Perez is writing about a time period when she was 4-6 years old. Some of the time, she writes from the perspective of her adult self, looking back, and sometimes, she writes from the perspective of a child w/ a child's naivete. Can you point out examples of each?
Why does Perez use Spanish in an English-language memoir? Why do the nuns demand that she speak English? Why do they refuse to call her Rosie?
Why did Sister Elizabeth-Claire get so angry when Rosie kicked her? (p. 35-36)
What place does popular culture (music, movies, etc.) play in the memoir so far?
What questions do you have?
Welcome to the blog for Prof. John Talbird's English 101 class. The purpose of this site is two-fold: 1) to continue the conversations we start in class (or to start conversations before we get to class) and 2) to practice our writing/reading on a weekly basis in an informal forum.
Perez in the beginning of the book explained the situations that went down for example on pg6 where she explained what happened during the relationship between her father and mother settling in with 5 kids and her mother going on a rampage while in her pregnancy leading on towards jealousy, as well as unprovoked violent outbursts, combativeness, rage, and even paranoia. An example to which Rosie Perez would write in the perspective of a child was when her mother came back into her life after 3 years apart to only take her away from her aunt explaining her confusion to which one was her real mommie either her Tia or Lydia.
ReplyDeleteRosa Perez was born and raised with her aunt and family members for 3 years so she developed a habit in speaking both languages together, but since she was sent to the "Home" she were only to speak English due to her being a child of God in this situation and that she would be called by her real name and not Rosie in order for her to forget her past and follow their ways of teaching, behaving and understanding.
Sister Elizabeth-Claire and the kids all knew that in the "Home" you are not supposed to hit nuns never, she wanted Rosa to learn from her mistake of wetting the bed by giving her a proper spanking but she obviously didn't want to get spanked cause of fear.
Popular culture in this reading so far plays a major role for Rosie as a child watching movies such as The Little Rascals, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Flying Nun, providing her some sort of comfort and an escape place for her from the world as well for music, she loved to dance since she was a child, so any time she would hear certain songs she enjoyed listening, she couldn't help but just start dancing.
Only question I have is if Rosa's father ran away and never come back but ended up doing so later on since she was born and taken care of by Rosas tia why couldn't he just claim her as his own or at least try to be a father figure of some sort in her life.
Jose:
DeleteGood responses. What's a "proper spanking"?
I think that Rosie Perez uses Spanish because the three years she spent with her tia she learned Spanish. The nus want her to only speak English because in the home that is what they speak. The nuns don't call her Rosie because they want her to start over and forget about her past which also includes speaking Spanish.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Claire got angry when Rosie kicked her because in the home you are not allowed to hit the nuns. She spanked Rosie so that she would learn not to pee her bed.
Rosie uses Spanish in an english memoir because Spanish was the language she learned and spoke the three years she lived with her Tia. The nuns demand that she speak english because they said that is the language that God's children speak. They call her Rosemary because they want her to forget where she came from, also about her beautiful and lovely family that she had and all her memories etc.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth-Claire go so angry when Rosie kicked her because in the home you are supposed to respect the nuns and follow the rules or get spanked.
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ReplyDeleteAt the preface page, In her adult perspective, she talks about her childhood, and her relationship about her mom. when she start telling her story, she used her self as a child perspective to guide the readers of what is happening.
ReplyDelete2. In Tia's house, Rosie can speak spanish freely and listen to spanish music. She will also dance with her cousins.
3. Elizabeth Claire got angry because Rosie defend herself by kicking her, but in Home , you were not suppose to hit and respect the nuns.
4. In Home, Nuns demand Rosie not to speak Spanish and want her to adopted the rules in Home. Also they called Rosemary instead of "Rosie" because it has some connection with the God. In my thought, I felt like the nuns want her to forget everything in past and changing who she is.
Will Rosie fight against the hard challenges and comeback to her aunt Tia completely? I hope so!
I think Perez use Spanish is because she spoke and learned Spanish before she was sent to Saint Joseph’s catholic home. She was born in a completely different environment before she was in “the Home”, so she use Spanish let reader empathy.
ReplyDeleteThe nuns want her to speak English and refuse to call her Rosie is because they wants her to forget the pass and start a new life.
Sister Elizabeth-Claire gets angry because the children need to respect nuns and listen t their command.
When she with Tia, they watch movies together and she likes to watch TV show and dance with music.
ReplyDeletePerez uses Spanish in an English-Language memoir because her native language was Spanish and she belonged to a Latin family so she probably wanted to set a catchy beginning to her story. Also this book is her remembrance of her past life and past events so it seems valid to use Spanish words because she was defining his character who was also Latin just like her.
The nuns demanded that speaks only English I think would probably so that she can learn other language, English or it might help her forget her abusive past and help her start new beginnings.
They refused to call her Rosie would be the reason they used formal Language in which you say full name of a person. It could be also so that kids there in that school can learn some manners including formal language step by step.
Sister Elizabeth -Claire got so angry when she kicked her because Rosie was gong against the rules which were, the students could not hit the nuns.
The Pop culture music and movies that played in the memoir so far was at Rosie's Tia's place when they watched operas, listened songs on the record player or danced on pop songs at the parties at her house.
This book is interesting, enjoyable and at times, predictable. So far, not experiencing any difficulties with the book.
Rosie at times in her memoir would write from the perspective of a child. I feel like she did this to express the innocence and also to show how she was thinking at that age. With her doing so, we as the readers can better understand what she was feeling during the story. Rosie constantly switches from her “child self” to her “adult self” throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Perez used Spanish in this English-language memoir to better show us how she grew up. Spanish was her first language, it was probably all they spoke in their homes, or possibly like most “nuyorican” homes they spoke “spanglish”. The nuns demanded that she speak English because it was “the rules” and she was “one of gods children”. Not entirely sure what that means but, it could be that the nuns were extremely strict and just wanted the girls to do every single thing a certain way.
Sister Elizabeth-Claire got angry that Rosie kicked her because, Rosie kicking her in front of all the other children showed disrespect. It was a rule not to do anything to the nuns especially hit them back. She was embarrassed and angry, probably because no other child had dared to hit her back.
Rosie references to a lot of popular culture such as, when recalling on her childhood memories she tells us about watching tv with her aunt. Watching Shirley Temple or Bob Hope. She would listen to the Beatles or Shirley Temple tunes. She also spoke on her aunt and her friends watching “telenovelas” which are basically just Spanish soap operas. While Rosie was at the home she got to watch The Jackie Gleason Show, The Flying Nun, I dream of Jeannie, Bugs Bunny, Casper the Friendly Ghost, The Jetsons and Captain Kangaroo. She mentions The Rolling Stones, Stax, Neil Diamond, John Lennon, The Supremes and The Temptations.