Mexican Americans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mexican Americans - Essay ExampleWhile the author describes the grandmother as an awful grandmother because of her persistent desire to maintain the traditional church building doctrines, the rest of her significant others and other younger generations atomic number 18 embracing a new way of life that is more liberal. This conflict of traditional and modern shipway puts the religious grandmother and her grandchildren into constant conflicts. In the story, the grandmother maintains the ways of the church, observing the doctrines of the Catholic Church to the latter. First, the grandmother maintains the use of light candles and use of rosaries when praying for the her family, while the young lady never attends the mass as would be desired by the grandmother. The grandmother maintains the traditional church ways, and use her prayer times to pray for the entire family who be seemingly drifting away from the church and embracing the more liberal approach to life. According to the gra ndmothers designated way of life, which exemplified the conservative ways, there are specific material things that are supposed to be completely shunned. First, the people should shun eating fast foods such as fries, should not spend funds on comic books, and should not stay anywhere else other than near the church. The desire to maintain purity, according to the traditional church doctrines, led to set ways of life that only matched grandmothers standards and not any other members of the family. For instance, the son is noncommittal on matters church, and the grandchildren are busy Americanizing their lives from language to full general behaviors. It is apparent that the subject family in the story is natives of Spain. However, while only the grandmother is able to speak and understand Spanish, her grandchildren struggles with the native Spanish language, thereby causing several(prenominal) sort of barrier to communication. This exposes the fact that there is an adoption of a d ifferent culture from that of the native Spain. The successive generations struggle with the native language, a fact that the quondam(a) generations understand quite well. While the grandmothers generation lived within the church doctrines, their goals focused into the price that is of a society that is prayerful and bent on defending the instantaneously ways of the church, the changing American society of the younger generation do not mind doing things that are outside the realm of church teachings. For example, the young male child challenges the status quo that he sees as against his good. By telling the sister he is the Flash Gordon, and that the sister is Ming the Merciless and the Mud People, the young boy is laborious to spate his ability from that of the sister, portraying himself as the strong righteous one. The younger generations, as represented by the young boy, challenges the role of church rituals such as buring of the candles, kneeling down when praying, and takin g of the holy water. To the younger generation, such rituals never changed anything as far as reduction of human suffering is concerned. The constant church rituals did not stop people from getting sick from worms and life threatening problems such as depression. The society has played a role in the changes in the attitudes of the young generation. For example, the narrators little brother is claiming to want to be a flying feather dancer, but in the process somehow subconsciously expresses what he has seen the surrounding, the second world war