Period. 4
English 10
03/12/15
Always Running
Luis Rodriguez wrote his memoir
Always Running as an account of the challenges he faced growing up MexicanAmerican in the impoverished out taking of Los Angeles where he faced racism, police brutality and limited opportunities In a short excerpt from the memoir,
Rodriguez reflects on a poignant memory from his childhood in which he and his friend Tino snuck into the schoolyard for an innocent game of basketball but were pursued by
Although the excerpt primarily recounts the actions leading up to the tragedy, the piece also reveals oppression to be a primary theme of the text, which is shown through the writer’s use of metaphor, imagery and tone.
Rodriguez uses imagery to describe the school poor condition in the neighborhood that
Luis lives in. Luis is referring to the school as a dark place that’s deserted “chainlink fence which surrounded the school…”, “old brick building cast elongated shadows…”, “Leaves and paper swirled in tiny tornadoes.”. The imagery might be describing how no one is ever in the school as if no one cared about their education, he was describing it as a ghost town, which is basically deserted. This matters to the main point of the author as he talks about mexicans being seen as a stained, a bad thing, meaning that they do not care about maybe their education. Rodriguez uses Metaphor to show how racism has influence and shaped the world on how they perceive mexicans. “Sometimes they… jumped on us Mexicans as if we were born with a hideous stain.”. Rodriguez was stating how society and the police have marked the
Mexican race with a hideous stain of bad reputation being known as a race that don’t always follow the laws. This relates to the thesis as it’s talking about the Mexicans being seen with a bad curse on them.
Rodriguez uses tone to influence the action of racism that the police use towards Luis and
Tino. The police use tone and a