I am fascinated by the contrast in Rico and Buddy in this story. When reading it, I felt a lot of sympathy for Rico. At first I didn't like him because he sounded like a dog of a boy. Especially when he was at the dance and didn't even ask girls to dance just nodded from across the room. She just followed after him because that's the way it was. I thought the relationship he had with the "long-legged blondes" was appalling. He acted like a stud of a pimp and that, to me, does not make for an appealing protagonist. But when the story progressed and Buddy showed the struggle of Rico, I began to feel sorry for him. The fact that he was not "prep" educated and from a low income neighborhood made him feel that there was no way out for him. That is really sad. I wish, as a reader, that Rico would have seen Buddy as an inspiration and tried to be more like him. Instead he saw Buddy as the exception to the rule because he had the opportunity to do something with his life. It seems like Rico saw his destiny ending like Cookie's. The only ending for him was the war and probably death. Rico is following Cookie's path by trying to go to Frisco to hook up with the "white middle class hippie girls." I really felt for Rico and Buddy in their parting scene. It seemed like both just wanted to hug and tell each other how much they loved each other but their rough-n-tough personas got in the way. Their reputations would not allow them to show their true feelings. Buddy even says "in our neighborhood, emotion was for sissies and not to be shown" (25). Both boys understood that it was the last time they would see each other but neither felt the need to break the hyper-masculine walls and tell each other their true feelings.
Race is another thing that I found really interesting. This story seemed to focus entirely on socioeconomic status instead of race. The "neighborhood" Buddy grew up was not like neighborhoods that are traditionally broken down by black, white, Asian, etc... Buddy mentions a Hispanic boy, black boys, white girls, Asian boys all from the same neighborhood. The only thing that seems to unite these groups was their low income. I think that Bacho is making a statement by doing this. I don't think he wanted to the story to be overrun with ideas of what the race does to a child, but what the socioeconomic status does to a child growing up. I think he wanted us as readers to focus on the struggles of growing up in poor neighborhoods.
I felt bad for Rico as well, but only to an extent. I believe part of Rico’s character may be that he is someone who doesn’t have the same opportunities as people like Buddy, but I also found Rico to be lazy and not very ambitious. I can’t really have pity for Rico when he chooses to live the way he goes. What is stopping him from being someone else, another exception to the rule?
ReplyDeleteI can’t feel entirely sorry for someone who settles. I realize that Rico couldn’t afford college, but if he would have tried harder he could have ended up like Buddy and had that same opportunity. Even if Rico weren’t born a natural genius, he could have studied more and put more effort into being a scholar as opposed to just giving up. Rico saw the dream but didn’t have the means to pursue it, and I don’t believe there is a valid reason why he couldn’t.
When you are dying of cancer do you give in because you decide you are going to die anyway, or do you fight it? If you got in an accident and were supposed to be paralyzed for life would you never try to walk again? Rico is not to me someone of hope. A part of me doesn’t feel at all sorry for Rico, because life is what you make it. Rico could have been someone different, he could have been someone it wouldn’t be convenient for him to be.
I felt bad for Rico somewhat. I felt bad that people didn’t have much faith in him when it came to academics and going to college. However, I did not feel completely bad for him because it was his life and if he wanted to make the decision to go to college and do better in school, despite what everyone else said, he could have. He didn’t have to listen to everybody who told him he couldn’t do it. If it was something he truly wanted to do, he should have had the courage to just do it regardless of what others may say just because he has to live his life to help himself, not to please others by doing what they want him to do. My father wanted me to be a doctor and my brother wanted me to be a police officer. These careers, however, were not what I wanted to do and I know I definitely couldn’t be a doctor just cause of my phobia with blood. My father did not want me to become a journalist. I chose to make my major Journalism because I love to write and wrote for my high school newspaper and enjoyed it. I write for the college newspaper here on the Hamilton campus now and it is fun too. The reason why my father did not want me to become a Journalist was because he feared something bad would happen to me like what happens to the Journalists that were killed when traveling out of the country. After a discussion with my father about everything, he understands why I want to become Journalism and he’s seen my passion for writing and has accepted that Journalism is what I want to do. That being said though, I still have to pick a second major but I’m sure I will find something to pursue as my second major. I am one of the very few people, if not the only person in my family who has actually gone to college. Despite the fact that nobody else went to college in my family, that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to go and I did end up going because I knew I was smart enough to not let my capabilities and potential to go to waste and I wish Rico could have seen that in himself in some way.
ReplyDeleteHi Becka,
ReplyDeleteI do not like Rico's attitude in the story where he keep wooing girls especially blonde girls too. But I think there should be a reason why the author gave such kind of characteristic to Rico. I have done a research that The Great March on Washington was taken place in 1963 while the Vietnam War was from1959 to 1975. So it is possible that the setting of the story is before the biggest political rally for freedom. If it is before the rally, then it should make some sense why Rico was doing nasty thing. I personally think that he wanted to show other white men that although he has darker skin, he can easily woo white girls. From doing so, he probably will feel better for the unequal treatment of the society. Another reason why I thought so was because he focuses on blond girl, any barely mention other races.
I think Rico may have thought of doing something else, but it is possible that he was just not giving the chance to do so. Remember, he has darker skin colors. It is also possible that it is his neighborhood that he decided to be a good fighter. He has to make sure that he can protect himself and probably his friends. Also, there is a great recession in early 1960s. So, it is possible that Rico can’t find a job and he decided to join up the military force. The reason why I thought about this was because when he told Buddy that he has no life, and has no future as well.
Hey Becka!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really awesome post that puts “Rico” in a new light for me. I know we talked about this post a lot already in class, but reading it again a couple days later helps it sink in. I do think that this story has strong socioeconomic undertones. What I think is interesting about looking at the story from that angle is how all of the different characters in the story are portrayed. Sometimes as the reader, it’s easy to look at Rico and say, “Hey! Wait a second. You have the potential to rise out of this poverty and make something of yourself if you would just go for it,” but the fact is that we already have that character present in Buddy.
I doubt that Buddy’s life was very easy, and I do think that Rico exaggerates Buddy’s privileges out of a feeling of inferiority. Buddy is our character that fought against the odds and is going to college after being raised in a rundown town – but in “Rico” we focus more heavily on Rico’s life choices. He doesn’t have the same life as Buddy. Not everyone can find success by simply “trying harder,” but that’s what makes Rico’s story so interesting and, in some ways, very realistic. Not everyone is like Buddy, not everyone can be like him. It’s strange how the same community that Rico and Buddy live in treat them both so differently.
I love your line when you say that you wished Rico had seen Buddy as an inspiration rather than an exception. This story would have been completely different if you had switched just those two words around.