Manhood And Manliness
Manhood and Manliness
Many people think about their future in various ways, not only in the field of profession, but more in the sense of sexual orientation and family. Many are afraid to show, or even admit, what they truly are. Concerning these issues, Paul Theroux and Richard Rodriguez are two of the many authors that criticize traits associated with manhood and manliness.
As the story in the essay Family Values, most of Rodriguez's works appear to be autobiographical. In this piece of work he mostly concentrates on homosexuality and family values in America, by comparing it with the life of immigrants and the reasons why they decided to leave home and continue their lives without their parents.
The essay begins with his own thoughts about how he will explain to his parents about his sexual orientation, homosexuality, and continues with contrasting the life of children who are forced to leave their homes due to the lack of privacy in their lives. He is afraid that his parents will never accept the fact that their son is a homosexual, perhaps as a result of the variety of cultures they have been surrounded by. More than half of his neighborhood is immigrants: "India lives next door to Greece, who lives next door to Russia. I wonder what the Chinese lady next door to my parents makes of the politicians' phrase family values" (191). What people think of family values is exactly the opposite of what politicians impose: "But then, what do politicians, Republicans or Democrats, really know of our family life?" (191) The reason why most of the immigrants decide to go to America is because they imagine a brighter future. They find a decent job, and they soon start earning more than their fathers ever made and enjoy the rest of their lives, they become their own men.
Rodriguez believes that now a days normal families, if we can call them like that, struggle with countless problems in their lives, and gay couples are the...
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