Critical Thinking Sample about La

Part I Anthology

Unfolding the True State of Life in La

Preface

The town of Hispaniads, the city of movie and music stars, the entertainment hub, the town of lackadaisical living, the one that lacks cultural heritage, and yet, one that boasts over 300 museums and the dream-home of many immigrants. Such has been the portrayal of Los Angeles. A city that many critics say it is deficient of a cultural depth but again one where people yearn to begin to see the beauty of Hollywood, good living, and the embodiment of multiculturalism.

With the kind of portrayal and fabricated perceptions regarding Los Angeles, this anthology seeks to uncover the true status of the town, the cultural reality, a house of great writers and flourishing literature.

The theme that cuts across this anthology is cultural diversity. Cultural diversity ought to be a fundamental attribute of a society where plurality enables sharing of every other’s cultural aspect for the betterment of society. A vivid assessment has been done regarding the extent to which Los Angeles cultural diversity did more good than injury to the city. In the level of superficial assessment, what throngs in the perceptions of many has been an entertainment hub. But the entertainment that La is only connected with is music and movies, a stance that conceals the cultural depth, the rich literary heritage, creativity, and the species of new generation of writers that mark life in this misconstrued city. The anthology explores the various perceptions about La and unravels some of the urban myths by providing a clear picture about the city using 10 texts. Certain quotations and commentaries have already been selected from the texts for analysis, in an try to articulate the real state of affairs concerning the city of Los Angeles. The voice of the anthology entwines both literary and factual textual representation transverse the 10 literatures. As found in the anthology, not merely music and videos that mark life in La, but also a presence of rich culture and literature rooted in the diversity, which is depicted by the selected quotes.

1. James M. Cain, “Mildred Pierce”

“Wash out, then, the land of sunshine, fruit, and flowers. Every one of these are here, but not with the lush, verdant fragrance that you have probably imagined. A celebrated movie comedian is credited with the remark that ‘the flowers don’t smell and the ladies do’, in my observation nothing smells. Wash out the girl with the red cheeks peeping coyly from behind a spray of orange leaves. The girl will be here, but the dry air has brought the red out of her cheeks; the orange trees are here, nevertheless they don’t look that way: the entire picture has too much pep, life, and moisture in it” (p. 108).

In this paragraph, James M. Cain gift ideas a pictorial view of how life appears to be in Los Angeles. Firstly, the author says that comedians are credited by the old saying the flowers do not smell but women do. This suggests the kind of life where women are considered to be living high life with scents in the streets than those of flowers. Furthermore, the environmental surroundings portrayed seems fresh and fertile by having an indication of orange trees that are high in flowers. Cain writes that individuals actually over imagine their state of beauty in La, and this is excatly why the author says that all this beauty occurs in La but not with same fragrance that people frequently imagine. When people visit Los Angeles, they expect to find easy life, which is incorrect. They face cruelty, weakness and hatred in some cases. Nevertheless , those who keep fighting wind up winners and achieving their goals. In Los Angeles, things are not easy but you've got to find it difficult to achieve their goals.

2. James M.Cain, “Mildred Pierce”

“Veda began it, but when she finished it, or whether she finished it, Mildred never quite knew. Little quivers experienced her they kept going right through her all of those other night, through the supper party when Vedas sat with the scarf wound around her throat during the brief half hour, while she undressed Veda, and put the costume away; at night, while she lay there alone, attempting to sleep, maybe not wanting to sleep” (p. 188).

In the first quote, we can see Cain depicting the kind of beauty that is considered to be in La, particularly focusing in women. In this quote, Cain equally indicates that La is a city of partying. The purpose of using these two quotes from Cain is to show the reader of this anthology how people perceive life in La, with beauty, partying, and fragrance. It is crucial to indicate that the immigration laws in Los Angeles are considerably strict and most those who fail to be permitted to migrate to Los Angeles frequently propagate an incorrect picture of the city, perhaps because of the presence of Hollywood.

3. Karen Yamashita, Tropic of Orange

“Gabriel had actually brought this tree from riverside eight years ago. It had been a navel orange tree, maybe the descendant of the original trees first taken to California from Brazil in 1873 and planted by L. C. Tibbets. This is the sort of historic detail Gabriel liked. Bringing an orange tree…from riverside, California to his place near Mazatian was a significant act of some kind. Gabriel had taken some pains to plant the trees as a marker – to mark the tropic of cancer” (p. 11).

For connecting James M. Cain with Karen Yamashita, the latter projected the perceived life style in La, with beauty of women of color being at the biggest market of the author’s explication. But in Yamashita, actually the novel indicates that literature offers a new way of considering environmental justice, through visual images and metaphors, maybe not solely through the prism of statistics. This new way of looking references the true problems of communities struggling against environmental racism, and is simultaneously liberated from providing a strictly documentary account of the contemporary world. In the context of this quote, Yamashita sets the novel along the highways, highlighting the topography and the geography of neo-liberalism. In particular, women’s bodies and labor are central to the new worldwide economy and so are targeted by acts of symbolic and actual violence. Yamashita reveals that women of color along with transportation networks embody how production and consumption work through the flow of goods, garbage, and people within an era of intensified free trade.

