story follows the life of both Derek and Danny as Danny examines the life events that have shaped his families life. Through “American History X”, the viewer is exposed to many social psychological principles including racism, aggression, violence, conformity/social influence, stereotyping, prejudice and conformation bias just to name a few. Most frequently I saw in many scenes conformation bias and stereotyping being implemented.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    history

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Essay Question: Underlying causes of 1905 revolution in Russia were not political. Whatever else the revolutionaries wanted it was not to overthrow the Tsar. How far do you agree with this claim?…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    History

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages

    CURRICULUM VITAE Zwakele Khumalo Personal Details Surname Khumalo Gander Male First names Zwakele Treasure Residential area House No 180956, Inanda mission Inanda Identity number 8008055870088 Nationality South African Home language Zulu…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    History

    • 1744 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The folk wisdom that Filipinos are a gay-friendly people must have first been mouthed by a wide-eyed tourist one lazy orange afternoon, assaulted by the vision of flamboyant transvestites sashaying down Manila’s busy sidewalks in broad daylight. Swiveling their hips from side to side, nothing seemed to threaten these chirping damsels except their heavy pancake makeup, which could run at any moment under the sweltering tropical sky.…

    • 1744 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    History

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This training was conducted from November 20, 2012 to January 11, 2013 at RCBC Savings Bank Ortigas Extension Branch located at G/F Prudentialife Bldg, Ortigas Avenue Extension, Brgy. Sta. Lucia, Pasig City.…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    History

    • 546 Words
    • 2 Pages

    History is one of the oldest subjects of study. By history we understand the breadth, comprehensiveness, variety and extent of learning experi­ences, provided by the study of a particular subject. The growth of history has accompanied with the growth of human race. Thus history and man are inter-related or that history is a story of human race from beginning up to the present day.…

    • 546 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays