Rolling The R's Analysis

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Rolling the R’s is set in Honolulu, HI, during the 70’s. It’s a glance backwards to the author’s childhood. It’s mostly written in Hawaiian pidgin, nonstandard English. Its characters are mostly kids around the age of 12, but they look so much older judging by the way they talk, but it is related to the setting. There are many narrators and genres. It’s a series of vignettes. Children are the symbol of naiveté, they represent the in-between of subjugation and complete freedom. A recurrent theme is the love for mainstream American pop culture, like Happy Days, disco music and Charlie’s Angels. Some themes are sexuality, childhood, relationship with America and pop culture, and friendship. HI is usually shown as a tropical paradise, but in the…show more content…
Happy Days is of course about the typical American family, filled with stereotypes, a lot like Dick & Jane, but in a grownup version. One of the kids, Edgar, idolizes Scott Baio, Chachi from Happy Days, in one scene he’s forbidden by his father to watch the show, because of what his classmates might think of him. The father is not worried that much about his son’s sexuality, but about his appearance in the eyes of the society. Farrah Fawcett is a big icon for one of the character, who goes in drag as FF in school, getting the teachers attention. They try to get him expelled, but the principal can’t, since he’s one of the best student of the whole school. Teachers see him as a threat for the other students, Linmark though uses him to make a point. Just because someone doesn’t conform to standard, it doesn’t mean that he’s bad, in this case this guy is the abject, there’s nothing worse than him, but he’s the smartest kid in school. Homosexuality (or bad behavior in general) is seen as contagious, as a sin that must be stopped from spreading. Kids identify with the Charlie’s angels because they are a group of female who defeats men, and the kids would love to be powerful like

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