What do Cofer's experiences on the bus, in the hotel, and at the poetry reading have in common? Could she have omitted any of them from her essay? Do you find her behavior toward the man in the "very classy metropolitan hotel" (para. 9) unnecessarily evil? Explain.
Cofer's experiences on the bus, in the hotel, and at the poetry reading all have someone mistaking her for less than human in common. The men on the bus and in the hotel viewed her as a sexual object and the woman in the restaurant viewed Cofer as the hired help. I don’t think that she could have omitted any of them from her essay because keeping the stories out would have lessened the personal impact of the story. I don’t find her behavior toward the man in the hotel unnecessarily evil because she had been silent for a while. She didn’t say anything to the man on the bus, and the fact that she didn’t make a scene earns her great brownie points for control. She claims that if she was a white woman, the man in the hotel wouldn’t have sung to her. And I agree, since Hispanics are the minority they are easily stereotyped and not given proper consideration towards their feelings as a person.
ReplyDeleteYou make a very good argument, Sydney, and I agree with you completely. The personal experiences strengthen her argument by, again, establishing her ethos as a Latina woman who has endured struggles, and also establishing pathos by allowing the audience to feel the anger she does. I also agree with you when you say that her behavior toward the man in the hotel wasn't unnecessary evil because she had been silent for a while and she was finally demanding the respect she deserves as a human being.
DeleteThey all have the common experience of being objectified and stereotyped. She could have omitted them, but it would have weakened her argument. I do, because I don't see how that really helps make the situation any better.
ReplyDeleteIn all of her personal experiences, someone stereotypes Cofer and dehumanizes her. She could have omitted all of these from her essay, but it would have lessened her argument and taken away the personable and relatable effect of it. I agree with what her friend said after the encounter with the man in the hotel, that she handled the situation calmly, because she could have done what she confessed she really wanted to do (push him into the pool) but instead she kept her cool and brushed him off.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the three places listed, Cofer experiences alienation and being stereotyped. I feel that if these experiences or even one of them were to be omitted, the personal vibe and impact expressed from these experiences would be lost. This would overall weaken her argument. I find that her response to the man was not unnecessarily evil because she kept her cool and did not lash out. In fact she did not saying anything at all. Her collective control over the situation was very well done and you can tell she might have had an experience similar to this before.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said, any of the experiences could have been removed, but as they are removes readers have less and less to reference when referring to the writing. I feel as though only the stories that she could think of that would give her the most ethos and those who do stereotype the least ethos should be included.
ReplyDeleteThese experiences are similar as Coffer is treated as different than the people she encounters. These are effective as they show this treatment, but she probably could have omitted one. She focuses too much on her personal experiences instead of expanding her horizons to other people's experiences. I think to an extent, her behavior was unnecessary as many people are raised with this mentality and do not know any better. She confronts the problem, but does not confront the cause of the behavoir.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Matt. Her friend says that she handled the hotel situation well, but I feel like she was a little provoked and succumbed to revenge. Instead of retorting with passive aggression, she could have told the offenders of their wrongdoings and prevented future offenses. While I agree with Matt that Cofer should have given other people's stories, I think that she was fine in including them; the rage that she showed in the stories goes back to her intro and explains more of her anger towards the stereotypes.
DeleteThe commonality of the three experiences are that prejudices of people based on ethnicity, in Cofer's example Latina women. Cofer mentioned in her article multiple stereotypes of Latina women including maids, waitresses, and prostitutes. I think that the commonalities of the three examples all strengthen Cofer's central argument and should not be omitted from her essay. Although some people may feel that Cofer attacked the man, I believe that she was standing up for herself after multiple previous encounters where she tried to shrug the encounters off.
