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Alienation In Gary Soto's Black Hair

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In Gary Soto’s autobiographical piece “Black Hair,” he portrays a feeling of alienation. He describes a feeling of disconnection towards both his Hispanic coworkers, due to his language barrier, and feeling apart from the middle class family due he rented a room with, due to socio-economic status. Like Soto, I had a period in my life where I felt alienated from the environment I was in. My particular experience with this feeling of isolation took place in middle school, involving a group of girls that I had been friends with since Kindergarten. I had been glued to the hip with these girls since we were still wearing diapers, tapping away in our tap shoes at our dance classes together. As we grew older, we each displayed our unique talents …show more content…

I was exposed to a high-intensity of competitiveness and the attitudes that came along with it. My perspective on life and my personality were both changing quickly and I was beginning to like the person I was becoming. I was able to hold conversations and became much more social than I previously was too shy to accomplish. This newfound confidence solidified my feeling of separation between myself and the group of girls. Suddenly, the connection I felt with them all the years prior began to fade and it felt like I was talking to strangers whenever we communicated. At the time, this had such a huge impact on my life. I was in my peak year of middle school, I was starting to figure out who I was, and these were people I had grown up with and whose company I felt familiar with. I had decided to branch out and do something that I had not felt comfortable enough in my own skin to do. Receiving judgement for my own personal leap of faith, taught me that happiness within yourself is the most important happiness you can have. This made me think of myself as a strong person. My “friends” were not happy that something that brought me joy and more confidence. Consequently, I lost these friends but instead, made a handful more. I not only gained friends from cheerleading, but my new social-butterfly personality gave me the ability to

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