Question

Read the following excerpt from Gary Soto’s story "Like Mexicans." 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

C.) She wants to preserve her family’s Mexican culture even though she no longer lives in Mexico.

It can be inferred that the grandmother wants to preserve her family’s Mexican culture because of how she is encouraging her grandson to marry a Mexican girl by stressing her virtues, which would obviously be a product of Mexican culture. We know that the grandmother does not have a problem with multiculturalism because of how she seems to accept blacks and Asians along with Mexican. This is evidenced by how she only has a slur for those who are not Mexican, black, or Asian.

Answer 2

The correct answer is C. She wants to preserve her family’s Mexican culture even though she no longer lives in Mexico.

Step-by-step explanation:

A character's point of view which is usually linked to the character's beliefs, customs and ideas can be identified by analyzing the character's actions, reactions, and opinions about certain situations which is part of indirect characterization. In the case, of the text presented the narrator states his Grandmother advice him to become a barber because she believes this job would give him money and was not a hard job; additionally to this, the narrator describes his grandmother asked him to marry a Mexican girl instead of a girl from another country as she believes Mexican girls have different virtues from the ones other girls have.

This shows the grandmother of the narrator is afraid of losing the Mexican heritage and because of this she does not want his grandson to marry a girl from a different country, this idea is also linked to the situation of the family as she has this kind of thoughts probably because they do not longer live in Mexico and that is the main reason why her grandson could marry a girl from other country and she feels the need of advising him. Thus, can be inferred from this, but it is not explicitly stated in the text about the grandmother's point of view is that "She wants to preserve her family’s Mexican culture even though she no longer lives in Mexico".