Summary Of Aria By Richard Rodriguez

Introducing a child to a whole new language and way of lifestyle, it abruptly impacts the child without any previous notice, is like throwing a newborn in a pool and expecting it to swim back to its mother, unreasonable and irrational. In Richard Rodriguez’s “Aria”, published in 1980, which previously appeared in the memoir Hunger to Memory, presents the genuine struggles that come in hand with adjusting to a new language and culture. It emphasizes not only the social aspects of a language barrier, but the emotional and physical facets of it as well. All these previously mentioned, are a great issue that affect many people no matter age or race, it is something that many have felt and gone through, at a point in their life, thus the importance

The main idea of the passage was the struggles Rodriguez faced when he was younger, but more specifically his bilingual conflicts that arose when he moved to the states. He also discusses his heritage and how he coped or assimilated with the emerging conflicts. Which also included his explanation over the advantages and disadvantages of being able to speak two languages at a time, and also being expected to accustom to the american culture, but in his case it was more like it was being forced or imposed on him to learn and live by the american culture. This is proven when rodriguez states that due to an “accident of geography” he found himself in a predominantly white classroom with the children of wealthy and powerful people. He also goes on and states that while he was ecstatic or “astonished” to be in a new environment most of his classmates were “uneasy to find themselves apart from their families, in the first institution of their lives” (Rodriguez,

Through his well written essay, Rodriguez clearly, and efficiently conveys his emotions and thoughts about the american culture, and english language, how they both impacted his life not only positively but negatively. He feels that the negative impacts overshadow the positive in regard to the way the situation at home changed drastically. Nonetheless Rodriguez’s appliance of rhetorical devices give an insight of the struggles and obstacles that many bilingual children go through, how their lives change and are never the same, after assimilating a new and different culture then, the one they are so accustomed to. This essay gives readers the possibility understand the message and emotions emitted by Rodriguez, to their own, and more strongly have a grasp of the concept and meaning of the essay. The result of analysing “Aria” leads to realization that the learning of two languages may better the future of a child, and that it will benefit the child academically and socially, when in reality the aftermath of having to adopt an entire new culture, and living by it will affect the child's emotional