FInal reflection help

Taylor MaMillan 

LaDonna Fuller 

Dilasha Shrestha

Dr. Edwards 

ENGL-1302-41325

Multiculturalism 

The two texts, including the authors, are similar, yet very different. In “Indian Education” by Sherman and “How To Date a Brown Girl” by Junot, both the authors are writing about cultural education and experiences across different races. Sherman Alexie’s text is a short story, which recounts the protagonist's experience as a Native American and school life from first grade through the twelfth grade. It includes several themes into the story such as resilience, brotherhood, and discrimination, thus showing how hard life was for the protagonist growing up with different race. On the other hand, Junot Diaz’s text is a satirical short story, which provides advice on how to behave according to the ethnicity or race of the female, when one is finding a date (Diaz, J. (1995). The protagonist in this short story provides dating tips for a teenager, with females from the same and different race, which different audiences can relate to. 

The writer also discusses hardship each culture faces. Sherman discusses the hardship the boy faces such as discrimination because he was a Native America. For example, Betty Towel, protagonist’s second grade teacher punishes him instead of rewarding him, after he does well on a spelling test, because he was Native American (Alexie, S. 2017). On the other hand, Junot tells the hardship a teenage boy experiences, while they try to date a female from different races.  Both the authors explore similar themes and choose their language or words carefully to express their idea well for the audience. For instance, both have used simple words or phrases that relate to the story and can easily be understood.

However, there are various differences between the text and the authors. Junto’s story is told from the second person point of view while Sherman’s story is written from the first-person point of view. Both authors express their work differently, where Sherman uses experience and poet-like style while Junto uses satire. The author’s present the similar main theme differently. Junto uses teenager dating experience while Sherman uses childhood experience.

 In Summary, both authors use a multicultural coming-of-age approach to give a detailed account of their experience receiving an Indian Education and dating girls from different backgrounds and ethnicities. Therefore, these two stories are similar yet different, giving us different messages about how society view discrimination, stereotypes and perseverance. 

 

 

Reference

Alexie, S. (2017). Indian education. The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose-Third Canadian Edition, 280. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/12/25/how-to-date-a-brown-girl-black-girl-white-girl-or-halfie#:~:text=How%20To%20Date,December%2017%2C%201995

Diaz, J. (1995). “HOW TO DATE A BROWN GIRL (BLACK GIRL, WHITE GIRL, OR HALFIE)”. New-Yorker magazine incorporated.