Rudolfo A. Anaya¡¯s ¡°A Celebration of Grandfathers,¡± is a story from the authors past memories about his Grandfather and other elders. He remembers about his respected Grandfather, a farmer, teaching Anaya to learn English and sharing values together. Now he is older, he understands the power of his heritage, which is Mexican-American.
His memoir begins with explanations of where he grew up and how he spent his summers with his grandfather. To his grandfather he says, ¡°Buenos dias le de Dios, abuelo.¡± meaning, ¡°God give you a good day, grandfather¡± in Spanish. Since Korea uses an honorific language to elders, I understood very well about this honorific quotation, and that it is only used to greet elders. In Korea, we greet elders with a question if the elders are in peace and good health, and bow down. This kind of greeting shows great respect towards the elders and shows that the person is really caring. I understand Anaya using honorifics, because he is from a Hispanic heritage, which also has the culture of where young people show respectfulness to older people.
By respecting the elders, listening and following the elders¡¯ wisdoms of lifestyle can be considered as one of the ways to show admiration to the elders. The quotation, ¡°Simple lessons from a simple man,¡± means that the simple lifestyles of elders are things which may be simple, but essential. It contains the hidden meaning of that old people may had low educations but had wisdoms to survive the tough life by simple formulas to solve the troubles.
On the other hand, as the time passed by, people tend to value different things and move to cities for more convenience of life. More members of the country families¡¯ decide to become something different from what their older generations were handing down. The quote, ¡°They don¡¯t make men like that any more,¡± and the fact that himself becoming a writer show how much difference between the generations exist. People in the present liked to have more convenient things such as many electric devices rather than using hands to finish the work. As the time passed, people more cares about their own profits and dose not cooperate in the group works.
From these quotations, it is possible to determine the purpose of the writing by Rudolfo Anaya. Anaya is trying to interpret how important each heritage is even though some might find them boring or embarrassing. Firstly, he informs about how the heritage is important to the young children, heritage being the background characteristic in making children to adults. Secondly, the author mentions about the importance of the elder¡¯s intelligence which made many difficulties worked out. Lastly, he tells how present people changed, by caring more about the comforts than labor working. However, he also shows that he is worrying about the values of his generations¡¯ will be disappeared. He ends the story with the conclusion meaning that he respects his grandfather and traditions.
Korea also has a lot of old traditions which we value, but I choose Korean language as the most valuable subject. Koreans used Chinese letters to express our abilities and feelings, until King Se Jeong made Korean in the Cho-sun Dynasty. The development of Korean made almost no existence of illiterates in Korea. Also, there are few heritages which use honorific speech in the world, and Korea is one of them. I am really proud of this culture of having honorific ways to speak, because this action shows how polite and well educated the person is. Another valuable tradition is bowing, which shows respects to the others. When I was a baby I remember that I wondered about why I had to bow to the elders, and how bow showed respects. As I grew up I learned that this action of bowing head down shows a form of elevated the status of the one who is greeted.
When I was seven years old, I lived with my grandparents for a month or so. While living with them, my whole style of action changed. It may seem like I am arrogant, but I usually get praised for my sociability and courtesy of greeting to elders, and I thank my grandparents who educated me. This experience of mine is some what similar to Anaya¡¯s, since he was also effected by his grandfather. I think it is important to experience for kids to live in the traditional environment if the heritage is to be kept.
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