What's Yours? What's Hers?

Farmworker''s Daughter
Photo taken and edited by me

    Everyone has different influences in their own life and some of them may affect their identities and the way that they define themselves. Those major influences can be their peers, family, culture, study, or even media. When analyzing Farmworker’s Daughter, I found that Rose Castillo Gilbault , the main character in the story, was influenced in different ways. No matter it was the culture and tradition or how she was isolated, or even her experiences of making friends, all of these have affected her a lot. By comparing to her, I realized that there was no big difference between her and me. Both of us were influenced by these things and it somehow changed our identities, too.

    Rose was mostly influenced by the culture since she moved from Mexico to the King City, which brings her a lot of culture changes. She got a mixture of Mexican and American culture as she went back and forth to Mexico and America in her childhood. She first found the culture gap when she was at school. She didn’t exactly know what Barbie was and she realized that “cultural gaffes were far more difficult to overcome than language gaps” (P50). However, by celebrating the Christmas in Mexico, she found that Christmas can “fill the emptiness created by [her] psychological isolation in American culture and the physical isolation that came from living on a remote farm” (P115). Also, she understood the style of American from the Sears “wish book” and she thought that it was “the best record of American material culture” (P55). It was clear that her identity was affected by the culture and she tried to overcome the cultural gap, though. 


    For me, I was influenced by the different culture between American and Chinese, too. I was born and raised in Hong Kong and I know most of the traditions of Chinese. However, I had a culture shock after coming to the United States. Everything seems different comparing to what I used to do in Hong Kong. For example, we never have Thanksgiving Day which is a holiday that stores sell stuffs in bargaining prices. It’s quite impossible for us to have a feast with turkey in Christmas since it is not our habit. Costco, which is a whole-sale store in the US, is very attractive and amazing to me as all goods are in super large size. Most importantly, I started considering myself as part of American since I stay and have life here. It is important for me to adapt myself to the new culture. The situations that Rose and I had were similar and we both defined ourselves differently after seeing a new culture. 




English affects both Rose and me.

     Furthermore, I think language influenced Rose a lot, too. Since she didn’t speak English fluently when she first came to the King City, she felt isolated and introverted. She was scoffed by her classmates and she even felt worried to go to school. When she was at school, she found that “the teacher’s instructions would wash over [her] like a wave” and “[she] heard the sounds but didn’t understand their purpose” (P48). The language problem made her school life much more difficult and she didn’t have a proper social intercourse. Nevertheless, she encouraged herself to learn and improve English and she was empowered by those difficult words. Undoubtedly, she was affected by language since it built her confidence and interest of learning English.


    I had a similar situation but, of course, it was not as serious as hers. Since I learned both Chinese and English after entering the kindergarten, I had basic knowledge of English. However, I had difficulties of using English after coming to the states. I could not communicate with some American classmates at first and I felt so isolated and lonely. When I tried to join their conversation, it was just so hard for me to understand what they were talking about. I had the same feeling that the conversation “washed over me like a wave”. The speed of their speaking was rapid and I was embarrassed at all. Fortunately, I met some Chinese students at school and, finally I had someone to talk to. I know that it would be a disadvantage for me to stay away from the native students as I cannot improve my English. However, I don't want to be isolated as Rose and I will still encourage myself to meliorate my English, too.


    Last but not least, the experience of making friends influenced Rose. She didn’t have friends in the King City at first since she didn't learn English and she lived far away from the town. She first met Billie, a married girl who lived in their old house, and they became good friends. She didn't feel so alone and enjoyed making friends. After that, she followed Screamies including Barbara Jo, who was a fashionable girl in her school. However, none of them cared about Rose after having a boyfriend and also Rose understood that “no one flirted with [her] and [she] didn’t find any of the boys interesting anyway” (P131). She then met Karen and Erline but, unluckily, she found that their behaviors were just not suitable for her to approach them. At first, Rose was lonely as she didn’t have friends. But then, she felt awkward after meeting some new friends and just left them. She was mostly influenced by peers and these experiences taught her something, too.

All of my classmate were celebrating Christmas
in our classroom.

    For me, I am totally influenced by my friends since they are big part in my life. I love making friends and it is easy for me to meet friends since I am so talkative and active. Unlike Rose, I don't easily leave my friends at all because everyone has different personality. It is very important for us to learn how to get along well with friends. Furthermore, the experiences that I had with my friends were also memorable. We didn’t follow any singer, nor did we live near. We hung around in the campus everyday when we were in the high school. There were so many things which are unforgettable happened around us. Once we slept together during class, we were punished by the teacher. The reason that we were punished is not because of how angry the teacher was. That is because the teacher was so afraid to be punished by the principal for letting students sleeping in class.

    To conclude, everyone must be affected by different kind of influences they have in their life. Once they adapt a new environment or culture, they may need to change their identities or the way they define themselves. Looking at Gilbault’s life, I realized that both of us were influenced by same kind of influences. We both changed the definition of ourselves to a certain degree.

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Reflection:
    After writing this essay, I learned how to combine information and my own experience into the passage. We need to do it carefully since it helps the readers understand the essay. We should also put things which are in the same groups together so that it won't be so confusing.


    Also, I found that using the appositives are quite important and meaningful for the essay. We can easily add more desciptions when using the appositives. It can provide information to the readers. Also, using quotation is a good way for us to combine the sentences in the articles and our essay. Although it is quite difficult to use it properly, it is a very important part in the essay.