8/7/2019 fazl_04

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Every being on this planet, whether human or animal faces an obstacle.Whether it being as simple as what to wear to as complex as how to overcome adeath, we all face obstacles in our lives. Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie and RichardRodriguez all faced obstacles in their lives, but that did not stop them from

coming out on top.Amy Tan is a Chinese-American who is a writer who’s English is proficient.The same can not be said for her mother as her English is broken. She speakslike she knows what she is saying, but most of the people listening to her can notunderstand. Tan says that even though her mother’s English is hard tounderstand she understands English perfectly as she reads Forbes, newspaper articles, and such. In Tan’s life the obstacle is English as her mother’s limitationshave limited her. Tan says “I think my mother’s English almost had an effect onlimiting my possibilities in life as well…And I believe that it affected my results onachievement tests, I.Q tests, and the SAT.” Tan later goes on to explain that thisis due to the influence the broken English spoken at home has on her own

English as she grows accustomed to what it spoken at home. This was anobstacle for Tan, but she overcame it as she went onto become a English major even when her former boss told her worst skill was writing.

Sherman Alexie is a Native American that grew up on a reservation.Growing up on a reservation is always a obstacle as the conditions are poor.Knowing that the knowledge he was to gain is limited at the reservation, he wentto a school outside. That was an obstacle for him as he was the only NativeAmerican at that school. There has always discrimination against NativeAmericans even though they were here before anyone else. Alexie overcame thisas he was the valedictorian at the 99% white school and later when on tobecome a respected writer.

Richard Rodriguez is a Mexican-American writer. He struggled withreading early in his life as he was set up with remedial classes. There he found anew passion for literature as he would go on to begin high school having readhundreds of books. His obstacle was that he lacked a point of view when heread. Rodriguez says “Merely bookish , I lacked a point of view when I read.Rather, I read in order to acquire a point of view. I vacuumed books for epigrams,scraps of information, ideas, themes--anything to fill the hollow within me andmake me feel educated.” Rodriguez overcame this as he went on to keepreading to challenge himself.

In conclusion Tan, Alexie and Rodriguez all faced obstacles in their respective lives whether it was over language, discrimination or reading. Alsotheir parents shared a role in their obstacle as Tam’s Mom limited her English,Alexie’s Father influenced his life greatly and Rodriguez’s parents affected hisattitude towards reading. All in all they stress the importance of education andknowledge.