Comment on all these questions. Remember to give reasons based on the book!! In your answers pay particular attention to the Chapters and pages suggested in each question.
1. Did you find stereotypes for the nationalities of the characters in the book? Which ones? Mention pages and chapters.
2. What are, according to the book, the Irish stereotypes in the USA? Check the following pages:
Accent. pg: 41
Complaining. pg. 55
Drinking. pg. 38
Mention any other you found in the book.
11 comments:
1.- Yes, for example:
- The case of Hector. Hector was a Cuban and he and the other Cuban had a specific compartment (chapter 10).
- Frank was an Irish, he was different as American, Irish life is different, he thinks in a different way (chapter 2,10 pages, 4,5,36,38...).
- Nancy was Chinese and he think in a different way too (chapter 11).
- The group of de black twenty-nine girls. In America white people is different than black people (chapter 12, page 42).
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- Ben Chan was a Chinese too. People Chinese was hard-working, and most of them lived in a place in New York (China Town) (Chapter 12 page 55).
Sorry when I said he think (in Nancy), I would say she thought.
2.- Irish people are:
- have a different accent:
Frank knwe how to speak English but his accent was different, so he a lot of times was confused as most of his students (pag 41,13..)
- Irish tradition is complaining bitterly about everithing:(pages 55, 4,5,54,..
- Irish people drinks a lot:
Father´s Frank drank (pag vi), he said that people everiday drank beer on Friday in Irland(page 4,5).
When he went back to Irland he drank a lot too (page 51).
- I think that Irish people isn´t worried (page 36).
Frank was changing his work all the time and he wasn´t worried, he lived the present.
I think you´re quite right about Irish stereotypes. Remember stereotypes are preconceived ideas a group or a society has about a particular type of people (on how they live, their behaviour, etc.,) and they are not necessarily true. By the way, the word here is "behaviour" rather than "compartment".
1-Yes, the stereotype for American teenagers. Rich kids without problems or concerns, who have everything, do not value what they have, but never smile.
The Chinese are portrayed as being very hard-working.
Black girls in the US are described as being low-class and poorly educated. Also very noisy.
2-The Irish speak with a different accent than Americans. That is why the students would laugh or not understand Mr. McCourt’s accent. They are also said to whine all the time and to be drunkards, like Mr. McCourt’s father. An example is when the Cuban kid accuses his teacher of being an alcoholic.
STEREOTYPES
1.Yes, I find some stereotypes. On page 12 , chapter 4 you can see how the author show us one of them when he said that mostly Italian people, a few Irish work on the docks.
On page 13 chapter 5 on the Open Day people said that it was wonderful that McCourt became a teacher because most Irish people became policemen or worked in churches.
There is another one on page 40 chapter when McCourt describes some of his students: “Asians with black hair and eyes, the great brown eyes of Hispanic boys and girls.
2. Accent. Page 41
Nancy Chu as well as the classroom were surprised when McCourt says that he had trouble with language and the names of things when he came to New York. They all supposed that for an Irishman the language shoudn´t be a problem. They didn´t think that the way of speaking or saying some words as hot dog could confuse an Irishman.
Chapter 5 - Page 13
On this page you can see how especially the women have pleasure hearing Irish accent when they told to Mr. McCourt how nice was his accent.
Complaining. Page 55
Most of the students were boring when McCourt talked about poor people in France, for them he is just another boring teacher who follows the old Irish tradition of complaining bitterly about everything.
Violent - Drinking. Page 38
In this page you can see how Hector, the Cuban boy accuses McCourt to be a drank and a violent man as the Irish people
Angry – Page 36
McCourt´ wife blames him to be an angry man. Well she said “My friends warned me not to marry an Irishman”
Humor – Page 56
McCourt thinks in this page that he has an Irish humor, it is a way of showing us that Irish people have a special humor.
Very accurate account of stereotypes from the book! Well done!
Pilar
Inma,
Could you please print your comments and look for spelling and expression mistakes?
We´ll check them together later on.
Thank you, Pilar
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