Richard Rodriguez - Aria

PREMISE:

• Bilingual Education
• Public Identity
• Mistaken Insecurity
• Public vs Private Language
• Public vs Private Individuality
  
• Assimilation
• Silence
• Sound (Language)
  

AUTHOR'S ARGUMENT:

Rodriguez argues that there are two ways a person is individualized; while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into a public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality.

EVIDENCE:

"They do not seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized. So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into a public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality." (39)

"Only when I was with them in public would I grow alert to their accents. Though, even then, their sounds caused me less and less concern. For I was increasingly confident of my own public identity." (38)
-Here, Rodriguez speaks about his awareness to his parents accents. This is a sort of turning point in his transition from confident Spanish speaker to confident English speaker. Previously he had little confidence in his public language (and therefore his public individuality) and more confidence in his private language (and therefore his private individuality). This is where the switch is made; this is where Rodriguez loses some of his private individuality and gains a stronger public individuality; showing the separation of these two distinct individualizations and the achievement of public individuality.

"In an instant they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family's closeness". (35)
-This passage shows the sacrifice of private language (and therefore private individuality) that it takes to assimilate to a public society. This passage also shows light upon the connection between Rodriguez's references to language as sounds. Although this may be slightly aside from the main point; there is an importance to the way Rodriguez refers to a language as sound. When he does this he is further accentuating the fact that the very sounds of the language, the way it is spoken and heard, are a part of any person who speaks it. This reference of sound is the link between language and individuality.

Language = sounds = individuality
loss of language = loss of sounds = loss of individuality
acquisition of new language = acquisition of new sounds = acquisition of new individuality

AUTHOR'S ARGUMENT - THE TOM LABONTE EDITION
I've discerned the moral of this story to be, that there must be a balance between private and public individuality, teachers must be aware of the cultures of students so as not to squelch their private individuality while teaching them how to function in society by helping them develop their public individuality. How this is to be done, is beyond me.