...Zalvin Prof. Jennifer Crane QU101 9/13/10 Creating An Identity In Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama he talks about his life experiences and how it formed him as a human being. The story also shows his interpretation of what a solid community should consist of, as well as how individuals should interact with each other within the community. Through out his life he was discovering who he was by new meeting people and trying new things. An individual’s identity is formed through life experiences and cannot be sustained because it is ever changing. A community is a group of people that are brought together by friends, family, neighbors, and people with common interests. Communities are important because it gives people a sense of belonging and being wanted. And in Dreams From My Father, those were the needs and values that Barack was searching for. Communities are sustained through shared values, trust, loyalty, and a sense of safety. In a community people have moral responsibilities to other people and the community as a whole. Communities have moral responsibilities to their individual members because they need to keep their community together. Sometimes you get put into situations where you want to look out for yourself rather than the big picture with the community. You have to be able to put others in front of you sometimes so that you can avoid these types of conflicts. My favorite excerpt from the text came when his father was insulted by a man who...
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...Back to School A country thrives when its citizens contribute and make an effort to make the most of what they are offered in life. President Barack Obama is very aware of this and has made it an important subject and goal in his presidential career to inspire youngsters in the right direction, both for their own sake and their country’s. Barack Obamas’ speech “Back to School” at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia was held in September 8, 2009. The age of the present audience varied to children from kindergarten and all the way up to twelfth grade. In addition to that, the speech was also broadcasted to students all over the country. The audience is obviously extremely great, and the speech will therefore have a tremendous impact on several individuals. The first thing Obama seems to focus on in his speech on the first day of the children’s school day are in fact the children themselves. He speaks directly to them, and initiates the whole thing by telling everyone that being nervous is perfectly normal. He has obviously tried it himself when he was their age. Very easily he finds a way to make everyone relate to him by telling stories from his own life. Barack Obama did not grow up under the best circumstances. He was raised by a single mother whom was very passionate about doing what was best for her son. She even sought to homeschool Obama, when he wasn’t at school. She wanted to make sure he would have the best possible future. This particular section of the speech...
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...really means to be free and what the real meaning is. Do we as a society understand how some laws were meant for all and some that were really placed in law for others? There are rules and laws that are set in place just for people of color or minority and some that are set in place for all if the all fit in the category set forth in that particular law. To this day the law is not equal. Crucial Social and Political incidents When my parents moved our family from Newark, NJ to Piscataway, NJ in the early 70’s, my father wanted to find a place better than where we were coming from. He found a home in an area that the builder was told not to sell to blacks. The builder did not care, he cared that my father had the down payment and he was approved, so the builder let my father buy the home. There was a reason why blacks were not allowed in that area. It all started with the bomb threats, sugar in our car gas tank, screen door torn from off the front door and racial slurs written on the garage doors. That is just the tip of the iceberg. My father told us never to cross to the other side of the road. We could never figure out why, until one day we decided to ride our bikes to the school on the other side of the road. We were at the school no more than five minutes before three police cars pulled and with sirens hailing. They told us to drop the bikes and lay on the ground. He asked us where we stole the bikes from. We told them our father bought them for us. One of...
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...In the Name of Identity: Who are you? What makes you, you? How are you recognized as a human being? What makes you different than every other person in the world? These questions contribute to your identity regardless of what you look like or where you come from. Every single person in the world is different whether it is visible to others or not. Although we are all different, we connect and form relationships through common ideas, values, and goals. In the novel Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, by Barack Obama, he recalls many different issues involving his identity as a whole in addition to the communities he lived in and principle values he was raised to believe. Throughout the story Obama creates a theme of struggle involving his own identity. He relates these issues towards his own community and explains how certain occurrences shaped his character values and personality. The word individual can be defined in various ways. It is a word that can apply to many different aspects of life as well as raising questions about who exactly we are as individuals and how we became the who we are today. Some factors that contribute to shaping our identities are social, educational, economic and historical. While Obama was growing up, identity was something he struggled with deeply. He was constantly moving, which forced him to experience different communities and ultimately aided in forming his identity. Looking back on it now, it seems beneficial, but at...
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...place to call home? Luckily my sisters and I were born in the matanuska valley and raised in the mountains of Talkeetna, Alaska. We were always adventuring among the steep mountains, tredging through powdered snow and spending weekends at the cabin with my family. The cabin was our safe haven. We enjoyed listening to the birds sing through the snowy trees while keeping cozy and warm around the woodstove. Despite our warm memories and happy emotions; The cabin and the Talkeetna mountains fosters memories of a life changing catastrophe, that altered my perspective of life forever. It all began on the day of March 5, 2010, I was eleven...
