The Bodega Dreams: A Lecture Review, writing homework help
Read the following literature piece below and answer the following questions below. Please provide feedback if something needs added.
The Bodega Dreams: A Lecture Review
I chose this particular reading because of the strong message it sends, especially in today’s political issues that we face here in our country every day. The message in this reading is clearly about immigrant kids trying to adapt to the American education system, while struggling with the everyday social constrains and different cultural views, such as racism. In this fiction novel, Ernesto Quinones was able to bring a little truth that some of these kids face when they are put in the same classroom with an old fashioned American teacher. Ernesto Quinones’ Bodega Dreams also shows us, that through this novel, the reality of today’s living conditions of these “so called” ghetto communities live, and how the author makes it easier for the audience to understand it far better, than any ethnographers are capable of doing.
Bodega Dreams is not a long reading, but very enjoyable. This is a story that is set in New York City, East Harlem to be exact, and the story is told by Chino, one of the main character of the novel and he is detailing all the issues him and his friends were going through in life as well as going back to when they were all attending Julia de Burgos Junior High. From the early beginnings these kids were faced with the adversity of their teacher crushing their dreams and make them believe that no matter how hard they worked to be successful, they were all going to fail. The teacher, who in the novel is identified as Mr. Blessington, was some sort of the dream crusher for these kids, who most of them already lived in difficult situations because of their social and economic status. The argument in Bodega Dreams covers a moral picture and social dilemma, as well as a particular social awareness, which is fully entwined to ethnicity and character formation. Chino is a half Puerto Rican, half Ecuadorian, whose willingness to learn helped him make it through his young life and all the baggage that came with it as a young boy growing up in those communities. The baggage I’m referring to are the street fights, the petty drugs used by teenagers, and petty crimes in general. I the novel we also meet Sapo, a young man that was nicknamed “Toad” which in Spanish is Sapo, for his looks. Even his father was a little ashamed of it (Marwell, 461). Sapo does not have the same luck as Chino in Bodega Dreams. His struggles with learning and also with Mr. Blessington got him to drop out of school. This is a latino kid that was told many times about he was going to fail and end up in jail at some point because of his ethnic background. Mr. Blessington had no faith in him at all, and he made sure that Sapo was aware of this any time he had a chance. During Chino, Sapo and Bianca and the rest of the kids childhood, they had a at least one person that believed in them, and try to get them to better themselves and work hard in school. This person was Jose Tapia and he was always reminding these kids how fortunate they were for being young, Latin and fortunate to be in this country (James, 121).
But the actual name of Bodega came from one of the characters, Willy Irrizarry, but everyone in the neighborhood called him Willy Bodega, who happens to be the drug kingpin character of the novel. He is very successful, and at times puts doubts in Chino’s mind about going through life in a different direction. Unlike Bodega, Chino and his wife Bianca, who is Chino’s high school sweetheart and expecting a baby are trying to move away from the “barrio” Chino, like Bodega, finds it hard to break his personal, social, and moral ties to the people who still live in the barrio. They also see how Bodega, a person who has never opened a book in his life and all the knowledge has been acquired by watching documentaries on television, is making through life and his living the life that they all dreamed of (Barajas, 14). On the contrary, Chino’s hard work and days spending studying is not paying so well, so he entertains the idea of maybe going that route. Chino’s conflicted view of Willy Bodega is very understandable that so far he still supports himself to the grand tale that promises him a reward for being a law-abiding citizen, hard-working, selfless and traditional. Based on a conventional moral framework, Chino’s dismissal of Bodega help us understand that because a person’s illicit acts make him very rich, can hardly qualify as a heroic figure because the way he acquired his fortune. Bodega on the other hand was seen in el Barrio as the Nuyorican Robin Hood who will give illicit jobs to the people in his community for a decent pay.
Ernesto Quinones is giving us a reality of what is going on in this communities and how easy it is for decent people to turn into criminals because it is they only way they would make a living. Some of these kids because of their social status have to worked harder than others in order to make it, because of their color of their skin, their accent or their background. Some of them never get out of the barrio. Quinones through his fictional language is presenting this argument and helping us to better understand this situation. There are communities still out there facing the same consequences, where Hispanic children cannot even go out on the street to play because of their immigration status. The story is also telling how different cultures clashes with one another, which in certain passages are said in Spanglish. This is giving us an idea that at some point they would be a great mixed of Hispanic in the U.S.
Please answer these questions from the above literature piece.
1. Who is the main audience?
2. What is the main idea presented herein?
3. What information does the reader need to know about the idea for it to make sense?
4. Are examples clear and appropriate? Tell how/why
5. Is evidence or support fro any claims provided?
6. Is the topic appropriate to the writing assignment? Does it need to be more general? More focused?
7. Are writer’s points organized in a logical way?
