Succeeding in American Society

In Richard Rodriguez's memoir Aria, he emphasizes the importance of learning English as a young child in order to successfully become a part of American society.  He reflects on his experiences with bilingualism growing up and the struggle of finding his place in public society.  This memoir focuses largely on the role of immigrant parents in supporting their children's education in America.  Like Aria, Tomas Rivera's short novel "And he Earth Did Not Devour Him" also resounds with this theme.  Throughout the novel, the parents express their desire for their children to finish school so that they may have more opportunities then they had due to their lack of education.  Both works highlight the generational differences of immigrants ability to succeed in America.

Although these texts were written in different era's, they both capture the relationship of immigrant parents to their children.  In each piece, the parents of immigrant children strongly desire for them to successfully integrate into American society.  In "And the Earth Did Not Devour Him" this desire is a desperate hope.  Raising their children in poverty, they encourage their schooling hoping one day that this will lead to their rise in society.  They do not want their children to end up like them, and they do not want their hard efforts to have gone to waste.  A child remembers his parents telling him that "(his) teachers are like (his) second parents." (Rivera, 95).  Rodriguez recalls his parents similar desires when he states "What would they not do for their children's well being." (Rodriguez, 21).

This desire led the parents to sacrifice certain qualities of their lives.  In Aria, they discontinue speaking Spanish with their children, in order to improve their English skills.  His parents sacrificed the comfort of speaking in a language they could express themselves in and traded it for the awkward and embarrassing attempts at communicating in English.  In Tomas Rivera's novel, the migrant workers toiled for longer hours so that their children need not help them in the fields but rather attend school.  In the chapter "Little Burnt Victims," the father so desperately wants a better life for his kids that he buys boxing gloves he could not afford for the hope that they might become professional boxers.  It is evident in both texts that immigrant parents want what they couldn't have for their children.

Overall, these works show the generational differences of American immigrants.  First generation immigrants, due to their lack of education and language barriers struggle to become a part of society.  There public individuality lacks (Rodriguez).  The children on the other hand, through the support of their parents and the immersion in English speaking schools, assimilate much faster.  They lose a part of their background, including their language as they gain acceptance in American society.

Discussion Question:  How does this pressure to please their parents by succeeding in school affect second generation immigrants?