Essay 2 Final Draft Matters

Tom Akbari ExpE25 Essay 2 Final Draft Matters 14 April 2011

Technical Matters  Check block quotation style  Essay titles in quotation marks, book titles italicized  Bibliographic style  Commas and periods placed within “quotation marks”

 No need to underline, make bold, or italicize your paper’s title, or place it in quotation marks  Spell out the names of centuries: twentieth century  Include last name and page numbers in upper right-hand corner of each page (but the first)  Use full name with first mention of writers (unless they are universally known by last name alone, as Shakespeare is).

AQ, Motive 1. If Rodriguez is correct then his assertions should be able to be extended beyond the language issue and bilingual education, into other facets of life. Is individuality achieved only once one is considered to be a member of a crowd, as Rodriguez claims? Is integration into society a necessary step to individuality? With close analysis of two other essays I think it can be proven that Rodriguez’s viewpoints are wrong, at very least in their absoluteness.

2. At first glance, the seemingly distinct essays of Carson and Rodriguez seem too disparate to compare. In truth however, both essays are about characters that begin in the private realm, pursue some good they believe is ahead of them and are alienated from their private realm by forces they fail to anticipate.

3. But, is it imperative for children to sacrifice their ethnic heritage in order to achieve the fruits of public individuality? I think not. Schoolchildren should not be put in a predicament where they are given an ultimatum to choose between family and future success. People need not relinquish their private individualities in order to achieve success with their public individualities. In fact, I wholeheartedly support the bilingual enthusiasts’ notions that it’s absolutely possible—and beneficial—to achieve a good balance in the students’ public and private individualities if family languages are allowed in schools.

Topic/Transition Sentenec 1. Unfortunately, the working poor striving for private individuality may find it beyond the extent of their financial reach, and see “purposeful” living synonymous with survival— survival that relies on public society for meager earnings and working poor classification. 2. When we bring the mindset of Eighner back to the claims of Rodriguez we can clearly see that Eighner was not assimilated into society as a prerequisite to individuality.

Sentence Revision 1. Thoreau’s journey represents the rejection of public society—a luxury not available to working individuals particularly those who labor relentlessly to sustain subsistence.

2. But sadly for Rodriquez after conquering the English language, in an effort to “belong” loses a private individuality he shared with his family.

3. Public has always been "out there", in the mix, mindlessly wandering at the mall; a spectacle and watcher to strangers in passing.

4. As his parents demonstrate a certain degree of societal interaction necessary for public access to help alleviate painful reminders of exclusion, Rodriquez points out:

a. “I was a bilingual child, a certain kind—socially disadvantaged-the son of working-class parents, both Mexican immigrants. My father had steady work. My mother managed at home. They were nobody’s victims. Optimism and ambition led them to a house (our home) many blocks from the Mexican south side of town” (Rodriquez 308).

5. According to Thoreau’s mindset such inane complications such as working for a living should be replaced with a simple survival, “Our life is frittered away by detail” (404).

6. Thoreau, Henry David. “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.” Cohen, Samuel. 50 Essays: A 7. Portable Anthology. 3rd ed. Boston/St. Martin's: Bedford, 2011. 403-409. Print.

8. When reading Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood by Richard Rodriguez you are introduced to a definition of public vs. private that is probably quite familiar.

9. We rushed to be packed in with people that we can then refuse to see.

10. Facebook. Facebook. Febuary 2004. 9 March 2011 .

11. It is truly bleak that one must give up their private individuality to succeed in the workforce and deal with the inevitable loses of intimacy over time.

12. In spite of the popular argument that bilingual education allows a person to maintain [his or her] their individuality, it is his view that there are two ways a person is individualized.

13. He says he has learned two things in his scavenging; the first is to take what you can use and let the rest go, and the second is the transience of material being. 14. He clearly separates himself from mainstream social groups with all he has learned, saying “between us are the rat-race millions who have confounded their selves with the objects they grasp and who nightly scavenge the cable channels looking for they know not what. I am sorry for them.” (Eighner 158).

15. A person does not have to assimilate oneself to the norms of the society they are living in first before being an individual in such society.

16. Yet, equally as critical, the immigrant must embrace their public identity.

17. Mukherjee, Bharati. “Two Ways to Belong in America.” 50 Essays; A Portable Anthology. 3 rd ed. Ed. Samuel Cohen. Boston and New York: Bedford 2010. 280-283. Print.