Mexican Americans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mexican Americans - Essay Example While the author describes the grandmother as an â€Å"awful grandmother† because of her persistent desire to maintain the traditional church doctrines, the rest of her significant others and other younger generations are embracing a new way of life that is more liberal. This conflict of traditional and modern ways puts the religious grandmother and her grandchildren into constant conflicts. In the story, the grandmother maintains the ways of the church, observing the doctrines of the Catholic Church to the latter. First, the grandmother maintains the use of light candles and use of rosaries when praying for the her family, while the daughter never attends the mass as would be desired by the grandmother. The grandmother maintains the traditional church ways, and use her prayer times to pray for the entire family who are seemingly drifting away from the church and embracing the more liberal approach to life. According to the grandmother’s designated way of life, which ex emplified the conservative ways, there are specific material things that are supposed to be completely shunned. First, the people should shun eating fast foods such as fries, should not spend money on comic books, and should not stay anywhere else other than near the church. The desire to maintain ‘purity’, according to the traditional church doctrines, led to strict ways of life that only matched grandmother’s standards and not any other members of the family. For instance, the son is noncommittal on matters church, and the grandchildren are busy Americanizing their lives from language to general behaviors. It is apparent that the subject family in the story is natives of Spain. However, while only the grandmother is able to speak and understand Spanish, her grandchildren struggles with the native Spanish language, thereby causing some sort of barrier to communication. This exposes the fact that there is an adoption of a different culture from that of the native Spain. The successive generations struggle with the native language, a fact that the older generations understand quite well. While the grandmother's generation lived within the church doctrines, their goals focused into the price that is of a society that is prayerful and bent on defending the outright ways of the church, the changing American society of the younger generation do not mind doing things that are outside the realm of church teachings. For example, the young boy challenges the status quo that he sees as against his good. By telling the sister he is the Flash Gordon, and that the sister is â€Å"Ming the Merciless and the Mud People†, the young boy is trying to spate his ability from that of the sister, portraying himself as the strong righteous one. The younger generations, as represented by the young boy, challenges the role of church rituals such as buring of the candles, kneeling down when praying, and taking of the holy water. To the younger generation, suc h rituals never changed anything as far as reduction of human suffering is concerned. The constant church rituals did not stop people from getting sick from worms and life threatening problems such as depression. The society has played a role in the changes in the attitudes of the young generation. For example, the narrator’s little brother is claiming to want to be a flying feather dancer, but in the process somehow subconsciously expresses what he has seen the surrounding, the second world war