rodriguez versus harris
Samatina
Essay on “Complexion” by Richard Rodriguez and “Life Principles Integration” by Bill Harris.
In the essay, “Complexion”, Richard Rodriguez describes the effect of his dark complexion on his self-image as he grew from a child into a man in order to heal himself, understand how his dark complexion became the governor of his existence and also to help readers interpret their own beliefs regarding their own metaphorical “complexion.” He uses a surprisingly light tone to describe his feelings and issues with his complexion by giving readers an honest, broad, chronological and realistic set of his life experiences.
The author opens his essay by telling readers an early childhood experience in which his complexion plays a central role. Rodriguez describes a summer experience at a public swimming pool where for the first time, he is becoming aware of the different kind of relationship between his parents. He describes his mother’s “radiant, bashful and astonishing smile” and realizes that it was because of his father. At a young age, children tend to grasp all kinds of information and try to put the pieces of information together so that the small fragments add up and they are able to make sense of whatever is going on. The tiny little details that we pick as children are the ones that we build everything we learn on, even our beliefs. The interaction he witnessed between his parents was sort of a dawning on his part- a realization that there were different kinds of relationships leading to his first conscious sexual excitement. For a seven year old, this experience is one that signaled his growing up and should have been stored in his memory as an exciting first experience. Unfortunately, the positivity of this heightened sensation was dampened by his mother’s words directed at him from across the pool: “In Spanish she called through the crowd: ‘Put a towel on over your shoulders’. In public, she didn’t want to say why. I knew.” These words hit home at
Essay on “Complexion” by Richard Rodriguez and “Life Principles Integration” by Bill Harris.
In the essay, “Complexion”, Richard Rodriguez describes the effect of his dark complexion on his self-image as he grew from a child into a man in order to heal himself, understand how his dark complexion became the governor of his existence and also to help readers interpret their own beliefs regarding their own metaphorical “complexion.” He uses a surprisingly light tone to describe his feelings and issues with his complexion by giving readers an honest, broad, chronological and realistic set of his life experiences.
The author opens his essay by telling readers an early childhood experience in which his complexion plays a central role. Rodriguez describes a summer experience at a public swimming pool where for the first time, he is becoming aware of the different kind of relationship between his parents. He describes his mother’s “radiant, bashful and astonishing smile” and realizes that it was because of his father. At a young age, children tend to grasp all kinds of information and try to put the pieces of information together so that the small fragments add up and they are able to make sense of whatever is going on. The tiny little details that we pick as children are the ones that we build everything we learn on, even our beliefs. The interaction he witnessed between his parents was sort of a dawning on his part- a realization that there were different kinds of relationships leading to his first conscious sexual excitement. For a seven year old, this experience is one that signaled his growing up and should have been stored in his memory as an exciting first experience. Unfortunately, the positivity of this heightened sensation was dampened by his mother’s words directed at him from across the pool: “In Spanish she called through the crowd: ‘Put a towel on over your shoulders’. In public, she didn’t want to say why. I knew.” These words hit home at