![]() And the Earth Did Not Devour Him is not that obvious. Moreover, Hunger of Memory is overtly political and ‘basically polemical: it lays out an argument and draws conclusions’ (McKenna p. In Rivera’s case, the subject is purely fictional, although some critics have identified this literary subject with the author. This entails that the subject searching for identity is, in Rodriguez’ case, the author himself, or rather his literary image. ![]() Rodriguez, referring to his book, speaks of ‘ssays impersonating an autobiography’ (p. The generic difference is most obvious: Rivera’s work is a fictional narrative, which Héctor Calderón termed ‘novel-as-tales’. However, the differences between the two books are huge. In both works, the protagonist is a Mexican-American or ‘Chicano’. And the Earth Did Not Devour Him and Richard Rodriguez’ Hunger of Memory are about an individual searching for his identity. In conclusion, I will connect my investigations to the question of whether Chicano identity is unified or fragmented.īoth Tomás Rivera’s. Going deeper into the works themselves, I will finally discuss along which lines the two quests for identity develop. Then I will consider the definitions of identity upon which the texts are based. I will first discuss the contextual differences between the two works. And the Earth Did Not Devour Him and Richard Rodriguez’ Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez. R ivera uses his skills as an author and his own background to enhance his stories.In this essay, I will address the question of Chicano identity by investigating two very different texts, that both deal with a quest for identity in a Mexican-American context: Tomás Rivera’s. This emphasizes his theme of a zoo and his characters as the animals. He chose to write "Zoo Island" in the third person because it puts the reader in the position of looking in at the characters. As an author, Rivera copied the dialect of the people he farmed with, giving a realistic feel to his characters and their perspectives. This prompted him to continue his career as an author until he died in 1984 of a heart attack. He wrote his first short story after he was in a car accident in 1946. Rivera worked on farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Dakota before he got his degree in Oklahoma. The character Jose was most likely based upon himself. He was so highly regarded that he became the chancellor of UC Riverside and he was the first Mexican American to hold such a position in the UC system. He got his PhD in Philosophy at The University of Oklahoma and later taught at high schools. ![]() His dream was always to break out of his migrant shell and he did. His parents were Mexican immigrants and he was born in Texas, 1935. Tomas Rivera's own history reflects the situation of his characters. Rivera’s story highlights the inequity and poverty of immigrants during this time, but it also points toward a future where things might change. Rivera’s story describes both the pain and pride that the young Jose feels at realizing his community is larger Knowing this gives the boy and his community a bit of hope. It has churches, schools and other standard facilities that Americans too often take for granted. Despite their greater population, the other town has far more wealth. ![]() Jose’s census reveals that there are more people in his “town” than in the nearby town where they get their groceries. The camp is on a farm owned by an American. Jose is a fifteen year old boy who lives in the migrant work camp with many other Mexicans. One of the children, Jose, decides to ward off boredom by taking a census (a population count) to see how many people are in their community. They wake the next day and endlessly repeat the same, excruciatingly boring, cycle. When it’s dark, they go to the market and then back to their meager camp to sleep. The immigrants and their children work in the fields, day after day. Tomas Rivera’s short story, “Zoo Island,” describes how Mexican immigrants suffered in the 1920s and 1930s, but it also offers a bit of hope. ![]()
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