Thursday, October 30, 2008
Acosta's Childhood
I think that is is amazingly telling that Acosta's father was in the Navy. Essentially being an illegal alien, he pledged his allegiance to this country, one that has not particularly pledged their allegiance back. Oscar and his brother woke up daily to the Star Spangled Banner but now Oscar doesn't feel as though he belongs in the country at all. He is constantly asked what nationality he is but no one suspects Mexican American, unless they are referring to him in a derogatory tone. Acosta's writing portrays an unhappiness with who he is in drastic overstatements, and brutal honesty. For someone who at one time had patriotism engrained in his daily routine, it seems that Oscar has made an abrupt about-face.
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3 comments:
I think listening to the Star Spangled Banner and having his father in the Navy might actually be some of the reasons for his lack of patriotism. Others wanted him to be American when it was convenient for them but nobody really thought of him as American. So I think these attempts for artificially making him American just backfired.
I agree with Rali the basis of his acceptance as an American was purely convenience. I think that because he listened to the star spangled banner and his father was in the Navy gave him an internal sense of being American. But, all others saw him for what his exterior showed: dark skin. The false sense of being Americanized probably led him to his beliefs and actions.
Acosta mentions feelings of being alone and feeling like a stranger, a symbol of his struggle between two worlds- his ancestry and his American life. Although he is surrounded by both hispanics and whites, he feels like a stranger. “We were outsiders because of geography and outcasts because we didn’t speak English and wore short pants” (77). Simmel’s explanation of the stranger reinforces Acosta’s feelings. “The stranger is close to us, insofar as we feel between him and ourselves common features of a national, social, occupational, or generally human, nature. He is far from us, insofar as these common features extend beyond him or us, and connect us only because they connect a great many people” (2). Simmel classifies the stranger as “the potential wanderer” (1) – could this be connected to Acosta’s eventual break from life and runaway?
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