Language, Culture and Identity

Paper Summary:

This paper shows how, through the three autobiographical works, "Talk," by Maxine Hong Kingston, "Hunger of Memory," by Richard Rodriguez and "Brownsville School Days," by Alfred Kazin, a reader can plainly comprehend the difficulties associated with immigration and language learning and how those difficulties interact with a developing child's mind. It discusses how, though the cultures and languages of all three of these authors are vastly different and the severity of internal and external reactions they have to the circumstances, their emotional and intellectual responses to their challenges are strikingly similar.

From the Paper:

"The simple voices of these three children of different cultures become complex words and ideas issued forth through the phenomena of growing up as an outsider and immigrant and most importantly a non-native English speaker. In these three works it is plainly evident that the difficulty of immersion language training is strikingly similar, no matter the culture. Language culture and identity are the focus that can be demonstrated through the commonalities in experience of the intellectual degradation of their native culture, their parents and most plainly the degradation of self that is sourced in a limited ability to communicate in English."

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