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...become a singer or do something that I love and something that made me happy. I remember my dad would always turn on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and I would dance around the room and even in public. I decided that I wanted to do what I love because Michael Jackson did what he loved, he made other people happy, and he inspired others. I’ve always hope that one day I would inspire and impact other people’s lives too. As time went on my parents asked my sister and I what we wanted to do when we were older. My sister told them she wanted to be a doctor, and she got much approval, and I told them I wanted to sing. My parents came from Asia and faced a rough childhood. They had to escape the Vietnam War...
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...It’s the game of life. Do I win or do I lose? One day they’re gonna shut the game down, I gotta have as much fun and go around the board as many times as I can before it’s my turn to leave”, these are the words that the famous rapper and poet, Tupac Shakur once said. He’s referring to life as a game and that we all have to make the best of. As a child everyone has dreams whether its something as realistic as becoming a teacher to something so unrealistic such as living in Narnia. Making the best of life is what I try doing, dreams that money can buy most importantly. My dreams and goals before I die are to build a home for a needy family in Mexico, having a big family and my last is to take my parents on a trip to another country. Yeah I know what your thinking just another bucket list, but this is a bucket list with realistic ideas that I plan to take with me on his stroll of life. Body; The feeling of giving and getting happiness in return is one of the best feelings of life. My biggest goal is to build a home for a poor family in Mexico. Mexico itself is a corrupted country with a high rate in poverty. Speaking from experience that I have visited Mexico and hearing the struggles my parents went through growing up in Mexico make me realize how much luck has to do with growing up. When I visit Mexico, one of my aunts lives in the poverty area, seeing how they barely have doors and they have go to the bathroom outside in a so called bathroom, makes me come back to the united states...
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...I love being able to go to sleep at night knowing that I'm safe. My father makes me feel secure, safe. When I was little and got lots of bad dreams, I'd go downstairs to my parents room and he'd be there. Even now, sometimes I still get bad dreams. I still go downstairs, he's still there. My father supports me in everything. He encourages me in sports, and in grades. My father attends almost every sport event of mine, because he cares. He gives me little pointers for when I'm on, and off the court. Knowing that he is always there to support is a great feeling. My father helped stop the Green Valley Fire in 2013 by bulldozing dirt on fire to stop the fire. I didn't see my dad for days. I was very worried, about my house, friends,...
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...What is the American Dream? Rafael Cruz once said, “Only in America can someone start with nothing and achieve the American Dream. That’s the greatness of this country.” The American Dream depends on the person, many people have different views and what they believe in. When asking my mom, Sue Stoll what she believes the American Dream is; she stated “The American Dream in my eyes is being successful by yourself or with a significant other, overcoming obstacles, always trying to better yourself and society, and living with what you have.” Over the years, the America Dream has changed; it depends on where you were brought up, how you were brought up, and what you were taught as a young child and teen. The influence your parents had on you has a lot to do with how you want to be and how you see America. After hearing my mom’s view on the American Dream, I see where I get my idea of the American dream of. So what does the American Dream mean to me? In my eyes, the American dream is not being wealthy, living in a mansion in New York City, and having the newest and best things in the world. The American Dream in my eyes is, being happy whether you have it all or have nothing, being successful, and living the life you would be proud to look back on. From the day I could talk my parents always told me to be thankful for what I have. As I grew older I was taught they would provide my needs but my wants was all on me. Growing up we lived a simple life, we didn’t do things or have...
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...her father. In this case, my step- dad filled in the void, but the longing to have my biological dad in the picture was definite. I felt a gut wrenching pain every time I thought about this man. A pain so strong, only the love from him could take that pain away. He loved me with a string attached. Every time he walked away and disappeared for years, he snatched a piece of my heart way with him. Being so young, timid, and naïve; I knew no better. I was just thinking maybe he was just busy, but no one is ever too busy for their children. My father built up my spirits in him, only to let them crumble. He raised me to dislike him unintentionally, but my heart is too big. I always gave him the benefit of the doubt. The day he married, was the last day I settled for his lies and betrayal. He married the Wicked Witch of the West, Cruella, but left his innocent kids to fade away in the memories of his irresponsibleness. Mid-Past… I am a senior in high school now, an impeccable straight “A” student, captain of two teams, and a state powerlifting champ. Everyone thought I had the world held high over my shoulders, when in fact the world was sitting my chest suffocating me, trying to swallow me whole. I focused all of my energy into my academics and extracurricular activities, just so I would focus on any issues I had. Of course, that last really long. I got a call from an unfamiliar number one day, normally I would not answer, but I did anyway. It was my dad. “Long time no hear big head”...