ReplyDeleteAll of these people objectify Cofer and I think all of these instances were necessary to put in her essay to grab not only sympathy from people, but it also allows people to try to understand what it is like to be in her shoes. Her actions toward the hotel man were completely fine by me for she is objectified quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteCofer's stories are all about her being judged because she is Latina, and they are all saying that. However, they are explaining the different reasons that she is judged, or expanding upon the reason she was judged in the first place. She's also explaining different degrees of prejudice she felt. The first 2 saw her as a sex object/maid, and the last one saw her as the waitress at the boat restaurant. If these were omitted, readers could have been asking for a stronger example or a weaker example, depending on which story she omitted. As for the "metropolitan man", he was out of turn to be doing what he was doing, and should know that singing about gonorrhea directed towards a woman is offensive, regardless of race. He still makes it worse by tying it in with Maria, which puts some racial tension on it. She has a right to be angry about what the man said, and it shouldn't be considered "unnecessarily evil" if she wanted to push him into a pool when he's deserving of it.
ReplyDeleteAll of Cofer's experiences are similar because they all deal with people stereotyping her because she is Latina. I think omitting any of the examples would have decreased the effectiveness of her essay because seeing that this situation has happened to her repeatedly, it makes the reader understand her argument better. I think her reactions to the man in the hotel are justified because she it was not the first time she dealt with that sort of behavior, and if she were to go along with the "daughter's" plea for laughter then the man would have thought he was funny and not doing anything wrong.
ReplyDeleteAll of these experiences take place with strangers, those who have nothing to judge Cofer on except her ethnicity. They help her establish people's stereotypes about Hispanic women. I genuinely think all of these experiences played an important role in the piece, and I would not omit any of them. They each show the way people of different backgrounds regard her. I think she handled the situation in a very productive way. Instead of confronting the man in a way that would only reinforce his stereotypes, she directed her attention to a young girl who has the ability to grow up and see beyond people's ethnicity.
ReplyDeleteThese instances are all of her being subjected to judgement based upon the preconceived notions of others. Without these instances being included in the writing, an understanding of what she has gone through could not be established. Her response to the man was completely rational.
ReplyDeleteEach of the three experiences described by Cofer are examples of times when she has dealt with the prejudices and stereotypes of Latina women. I think that these experiences really strengthened her argument and helped the reader better understand what she has been going through. It would be hard to understand the types of things that Cofer and other Latina women would experience without showing it to the audience through real-life situations. These experiences were therefore important to her writing and should not be omitted. In the case of the man from the hotel, I do think that she was rude to him, but she probably had a right to be. Although her being rude does nothing to help the situation, she is only sticking up for herself and not putting up with someone who is making fun of her, whether that be on purpose or not.
ReplyDeleteI think all of the experiences she shares are important. The personal experiences In this passage is part of what really connects her writing to the audience. Omitting a particular story would weakened her argument. I think she handled herself quite well when she kept calm; she could have been very angry but instead she simply walked back to her room
ReplyDeleteIn all of these experiences she was stereotyped at sight by strangers and embarrassed because of that showing how inescapable the stereotypes are. I think each experience reveals something different. The first reveals that the stereotypes have followed her an even greater distance than usual and starts to reveal the negative repercussions of the stereotyped trait of being very sexual. The second shows how the stereotypes still followed her into the proper business world and still negatively affected her there. The third reveals that even great success cannot let her escape these stereotypes showing that, without change, people will always see the Latinas as lower and servers. I think that she was actually very good to him considering what he did, but this was for the girl's sake. She could have reprimanded him, but she spared him and his daughter that further embarrassment that was well deserved on his part.
ReplyDeleteThe common theme between them all is Cofer being stereotyped as something she is trying to unidentify with. This is why they are all great pieces of evidence for her argument. As for her being mean I think there is always a better way to handle things and she could have internalized better. But he was still obviously in the wrong.
ReplyDeleteall of the times during the bus,hotel, and poetry reading experience all deal with stereotyping and prejudice.i think it strengthened her argument and her personally.it connects her to the audience and gives us a deeper understanding.
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