Critical Analysis of Richard Rodriguez's Work “Aria”: Advantages and Consequences of Incorporating English into His Life

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Language can define a community in a negative way by making those who do not speak the language well or overall can not understand it, feel left out and alienated from the members of the community. However, language can define a community in a positive way by empowering cultural values and embracing one’s ethnicity and origins. This can also create a stronger and closer community.

What Rodriguez means in the statement is that when using a family’s language in school is causing the intimacy and privacy revolving the language to diminish and be exposed to the public. However, I challenge this assertion made by Richard Rodriguez. I personally have witnessed how a child can speak his family ́s language in school and still obtain the intimacy of the relationships. When I was in elementary school there was a transfer student who came from Mexico not too long ago during that time. He became my partner in class and since he knew fairly little Spanish, I became his translator as well. He would always speak in his native language and the close bond he had with his family didn’t change when he learned English and began to speak it frequently. This is why I believe Rodriguez is incorrect when he states it is not possible to speak the family ́s language without trivializing ¨the nature of intimate life,¨ (Rodriguez, 313).

An aria is a Spanish translation of “area.” I think Rodriguez chose it for his title because it relates to the topic of his autobiography and the struggle he faced due to not feeling like he and his family fit into an area during his childhood. I do believe it is an appropriate title because it is intriguing and gives the reader some insight on what the passage will be about. I also believe it is effective because it summarizes the subject of the text in one word and it since it is in Spanish it combines that aspect of his childhood and ethnicity as well.

What Rodriguez means when he says this statement is that he refers to the public world. The first part of his statement means that his parents’ accent was not an obstacle in terms of communicating what they needed or that it had consequences. However, in the second part of his statement he states that it also did matter because in a way he felt embarrassed and it was unsettling how his parents would struggle.

In my opinion, Rodriguez does not fully convince me that this change in family relationships is worthwhile in terms of his ̈dramatic Americanization,¨ (para. 37). This is because a family bond to me is something sacred and vital. Sure, Rodriguez may have obtained advantages in return for the changes but his intimate family bond will be difficult to reconstruct to the level it used to be.

The thing that Rodriguez means in the statement is that while he was becoming more comfortable with English, changes to his public and private identity were being made. For instance, he states how his private identity ̈diminished ̈ meaning that he was becoming more distant from his Mexican and Spanish speaking background. However, his public identity was obtained and he no longer felt unsettled, awkward, or alienated in public around the ̈gringos.¨

The narrative contributes to the effectiveness of Rodriguez’s argument by incorporating his personal experiences which establish his credibility. His narrative also contributes to the effectiveness by providing as evidence for his argument and create an emotional appeal to the audience.

Throughout the text, Rodriguez identifies and rebuttals various counterarguments. One major counterargument is found towards the beginning of the passage when he states that, ̈Supporters of bilingual education today imply that students like me miss a great deal by not being taught in their family ́s language,¨ (Rodriguez, pg. 308). Another counter argument he addresses is towards the end of his letter on page 312. He states that he hears ̈bilingual educators say that children lose a degree of ¨individuality by becoming assimilated into public society.¨

Rodriguez develops his argument using personal experiences and opinions. I do believe he is still convincing because an experience can not be compared to numbers or data. An experience is something not all can relate or obtain. However, I do believe a bit of formal evidence would have strengthened his argument because it would have backed up his opinions with facts.

The competing communities of Rodriguez’s public and private impact the development of his personal identity by causing him to become confused and lost for a time. The competition between them also impacts the development of his personal identity by allowing him to have two parts which can be seen in his private and public life.

I do agree with the statement made by Rodriguez in the 1994 interview. This is because he describes the cliche of how the ¨American campus¨ views multiculturalism versus what people actually mean when they say multiculturalism. I also agree with him because as a Mexican I can say that I search to find other Mexicans who share the same ideas, cultural values, and opinions as me.

Rhetorical Precis

The selected passages from “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez narrates his journey of how the English language changed his childhood. Rodriguez begins by claiming how before he and his family spoke English regularly, the public world was challenging and unsettling, develops by explaining how he felt secure and comforted in the private Spanish speaking world created by his family, and concludes by demonstrating how English invaded their private world and caused a rift in his family but also came with advantages in the public world. His purpose is to inform immigrants of his love hate relationship he created with English during his childhood in order to depict how it helped shape into the man he is today and how the journey was necessary to add on to his “public individuality”. Rodriguez constructs a serious and informative tone and appeals to the audience and their understanding of the hardships of being an immigrant and feeling alienated.

Analytical Argument

The general argument made by Richard Rodriguez in his work, “Aria,” is that there is a cause and effect for everything. More specifically, Rodriguez argues that although the incorporation of English into his daily life may have altered the relationship with his family, it was essential to create his public individuality. He writes that “the changes in my private life after my Americanization, it is finally to emphasize the public gain,” (Rodriguez, 313). In this passage, Rodriguez is suggesting that the advantages he gained should not be shadowed by the changes made to his family. In conclusion, Rodriguez’s belief is that struggle is needed to thrive.

In my view, Rodriguez is correct, because with difficulties and changes one learns to succeed in life. More specifically, I believe that with one negative thing comes at you, a positive one will appear. For example, his family bond became a bit distant but without the incorporation of English into their lives, he wouldn’t have achieved the advantages he has today. Although Rodriguez might object that it will never be easy for him to “hear intimate family voices,” I maintain that he and his family can create the bond they had before and slowly incorporate more Spanish into their private life as they used to.. Therefore, I conclude that putting aside the changes made to his private world, Rodriguez benefited from learning the “public language,” (Rodriguez, 313).

Intro and Body Paragraph:

In Richard Rodriguez’s ̈Aria,¨ he narrates his journey of how the English language changed his childhood. Rodriguez develops this narration by explaining how he felt secure and comforted in the private Spanish speaking world created by his family, and by demonstrating how English invaded their private world and caused a rift in his family but also came with advantages in the public world. The purpose of the narration is to inform immigrants of his love hate relationship he created with English during his childhood in order to depict how it helped shape into the man he is today and how the journey was necessary to add on to his “public individuality”.

Conclusion

Towards the ending of the text, Rodriguez illustrates the advantages and consequences of incorporating English into his public and private life. For instance, as he rebuttals a claim made by bilinguists, he writes how they fail to realize that ¨by becoming assimilated into public society,̈ it is therefore possible to achieve ¨public individuality,¨ (Rodriguez, 312). The purpose of this statement is to give an example of an achievement he obtained on his journey. In addition, he also writes how he lists the changes to his private and family life ¨to emphasize the public gain,¨ (Rodriguez, 313). The purpose of this is to directly state how with a loss, a gain is introduced.

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Critical Analysis of Richard Rodriguez’s Work “Aria”: Advantages and Consequences of Incorporating English into His Life

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