Somehow caught in a never ending battle of how to survive. For April Raintree, her battle was both hiding and finding her identity- spiritually, emotionally and physically. Even though April Raintree had so many defining moments in her life, the three main factors that shaped her identity was living with the DeRosier’s, the rape, and the death of her sister. When April Raintree was living with the DeRosier’s, they changed her identity drastically. By living with the DeRosier’s April was taught to hate her people, her family, but she also learned to stay strong.
Katherine Watson, the teacher, challenges the girls by portraying liberal ideas to the students. Their choices in life enables Watson to teach about the freedom and choice. Ms. Watson in The Mona Lisa Smile, shows how women’s lives were controlled by social structures, and examines their attitudes as a reflection of society, which is dominated my male figures. In this case Ms. Watson tries to empower the school culture and social structure. James banks defines it as a “process of restructuring the culture and the organization of a school to bring about education equality and empowerment” (Banks, 40-41).
Education plays an important role in the life of the authors. Both authors use this resource to defeat their condition. On “The Myth of the Latin Woman:I Just Met a Girl”, the author relies on education to
The understanding in the different cultures is the rite of passage transforms the child in to adult hood. It also prepares the child for her new life as a woman. The tattooing represents where the woman came from. They are tattooed heaviest when they will live far away from their birth village with their new husbands and families. Although it is of religious decent, I do not agree with the genital mutilation.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury here before you is Miss Emily Grierson, she is a woman with a very disturbed background. This woman had to face both social and personal hardships. Miss Grierson was more of an outcast then anyone else in the community. With the death of her father a piece of her died as well. She did not want to let go of him, she wanted him to be with her forever, however death came to him.
Many students, who aren’t from the states, have parents who have brought them here to better themselves and they must be efficient in English in order to communicate successfully here. Variation in dialect may affect a student in reading because of the language rules that were taught to them many years ago in their native language. The way that a letter or a word may be pronounced in their native can be pronounced totally differently in the English language. Students may tend to get annoyed or aggravated by the change which may hinder their ability to learn the new language. Teachers can promote dialect diversity by having students list different names for an item used by many cultures.
Jing-mei really does know who her mother is, but must be pushed into this understanding so that she can change her thinking patterns and grow. She is prevented from knowing her mother by believing that cultural differences kept them apart. Once she meets her
Amy Tan discusses how "broken" or "fractured" English used around the world compares to common English used in the United States (Tan 764). Tan believes that there is a distinct difference between common English and English used by outsiders. Tan uses her mother as the primary source of her inspiration. She discusses the power of language and the way in which it can create mental images, induce emotions, and improve our routines of communication. Tan includes personal encounters with her mother and explains how one's speech may influence how people perceive and respond to them.
The first key issue to be examined is how bilingual children are forced to negotiate between their ethnic and “mainstream” cultures by making linguistic adjustments in order to participate in today’s society. Children learning a second language experience extreme pressure when entering classrooms of English speaking in schools. As stated in Fillmore (1991, pg 342) children feel that in order to be accepted into this new social setting they must learn English as they begin to realise that they are ‘different’ and feel that this change is necessary in order to participate and fit in to their ‘new world’. They are motivated to stop using their primary language and give up on this cultural aspect of their identity before they have even completely mastered English as their second language. The younger the children are when they experience these ‘assimilative forces’ the greater the effect is on losing their primary language all together.
At home, I try to speak with her in our native language demanding her not to speak English. I am afraid that she will forget her Mother Tongue. At school and out of it she speaks English which is good for her. From the article it is clear that environment plays its great role, it helps her learn much. At the same time, I am happy to hear her speaking good English.