Skip to main content

Why do you think Judith Ortiz Cofer decided to name her story "American History"?

Judith Ortiz Cofer's title for her short story "American History" has a double meaning. First, the story is set on November 22, 1963, which is the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. This date is remembered by many people around the world as one of America's tragic days in history. The second meaning behind Cofer's title is symbolic and ironic at the same time. The sad truth is that prejudice, discrimination, and racism are also a part of America's history; and Elena, the protagonist, experiences these vices on the day Kennedy was shot.


In the story, while the whole nation mourns the loss of a great leader by listening to or watching the news, Elena goes next door for a study date with her friend Eugene. Unfortunately, Eugene's mother denies Elena access to her home and her son because Elena is a poor Puerto Rican immigrant--not a white girl.


The title is symbolic because two historical events happen in the story; one is famous, and one represents daily life in America in the 1960s. The title is ironic because when the nation mourned the loss of Kennedy, they felt united; however, the unity was not necessarily real or long-lasting because prejudice, discrimination, and racism were still practiced, thereby separating minority groups from the majority.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more