Richard Rodriguez's Brown: The Last Discovery Of America
996 Words4 Pages
America is accepting of every culture and ethnicity, creating a melting pot of different people. To foreigners, every person living in the United States is an American; however, within the country, there are divisions among this society through a concept called race. No citizen calls themself an American to another American. The individual labels themselves "Hispanics, Asians, [or] Africans," (Rodriguez 119). America may appear uniform, yet it’s citizens seem to want individuality. Richard Rodriguez's memoir, Brown: The Last Discovery of America, discusses his search for acceptance into society as a brown man. One of the topics he discusses is the American paradox of individuality. Although an individual seeks to be different from society,…show more content… People want to be different and by being included in a race, it makes the individual feel unique. This appeals to the pathos simply by evoking pity to whoever is unable to understand the racism against ethnic groups and those experiencing the racism. Everybody has been unable to follow someone else's problems simply because they have not experienced the situation. On the other side, the person who is not understood is pitied more. The person refuses to acknowledge that others are trying to become conscious of one's feelings. The "can't" in the statement makes the outsider feel unwelcome and forces both individuals to stay in their label or group. Society has made it so that only those of the same race can understand what one is going through. If an Asian and a Caucasian person have the same problem, people are assuming that only Asians will understand the problem of the Asian while the Caucasian will not and vice…show more content… The reason why people seek to be different is because everything in life is separated or generalized. Yet, nothing is in between. Here lies another paradox as Rodriguez appeals to the logos, questioning the need for categorization within people . People try to find individuality, yet when they are not conforming to a certain race, they fear the individualism and call themselves the “man in the middle,” (Rodriguez 125). People want to be different, yet accepted in society as a certain race or group. What people are trying to become is an individual in a race that sticks out, but not too much because by then, they are unable to identify who they are. Anybody who is not in sync with society or contain a label are excluded. People who are of mixed ethnicities. They are unable to decide whether or not they are of one race or another. Even if they choose one side, they are rejected by the race because they are too different and in a sense impure. Rodriguez discusses this topic of impurity as he looks for individualism. “If one is singular or outlandish by this theorem, one can’t be reviewed at all,” (Rodriguez 39). Even here, lies a paradox. Someone who is impure rejects the idea of individualism because they do not fit in with a