I haven't think about it, just leave it blank Essay

I haven't think about it, just leave it blank - Essay Example Every section complements the other, and the organization of the sections makes it easy for the reader to comprehend what the young woman went through in her life. Racial and color discrimination has always been there, perturbing the minds of people belonging to all ages; and, cultural implications impose great impacts on people’s perceptions of beauty and perfection (thesis). This paper tends to shed light on this thesis statement, while presenting examples from the text to show what the young lady has to tell the world about her experiences of color prejudice. In the skin section, Cofer tells the story how she got chicken pox when she was ten. Before then, she was a pretty girl in the eyes of her mother, but the chicken pox event snatched away all her confidence as she grew into adolescence. She says: â€Å"This was when I learned to be invisible† (Cofer 434). This shows how she lost all her self-assurance when a school nurse made her realize the ugliness of her skin. This section connects with the section of color that comes automatically in the reader’s mind, who wants to know whether the color of the skin compensated for her ugly skin or not. Peurto Ricans called her â€Å"pale† and â€Å"blanco† because she was fair skinned as compared to other Peurto Ricans. Even there, she would feel that she was an outcast. But, when she moved to the United States, she again failed to fit in the society, as she was darker than other American schoolmates. The irony comes here, when Cofer (434) states: â€Å"In the human world color triggers many more complex and even deadly reactions.† Cofer has tried to express the cruelty of humans by comparing them to animals. Animals consider color to be attractive yet dangerous; while, humans of color are considered unattractive and negligible. Cultural implications of color in Peruto Rico and America made the girl suffer from color complex. Her experiences of being driven away by a superma rket man and being rejected from a date by a white school boy strengthened the idea that she did not fit in the so-called humane society. Another cultural implication comes in the account of the girl’s size section. She is taller than her school mates in Peurto Rico. But, she is not as tall as her American friends. Hence, she is a tall Hispanic girl, but is short in America. Cofer has tried to express how people’s perceptions are linked to demographical backgrounds. She fears playing with her tall school mates no matter how much she tries. She uses irony to tell that the games which the Hispanic considered as fun are taken as â€Å"fierce competitions where everyone is out to â€Å"prove† they are better than others† (Cofer 437). Due to the size issue, the girl’s teachers always picked her in the end or never at all. This made her feel unwanted and inferior. â€Å"I wanted to be wanted† (Cofer 437) depicts the despair of the young girl becau se she wants to be loved and appreciated despite her inability to physically fit with the standards of others. In the looks section, Cofer states that she had to suffer from discrimination in this regard too, while the tragedy was that the cultural implications play their role here as well. She states: â€Å"I came there from Peurto Rico, thinking myself a pretty girl, and found that the hierarchy for popularity was as follows: pretty white girl, pretty Jewish girl, pretty Peurto Rican girl, pretty black girl†

High School English Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

High School English Experience - Essay Example Being a member of the Middle East region, I personally have experienced the difficulties the non-English speaking communities undergo predominantly while living in an English speaking country as well as while rendering one’s services at a multinational organization. Being the citizen of one of the Arab states, I did not have English speaking background altogether; consequently, having least knowledge about this international language was certainly a natural phenomenon. While recalling my school years to my mind, it becomes evident that a large majority of my school-mates had been undergoing the same problem of having almost no knowledge or information about English language. Somehow, it was my elder sister that not only provided me with information about this foreign language, but also laid stress upon learning the same. I had obtained an opportunity of seeking the knowledge of English from my intermediate years. Our dedicated professor at college increased the passion of gett ing acquainted with the basics of English in his students. However, his immediate departure and replacement with a non-serious and demanding instructor lessened my passion for learning English to a great extent, and feelings of not getting able to learn English started haunting my thoughts subsequently. Though the hopes of embarking upon the process of learning English appeared to be losing ground, when I got a job at a multinational company, where speaking in English was the only source of communication partly because of the very reality that the employees at the company belonged to divergent nationalities and regions of the globe working under the same environment. Though English was not the primary language of all co-workers; nonetheless, almost all people could convey their message by speaking some words and phrases of English language. As a result, the idea of having command of the language made its certain place in my mind subsequently in order to make sure headway on the way to making achievements in professional life and career. In the meantime, I proceeded to the USA for higher education, and emphasized upon paying due heed in the learning of language. I had got admission at Ashland University, where the supervision of sincere and devoted teachers during my under graduation years turned out to be extremely supportive in respect of obtaining understanding of the language in a skillful and proficient manner, though I experienced serious challenges on the way to obtaining command over the subject actually. As a result, I developed great taste for English language and literature. Actually in Arabic language, there is no helping verb, and the structure of sentences is quite different one in comparison with English. The concept of definite and indefinite articles i.e. a, an and the, as well as appearance of subject in the beginning of sentences are also quite different ones in my primary language i.e. Arabic. Somehow, developing taste for the great literary giants including Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Coleridge, Keats, Jane Austen and Emily Bronte etc wide opened new horizons of knowledge before my eyes, and I was determined to elect English 100 as an optional subject in my four year graduate program.