Analysis of American Literature - Essay Example

American literature: A Comparative Study Gloria Anzaldua: The Gloria Evangeline Anzaldua was born in Texas South American She was basically the part and the activist of Chicana Movement and was fond of appraisals regarding linguistic promotions. In Norton American Literature et al. (1980s), she clearly wrote in a manner that her writing texture becomes no more vague giving perfect ideas of her thought towards the language importance. Language is what fundamentally makes a nation’s culture or even depicts the character and traits of the natives of the particular land. Every nation wants to respect its national language and even wants its language to be respected by other people and foreign nations. In this book Norton American literature et al. the writer Anzaldua (1980s) demonstrate the reality she came across during her life tenure about the Spanish language which was not spoken well and natives were reluctant to speak openly. Anzaldua basically was a promoter of cultural values. She was quite sensitive when it comes to her language and cultural issues and for the verification of this act of her she inculcated a small history example that as in early times black people were not honored and perceived as the local low class same is treatment done with Mexican American natives. They were considered as low class socially. So being an activist of Chicana Movement, one of the foremost reasons was to eliminate cultural, linguistic and racial discrimination for her people. Norton American Literature et al. (1980s) describes that Spanish was the mixture of English and Latina’s slangs. It was quite difficult for adults to understand the language and was quite a secret to them which had not yet been revealed. The critical reception of Anzaldua writing style was pretty positive. As the word Chicana was sniping earlier was then after the movement, considered a part of the country in a positive manner as black people were given civil rights and were not humiliated any more. And the writer was inevitably optimistic during the description of whole literature to the extent that according to her sooner or somehow a bit later Spanish shall be the language of America instead of Latina and America. She depicted her positive attitude and love towards her language in her literature as Mr. Alberto Rios did, but in a bit different manner. The difference as in Rios adopted the softer way and settling discriminations in positive manners with other whole nation as described in the next Rios’s part. Alberto Rios: Alberto Rios was native of Nogales, Arizona and was born in 1952. He had a mixed background of Southern Mexican father and an English mother, so consider himself as rich person in knowledge, language, stories holder etc. He focused stories as an important medium of communication as Simon J. Ortiz also did. According to Rios (Norton American Literature et al. 1980s), the stories are the part of your childhood, your past and presence. You can convey rigid, soft, positive, negative, bright, fake, truth hence all kind of messages and thoughts you have in your mind and you want to share with other people to perceive it the same way you do. Rios had been the talented story teller, an activist of social causes beneficial for the elimination of linguistic and racial barriers, a famous poet with the aspect of unique brightness and hopefulness in them. Elaborating the view of hopefulness in his poem, as the worse situations are always unavoidable and unpredictable but there should be the loosing of hope. A bright dawn comes after every dark night. The human kind should not restrict and consider them in a closed ended street but should think out of the box. Rios (Norton American Literature et al. 1980s) reveals the methods and positivity of human trait that if you are in a lost situation, you should hold your nerves together tightly, not to let go of your hope, do not give pessimism a way to your heart and thrive for your way back to success and destination. He instead of highlighting the issues of cultural, linguistic, color and racial discriminations pulled a bridge and means to settle the differences. He constructed an over pass contemporary American norms and literatures so that both older and innovative views can be seen and both characters of life can be followed in the landscape drawn by Rios’s poems. In the poem “advice to first cousin”, Rios described the behavior of cruel world outside the home boundaries of you and is always looking out for you becoming unavoidable and unpredictable worse situation for you in future. Now you always have to protect yourself, have to be smarter, anticipated and always be proactive as your mother does when you are infant and needs to be protected. This would ultimately lead you to optimism, person with strong nerves, out of the box thinker and courageous fighter. Similarity in the perception of stories is there with the writer Simon J. Ortiz and wanted to appraise his language and cultural values among the whole nation as Gloria Anzaldua wanted but the style, thinking and ways of communication of his desires was very different. Simon J. Ortiz: Simon J. Ortiz was born in 1940 and was native of Arizona (America). According to the literature the book demonstrates, he was the man with the strong habit of travelling. As a result of this hobby, he was able to study, realize, observe and to some extent got attached with the environments, creatures he came across. Ortiz, according to my point of view after seeking the text about him, was captivated and sensitive to nature of world around him. By meaning of nature, it includes the humankind, animals; hence the entire creature he encountered touched his heart and emotions. After going through his poems, a person can get clear realization of his traits and responsiveness towards the environment he used to be in. Ortiz (1980s) believed in telling of stories, as stories can be a better description of emotions and vivid depiction of your thoughts. If a person does not tell a story, how he would be able to convey the message encoded in his mind. But he chose the poems containing stories in them as the medium of his communication of ides and actions towards the human kind and the other creatures. Illustrating one of his poems in Norton American Literature et al. (1980s), “Vision Shadows”, he was optimistic and believed in the hard work of the mankind for their survival, he takes honesty as the one key point to flourish, but at the same time is upset and wondering of sudden cruel circumstances and deaths occurring of human beings. He has related the optimism with the animals approach towards survival and the chaos with the dangerous species. He is basically giving an idea how to protect themselves from the crucial situations and hoe to thrive for the human world race survival. Comparing the writing style of Gloria Anzaldua and Simon J. Ortiz, Anzaldua was thriving for the sake of its language and cultural values protections. She wanted to see his national people as the honored, appreciated, recognized and acknowledged people among the whole American nation and the world’s. Her efforts were mainly for the language she wanted but reluctant to speak because of linguistic barriers in the foreign platforms and ceremonies. But on the contrary, Ortiz was writing for all of his human kind and was close to the nature. He wanted ultimate survival of his people without getting into chaotic situations. He was afraid of disasters and deaths creating dreadful situations for mankind. Works Cited “American literature.” Norton Anthology of American Literature Shorter. Seventh edition. Vol 2. Read More