Hunger Of Memory And Footprints On The Flag, By Richard Rodriguez

The United States has long been a place that promises equality and opportunity, bringing people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds to immigrate and seek a better future in america. Immigrants living in the United States face different challenges such as discrimination due to their skin color, cultural background or their English speaking skills. Particularly, excerpts from Richard Rodriguez’s hunger of memory and Footprints on the flag by Anchee Min will be the writings that will be analyzed. Although both authors are immigrants who share their unique experiences as immigrants living in America, each artist respectively focuses on separate problems that they face due to being from a foreign culture. The purpose of this essay is to

The first work of writing to be examined is Richard Rodriguez’s hunger of memory, a powerful and resonating book written to reveal the internal struggles that Rodriguez faced for being a son of Mexican immigrants. Moreover, in his autobiographical narrative he reveals that from a young age his life became plagued by discrimination and felt the blunt end of cultural disparity between his home and the outside world. Although he was noted for his writing abilities from a young age, nuns at the catholic school that he attended urged his parents to stop speaking spanish in the house in order to encourage Rodriguez's english skills. Imagery is used to describe the los braceros, who are the hard working Mexican men that are negatively portrayed in the story by Rodriguez. Despite the negative portrayal of the los braceros, Rodriguez watched them with a certain fascination even going as far as telling

Anchee Min was a writer who immigrated from China fleeing the communist party after she denounced her homeland. Notably, Min shares her perspective on American social ideals through comparing the way the star spangled banner is treated in comparison to how Min was raised to treat the flag of her homeland China. While watching people tread over the flag laid out on the floor, she routinely would do her best to clear off the footprints left by the shoes. Min showing her determination to keep the flag clean shows both the lingering habits that she kept from her childhood in China and the respect that Min has for the American flag. As a result, Min is able to appeal to the audience’s ethics by showing her dedication to the United States which provided her a safe haven from the communist party. In addition, Min heavily alludes to the stark contrast between the amounts of personal freedom that Americans have in comparison to the Chinese living under the control of Chairman Mao. After seeing how many Americans took the freedom that they had for granted, Min became frustrated and insulted that there were people who not only took all the freedom that they had for granted, but felt as if they still were under oppression. As a result of her frustration contributed to building the grateful but frustrated tone that is expressed in her essay. Along with