ipl-logo

Essay On Breaking Through By Francisco Jimenez

532 Words3 Pages

In the book Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez, the main character, Francisco Jimenez, learns to not let other people’s opinions of him affect his personality. In the beginning of the novel, Francisco tries his best to fit in and listens to his classmate’s interests so he can have something in common with them. However, as time passes, Francisco realizes that he is proud of who he is and where he comes from and learns to embrace that. Francisco and his brother, Roberto, go to a dance held at the Veterans Memorial Building every Saturday. At this dance, Francisco becomes friends with one of his classmates, Peggy Dossen. One day Peggy asks Francisco to walk her home after school, she invites him inside and Peggy’s parents hear his accent and ask if he is Spanish to which he proudly replies, “‘I am Mexican’” (Jimenez 39). …show more content…

Later on in the book, Francisco realizes that she was ignoring him because he is Mexican, he is furious and can’t understand why he is disliked because of his ethnicity. Even though some people see Mexicans as inferior, this does not waver Francisco’s pride for Mexico and who he is. Another part of Francisco’s personality is his love of learning, Francisco is determined to be a teacher and is willing to go through school while having multiple jobs to get there. Francisco keeps up his grades and works hard to eventually become class president to better his chances of getting into college. However, when Francisco tells his father about these plans, Papa bluntly states, “‘Don’t be stupid. Only rich people become teachers’” (72). This makes Francisco very angry knowing that his father does not believe in him, but Francisco still continues to believe in himself. Eventually, Francisco’s hard work pays off when he is accepted into the University of Santa

Show More
Related

  • Hunger Of Memory Richard Rodriguez

    532 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hunger of Memory is a memoir of the educational experience of Richard Rodriguez and his journey as a first generation Mexican- American citizen. The book is compiled of a prologue, in which he states his reasons for writing, and six chapters with no specific chronological order. Richard Rodriguez grew up in a white, middle-class neighborhood and attended a Catholic school. He describes his early childhood as a war between his “public” and “private life”: a war between school and home. He struggled when he first started school, because English was his second language and he felt insecure about his shaky ability to communicate through it.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Breaking Through By Francisco Jimenez

    825 Words  | 4 Pages

    Summary The book, “Breaking Through”, tells the story of Francisco Jimenez, also the narrator of the story, and his life as an illegal immigrant in the United States. When Francisco’s family came to the United States in 1947, 14 years later Francisco’s family would be deported back to Mexico (their home country). Once the family got their documents, Francisco and his brother Roberto would be sent back to the United States in order to earn money to be able to send their parents and other family members back into the United States.

    Read More

  • Summary: It's That It Hurts By Tomas Rivera

    454 Words  | 2 Pages

    “It's that it hurts” by Tomas Rivera is a touching personal narrative that focuses on the harsh reality of growing up mexican in America. The narrator gives you bits and pieces of what happened that day at school and allows you as the reader to braid together different strands of his narrative and interpret it the way you see it. He talks about being unfairly bullied by two white boys for being mexican and sent home by the principal who makes it clear that he couldn’t care less about expelling Tomas from school, stating over the phone, “I guess I’ll just throw him out”(140). On the way home Tomas was contemplating whether or not he got expelled from school and thinking of the consequences that would soon follow if he was. It hurt him that people were so racially discriminatory against him and that he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

    Read More

  • Patriarchy In Trujillo

    967 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since Oscar was young he seemed to be battling with the idea of being a “ True Dominican man”, constantly trying to mold himself into something he simply was not. This idea was something in which haunted him through the entirety of his brief life. Many people in his life pressured him, trying to make him this true

    Read More

  • Masculinity In Ysrael

    732 Words  | 3 Pages

    The stories of Junot Diaz feature various elements of social and personal issues that are highly prevalent in young Latinx men, primarily the compulsion and adverse effect of machismo, the poignancy of being an outcast in one’s community, and the lack of a father figure in a boy’s life. The first set of short stories prominently feature Ysrael, a Dominican boy whose face was disfigured by a pig when he was an infant. In “Ysrael”, he is the object of Yunior’s fascination, and the victim or Rafa’s (Yunior’s brother) torment.

    Read More

  • Essay On Enrique's Journey

    887 Words  | 4 Pages

    The book Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario is a nonfiction book based on a real story told throughout 367 pages. The reason why I decided to read this book is that it was highly recommended by one of my former English teachers. I was extremely persuaded to read this book by her but I also personally believed that by reading this book I would gain a new understanding of life by really opening my mind to new experiences that other people go through.

