Class division and social status are two main themes throughout these readings. Some were harsher than others and some were just a realization of how sad our society has become. While reading "The House on Mango Street" I was introduced to a lot of things that I was not particularly aware of. Rape, abuse, control, and downgrading women. All things that happen, unfortunately, on a daily basis and are things that I just don't think about. So when I was reading this book, I really paid close attention to how the author wrote the story. She did not just come out and say that these things were happening, we had to infer them. It's like real life in that way, people who are victims of such things don't come out and talk about them. Other than that, this book does a fantastic job of showing how a low income, hispanic neighborhood functions. Esperanza, a young resident of Mango Street, is ashamed of her house. She has much bigger dreams of living a high class life - I mean who doesn't? She is always thinking of the future...what house are they going to live in next? Will it be nicer than the beat up bungalow they live in now? I think that this stems from insecurity. I peg her to be around middle school age, a tough age in general, let alone she is struggling with her hispanic heritage, social economic status, and looks. Throughout the book it seems as if she is having an identity crisis, she doesn't know really who she is or what she stands for. She wants to essentially live the "American Dream", to have a nice home, loving family, nice neighborhood where you don't have to worry about your neighbor (Sally in particular) getting abused or raped. She wants to live a happy, carefree life. And it's a shame that her family's social status has to hold them back from that.
This brings me to my next point. In the article, "For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall." The title could not be more accurate of the article. While reading this, I genuinely felt bad for Angelica, Bianca, and Melissa. They, like Esperanza, grew up in a minority, low income household. All three ended up attending college, but not necessarily succeeding at it. I think that a big problem for this is because they were too worried about how they were going to pay for it to really get the fun college experience. This article shows that low income families (like the ones in the article) - maybe education just isn't a top priority (to the parents) therefore, they don't save for it. Both the article and "The House of Mango Street"show low income families and the areas they come from. The areas they come from made a huge impact on their lives - it's as if the schools did not want them to succeed, like they were a lost cause. I think that the article is the non - fiction version of the story and "House on Mango Street" is the fictional version...either Angelica, Bianca, or Melissa could have grown up like Esperanza...wanting and wishing for something more out of life.
Chris Rock's skit was a good, light-hearted way to laugh about a deep issue. He pointed out that white neighborhoods typically don't have signs named after black people. I guess that's true. So as a joke - but not really - he went around petitioning to change a street sign to "Tupac Blvd". It was funny. However, most people - white people - were turned off by this notion. Without second thought, people automatically said no. It's hard to determine what the reason was for it. Because he was a rapper? Because he was black? Because they simply didn't want to change the street sign? I believe that they didn't want to ruin the reputation of their "hoity toity" neighborhood. They liked having the high class thing going on...and to them they associated "Tupac" with something negative. Really interesting. As for the song "Wake Me Up When September Ends", it deals with two teenagers (who from the looks of it come from a nice home, looked middle class. To them, they had it all. They weren't worried about money or wondering if they would fit in at school, or even college. Their attention - full attention - was on each other. Their happy-go-lucky love life comes to a screeching halt when he enlists in the army. I think this goes to show that nobody has it all. Even if on the outside it may look like they do - they don't. Just because this couple doesn't struggle with money doesn't mean they don't have worries themselves. In this case, in contrast to all the other things I have talked about in this blog, they are worried for his survival through the war. I think it was a good contrast to the other pieces we looked at for this unit because it showed a middle to high class people struggling too. It is important to never judge because everyone has their own levels of hardship they go through on a daily basis.
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