a loss of language

A Loss of Language In Richard Rodriguez’s “Gains and Losses,” we are told the story of how he learned English as a young boy, and, in turn, stopped using his family’s language, Spanish. The story is the portrayal of a Latino family that does not speak English very well and are pushed, by American society’s cultural expectations, to learn the language and essentially drop their native tongue. The family did have a …

…Although Rodriguez does not tell us about how he as a person in society changed much except that he was accepted by the other children, it is very probable that to fit into society’s ever changing mold he had to change some of his mannerisms and ways as well as his language. Through this story he shows us how pressure and the expectations of society can do this to a person and his family.