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...The day my life changed completely seemed very normal, but it was the exact opposite. My life revolves around tennis, as it is my passion. This experience made me and my family realize that to pursue my dream, some changes were going to have to be made. I had to move to Florida and change my whole perspective of how I needed to train my tennis. But, all of the changes had a satisfying result in the end. I had started to take private lessons with a coach at my academy. My parents had worked out a whole new schedule with my public school for the lessons at 7 am in the morning. When my dad and I arrived at the courts, on a freezing autumn morning, my coach wasn’t there. I was feeling confused and cold, the tip of my nose turning red. I started to warm-up while waiting for my coach to come. I...
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...loving family whom my parents migrated from the US illegally from Guatemala and gave birth to me and my older brother in Nebraska. They risked their lives in order for us to have a esquist life and to succeed without living in poverty. As a hardworking family, we have faced numerous events that could of separated my family apart for a very long time. Now every person that I’ve seen was and is the same way, whether it was alcohol, women or even God. Family, dreams, children and even power. They couldn't keep going unless they were drunk on something else. They were all slaves to something just like my father who was a slave to alcoholism and my mom who was a slave to family after me and my brother were born. Throughout the years my dad has been getting multiple DUIs and was deported to Guatemala when the immigration police caught him, while coming back from work when. My family didn’t want my dad to stay there, so we hired a secret organization to illegally transport him in. After he came back we started to become a family again, but one day when we weren’t at home mostly everything precious got stolen. All four of us had to work in order to replace everything that got stolen that night....
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...My family’s origin began in Spain. My first thought actually believed my ancestors were all originally from what is now Mexico. With this it brought what is now my last name, Arreguin. The surname Arreguin means “stonecutter”. From then on, my past ancestors started the generation and are still continuing today. One of the Spaniards had married an Indian (Mayan or Aztec) in the past centuries. With these two soul mates made what was my great-grandparents today. My whole family is from Guanajuato, Mexico. From my dad’s side, my great-grandparents had six children. From this my grandpa Elpido Arreguin was born. He was a hard-working independent person. ‘I would wake up every morning and walk to work”. Child labor was very important in those days. When he turned 20 he married a wonderful and hard-working women name Josefina Arreguin. She was the first child from eleven children. Her biological father had passed away when she was 4 or 5 years old. Her mother had her working more than any of the others. She was practically ‘mom”. She was 14 when she married. My grandparents had eight children with little money to spare. “Life was hard it was nothing like it is today”. My dad was the Second from all of them. He went to school and just graduated from sixth grade. He also went to church daily. My dad always said that he played many sport but with very bad equipment. When my grandpa and my uncle Jose first came to Mexico, my dad was in charge of the family. There were many hardships...
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...In the essay “Stephen Cruz” Studs Terkel gives a strong opinion on the American dream. He says, “The American dream, I see now, is governed not by education, opportunity, and hard work, but by power and fear. The higher up you go, the more you have to lose. The dream is not losing.” (Terkel pg. ) This is interesting to me because I have never viewed the American dream with a negative outlook. History classes always put the idea that the American dream was a fantasy of a perfect life. It went along the lines of having a nice house, white picket fence, expensive car, beautiful family, dog… and the list could go on. After reading “Stephen Cruz” I’ve come to recognize the illusion that the American dream has been made out to be. When Studs Terkel...
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...just in her teapot. But he needs a inside man, or child, so why not use his own daughter? Ashes will take the money for her father because she treasures him, they have that one-of-a-kind bond like no other, and she's relying on her father to pay her back. Ashes takes the money from the teapot because she treasures him like no other. Ashes adores her father so much to the point where, “That winter, it felt like every time I saw my father, the sun cast off a little more warmth than it had the day before,” (Pfeffer, 1), stealing the money for him doesn’t seem that bad if Ashes still gets to to see him. She was skeptical towards her father's intentions,”I had no idea where Dad thought he could get two hundred dollars. But he looked so happy,” (Pfeffer, 3), Ashes didn’t want to inform him of her skepticism towards him thought out plans. Like she said, “he looked so happy”. Ashes dad is unique, “‘I wouldn’t have any other Dad’ I told him. ‘My friends’...
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