'Days of Obligation: an Argument with My Mexican Father Essay\r'

'This book is written in a quick, quick witted, volatile unsettled style. Rodriguez tries to expel of the tensions in his demeanor and life in the States. He parallels or relates the dep force outs of adolescent and old, catholic and protestant, communalism and individualism, cynicism and optimism and the past and future in his own life. When Rodriguez goes to Mexico, he witnesss unwel come up. To me, he visualisems to feel that he is overeducated and superior to his peers in Mexico. A lot of Rodriguez’s opinions have come from his perplex’s view of the world.\r\nHis father viewed it as a sad place, whereas when Richard was young, he viewed it as a fiesta. However, through adulthood, Rodriguez’s opinions of the world began to parallel his father’s. He plays numerous variations on the contrasts he derives from an line of descent he once had with his father: â€Å" manners is harder then you think, boy. ” Rodriguez responds to his father, â₠¬Å"You’re thinking of Mexico, Papa. You’ll see. ” Rodriguez is super cynical, he feels inclined to question everyone’s motives about every decision they make.\r\nFor example, on page 27, when talking about the brave Freedom parade, Rodriguez states â€Å"they marched, east to west, following the mythical American path to optimism. ” Meaning they are following a path that isn’t anything in Rodriguez’s eyes. It is hopefulness that Rodriguez doesn’t see at all. Additionally, Rodriguez states, â€Å"I have never looked for utopia on a map. My compass takes its primeval point from tragedy” (pg 29). This again proves that Rodriguez chooses to be negative and look at everything from a cynical, unfortunate standpoint.\r\nThe above existence said, I to a fault believe Rodriguez fails to pursue a consistent argument. He has so legion(predicate) different viewpoints and issues. While he does bugger off with the reoccurring themes in the novel such as AIDS, barbarism vs. civilization and religion, all of them are developed independently. He thanks the church service for the schooling he received, yet throughout the years, not only has he estrangeated the strength in his faith but he foresees immediate crisis for the church. He goes from being negative and hating life in America to stating, â€Å"I became Americanized, I ended up believing in choices as more than as any of you do” (pg 172).\r\nHe feels now as if being Chicano it is safekeeping him back even though he is trying to get to the level he should be at as an American. In doing further research, I have give that a lot of the readers of this book also feel the same way. One turn out I read stated that Rodriguez is â€Å"a walking dichotomy. ” I completely combine with this because he is amusing, a devoted Catholic, Mexican even though he precisely speaks Spanish, American but still feels that he is different than the res t of America, Mexican-American who despises Chicanos, a gay man who sets himself apart from gay men, and an position scholar who leaves the academy.\r\nFurthermore, Rodriguez is move more to the the true when he discovers it through than he is committed to any political agenda. Although no subject field what he says about feeling American or living in America, he is deeply involved in Mexican and catholic values and makes it evident how alien he feels when he travels through Mexico because he feels everyone is a bandit. Further stating, â€Å"if the United States steal California from the Mexicans, the Mexicans had stolen it from Spaniard, who had originally stolen it from the Indians.\r\n” Overall, the book was a difficult read because of all the mismated arguments and topics Rodriguez approached. While he is an educated and educated writer, he approached everything with a negative view of life. I felt he was too straight-forward, too dark, and wide-ranging which in t he end made a lot of topics confusing. However, I thought it was interesting to learn his views and I have grown from reading this dissertation.\r\n'