Analysis Essay Assignment Sheet.

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Example Introduction and Body Paragraphs for the Analysis Essay

Every culture carries at least one stereotype to it. Each culture, gender, age and nationality has some type of stigma attached to it. In her essay “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María” Judith Ortiz Cofer goes through her life and explains how the image of Latin women has affected her. She doesn’t show any stereotypes of Latin Americans, but because she is Hispanic, people assumed what kind of person she must be. When she was younger a boy she knew said to her that Latin girls were said to grow up sooner than other girls. She realized then that she would be subjugated to the conclusions about her based on the stereotypical image of Latinos. As an adult, drunken men would sing songs to her about Latin American countries she was not from or that were about some Hispanic girl with a common name like María. She thought her work as an author would change her status from the stereotypical view of Latin American women, but even at one of her readings, a woman ordered a cup of coffee from her thinking she must have been a waitress. As a Latina, she constantly had to fight against the perceived idea of her culture. Wherever she went, the labels that came with being a Latina went with her. It is not just Latinos that are grouped into a certain category; all cultures have stereotypes attached to them and they isolate people targeted by them since these people are seen as part of a group and not as individuals.

Society is taught to believe people of a different culture behave a certain way, and those beliefs are reinforced in the media. Cofer agrees that the media is only interested in circulating current stereotypes and says, “In [the media’s] special vocabulary, advertisers have designated ‘sizzling’ and ‘smoldering’ as the adjectives of choice for not only the food but the women of Latin America” (105). Not only does Cofer feel like her culture was not portrayed correctly, but it wasn’t how she would ever describe herself either. When someone of a certain culture is portrayed only in accordance with its stereotypes, anyone who is part of that culture doesn’t have an accurate guideline of what to expect as they move through their lives and without a public figure to relate to, they feel like they have been left alone.

How cultural stereotypes are created is unknown, but they are spread by the media and even further by authority figures. Parents and other authority figures don’t just teach the younger generation to recognize different stereotypes in people, but they also instill the basis for other stereotypes. Cofer realizes that some of her cultural traditions could mean something to some people, but explains that she and all other Latinas were heavily influenced in their choices: “As young girls, we were influenced in our decisions about clothes and colors by the women” (Cofer 104). By continuing with the traditions of their culture, others only see them for what the culture of someone is categorized as. People may not want to abandon the traditions of their culture, but the others can only see the images that carry the stigmas they were influenced by authority figures and society to recognize. When society only views someone as the image their culture is represented as, misunderstanding of their behavior and who they are occurs.