Question

My grandmother gave me bad advice and good advice when I was in my early teens. For the bad advice, she said that I should become a barber because they made good money and listened to the radio all day. “Honey, they don’t work como burros,” she would say every time I visited her. She made the sound of donkeys braying. “Like that, honey!” For the good advice, she said that I should marry a Mexican girl. “No Okies, hijo”—she would say— “Look, my son. He marry one and they fight every day about I don’t know what and I don’t know what.” For her, everyone who wasn’t Mexican, black, or Asian were Okies. The French were Okies, the Italians in suits were Okies. . . . she lectured me on the virtues of the Mexican girl. What inference can be made about the grandmother’s point of view in this excerpt? She is eager to assimilate herself and her family into mainstream American culture. She is unwilling to embrace any aspect of multiculturalism because she detests American culture. She wants to preserve her family’s Mexican culture even though she no longer lives in Mexico. She believes that marrying an “Okie” is equivalent to ruining any prospects of financial success.

Answer 1

Hello there!

The answer is: She is unwilling to embrace any aspect of multiculturalism because she detests American culture.

Grandma considers that girls from Mexico are better because she was brought up to that culture. In addition, she thinks that the "Okies" were brought up differently from the way she is brought up; therefore, she does not want her grandson to mix his culture with "Okies."

Hope this helps.