4. Karen Tei Yamashita, “Tropic of Orange”

“The heart of slipstream is definitely an attitude of peculiar aggression against reality. These are fantasies of a form, but not fantasies, which are futuristic, or beyond the fields, we all know. These books tend to sarcastically tear at the structure of each and every day life…No single imagination is wild or crass or cheesy enough to take on the collective mindlessness that propels our fascination forward” (p. 210).

In this quote, Yamashita explains how fantasies characterize a lot of the books discussing Los Angeles, sarcastically tearing the structure of everyday life in this city. Yamashita indicates that most those who go to La work hard to make a living. At the end, the hard work becomes competition within communities, helping to make life even harder. People in La should find it difficult to make a living and never to compete. However , if the competition is health chances are they should adopt it. Otherwise, they should perhaps not compete considering that the losers may well not take it light. The paragraph can be set alongside the kind of life some people face while in La. In the paragraph, Rodriguez says that most he does is to benefit a living. All his life he has earned little money and that he says the cash is for his kiddies. It shows the struggles that he experiences every day and certainly will be compared by to people who are now living in Los Angeles. The unlucky ones have to have the same situation to make ends meet. In this paragraph, Los Angeles is described as a good option to be. Anyone who goes to La feels in the home since the place offers every thing for different cultures that individuals have. Nevertheless , though the place is has people from all cultures, the exact same people get discriminated by people who feel to be superior that the rest.

This creates conflits within town since the discrimanted parties don't receive crucial services they have been entitled to. James M. Cains in this paragraph argues that people were used to living under complexity not just under daughter-mother relationship, but on racial grounds. This really is compared to life in La where individuals have to go through hardship in relationships.

5. Yxta Maya Murray, “Locas”

“There are challenges and joys to be had in the law, and Los Angeles is amongst the most vibrant places to start your life as a lawyer; now more than ever. I look forward to the truly amazing learning and invigorating criticism that will simply take place” (p. 81).

In this paragraph, Murray talks of your competitors that is in Los Angeles. Individuals from different races are competing to outsmart the other. This type of competition just isn't healthy as it makes individuals to prioritize their particular group. The group that's weak without any resources turn out to be miserable some are killed by the powerful group. According to Murray, Mexican had various similarities though the similarities do not unite them. The same as in La, the groups in the paragraph can not accept to reside with each other therefore causing more conflicts.

6. Yxta Maya Murray, “Locas”

“Me and Mami and Papi dreamed about the States on a regular basis. We would do anything to be like los Americanos. So we paid all our money to a coyote and that he zoomed us over nice and quick. I was just a baby girl then but I still remember, the night was black and Mami held me up in her arms and we ran fast, the same as he told us to. It was the getting over part that was easiest, though. You believe it’s gonna be all sunshine whenever you get to pretty California, right? ” (p. 143).

In life one does not always get what they want. That's the same situation in La. However , although one doesn't get what they want, they could always try to find what favors them and work with it. Any one planning to Los Angeles in order to find that life is not a bed of roses, chances are they deal with the specific situation though it miht perhaps not be easy. The truth is irrespective of how hard, one should never give excuses or hightail it from reality in La. This experience can be when compared with Lucia who's from Mexican. When she gets to La she experiences so much difficulties so that you can survive the harsh life in the town.

7. Luiz Rodriguez, “The Republic of East L. A”

“It never stopped, this running. We were constant prey, and the hunters soon became big blurs: the authorities, the gangs, the junkies, the dudes on Boulevard who took our money, all smudged into one. Sometimes these were teachers who jumped on us Mexicans as if these were born with hideous stain. We were always afraid. ” She had to survive being cast right into a peculiar universe of neon and noise. This was a location where winos and the homeless resided on the sidewalk, where women sold themselves for sex to consume or get stoned, and where people on city buses never say any such thing to you unless they are actually drunk or crazy” (p. 229).

The kinds of gangs described by Rodriguez were rampaging in L. A. which exhorted money from their store. This shows how much people in the town have to find it difficult to make ends meets. People go to LA looking for a brighter future and easy life however , that isn't the case. However the case of the immigrant woman who needs to give up her dignity with sex to survive just isn't one of those items that happens in Los Angeles. The reason being in the paragraph Rodriguez describes the town as a peculiar universe full of noise and neon. This means that the town is saturated in glamour and challenge though it does not go that extend. Just like Yamashita, Rodriguez talks of the complexicity within the city where people have to manage harsh reality to get common things like food and money…