    Read More

  • Gloria Anzaldúa How To Tame A Wild Tongue Thesis

    102 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gloria Anzaldúa, in the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” (1987), claims her experiences as a Chicano taught her that her culture was not looked at highly in comparison to the English language. Anzaldúa argues her view about her Chicano language by giving examples of both cultures Chicano Mexican and American cultures. Anzaldúa’s purpose is to inform her audience on how it is to grow up in a Chicano speaking family. Anzaldúa writes in a frustrating tone throughout the story of her life experiences. Thesis: Anzaldúa use of her personal experiences, and Music, Film and Literature are relevant sufficient and

    Read More

  • Aria Memoir Of A Bilingual Childhood Analysis

    136 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez. The author uses his memoir to show how he has fought through his childhood to understand English and how the english language had formed his identity. To him, Spanish was a private language, spoken only at home and in the comforting presence of his family. The Spanish language allowed him to connect with his parents because that was all they knew. However, After he was somewhat forced to speak English by the public, he became an outsider to his own culture, unable to speak Spanish, but still able to understand it as it states “we remained a loving family, but one greatly changed.

    Read More

  • Breaking Through Sparknotes

    782 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although he did not know what college was until a late point in highschool, the counselor tells Francisco about college and how he can attend. He encounters a lot of struggles with his dad when he asks him if he can go. Eventually, Mama convinces Papa to let him go to college but Papa still was not very joyful because he did not want to be so far from his son, and even with the scholarships it is still expensive. “ [Francisco] [receives] the Alegra scholarship for three hundred and fifty dollars and the Kiwanis Club for two hundred and fifty; the Lions Club for two hundred and the Madrinas Club for two hundred,” (Jimenez, 179). This shows that when someone works hard to achieve their goals, they reach them.

    Read More

  • Themes In Mi Familia

    938 Words  | 4 Pages

    The immigrants entering the United States throughout its history have always had a profound effect on American culture. However, the identity of immigrant groups has been fundamentally challenged and shaped as they attempt to integrate into U.S. society. The influx of Mexicans into the United States has become a controversial political issue that necessitates a comprehensive understanding of their cultural themes and sense of identity. The film Mi Familia (or My Family) covers the journey and experiences of one Mexican-American (or “Chicano”) family from Mexico as they start a new life in the United States. Throughout the course of the film, the same essential conflicts and themes that epitomize Chicano identity in other works of literature

    Read More

  • How To Tame A Wild Tongue By Gloria Anzaldúa Analysis

    1103 Words  | 5 Pages

    Selena Quintanilla’s father once said, “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans.” In today’s society, many have encountered the challenge of not being able to be who they really are because they fear not being accepted by others, more specifically their culture. But, what happens when an individual is part of two worlds that have just as many rules? Gloria E. Anzaldúa was a Mexican-American writer and poet who made a major contribution to the fields of cultural, feminist, and queer theory. Anzaldúa identifies as a Chicana and speaks different variations of Spanish, some of which she exhibits in her works.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Richard Rodriguez And Anzaldúa

    701 Words  | 3 Pages

    Confident Relationships Built on Language Wouldn’t it be exciting to grow up learning more than one language? Imagine being in Japan for a week on vacation with a group of friends, and one day decided to go to the oldest zoo in Japan, Ueno Zoo. To get to Ueno Zoo, riding the bullet train was a necessity, except knowing which line was the correct line, when to get off the bullet train, or even which ticket to buy was a daunting task. Nobody in your group has the confidence to ask the workers for help since they don’t have the knowledge of Japanese to help them.

    Read More

  • Becoming And Going By Gerald Hill Summary

    430 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the poem, “Becoming and Going: An Oldsmobile Story” by Gerald Hill the speaker is traveling down a road in the Fort Qu’appelle Valley. He notices his father and his son are also driving down this road. The speaker then begins to list the two men’s characteristics. As he lists them we see that the father and the son have both similarities and differences in their personalities.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: The Myth Of The Latin Woman

    969 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María” by Judith Ortiz Cofer and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan depict the endeavors people take on in an attempt to integrate into society. Cofer demonstrates how stereotypes of Latina women have led others to misjudge her and explains the difficulty she had disassociating herself from those stereotypes. Tan demonstrates that the “broken” English her mother speaks has led others to think less of her and disregard her. One’s appearance instantaneously causes others to judge them. For some it is easier to blend in and be accepted by their community, but what is it that keeps some people from assimilating, and what effect does their otherness have on them?

    Read More

  • Pablo Escobar Essay

    1641 Words  | 7 Pages

    A drug lord, government official, hero, and villain. Pablo Escobar was born December 1, 1949 in a town named Rionegro, Colombia. His mother, Hermilda was a schoolteacher, and his father Abel farmed. Escobar had achieved a great quantity of accomplishments, from the beginning to the end of his life. From his rise as a lower class citizen, to then being amongst the prestigious group of people associated with the economic rank of the 1 percent.

    Read More

More about Essay On Breaking Through By Francisco Jimenez

Open Document