Break Away From the Silence
Maxine Hong Kingston was a Chinese immigrant raised in the community of Stockton, California. Bobby Boucher is the fictional character from The Waterboy, who grew up in the backwoods of Louisiana. Kingston sees white Americans as "ghosts": pale, threatening, and comical specters who speak in an incomprehensible tongue. Boucher saw his teammates as threatening and intimidating, but also as his key to finally fit into the world he felt he never really fit into. Maxine Hong Kingston and the fictional Bobby Boucher are similar in that they both had struggles in trying to fit in and find their respective voices. Kingston struggles with her English and tries to fit in with her classmates, while Boucher adjusts to playing football and tries to fit in with his teammates. Both succeed in their respective ways but in the end find their own voice and break away from the silence. The first of the similarities being that they both come from different backgrounds than their respective peers. Kingston comes from a Chinese background where tradition and values are different than those of her white, American classmates. Boucher grew up in the backwoods of Louisiana with his mother, home schooled, and never had any real interaction with
However, both of them persevere and work hard to gain the respect of others around them. Kingston had a situation where a new teacher had each student memorize a lesson and then recite that lesson in front of the class. Kingston worked with her sister to recite the lesson perfectly and not to have the same situation repeat itself. Boucher worked hard to earn the respect of his teammates. He was winning games for his team and not costing them victories. He worked hard at school to show them that he was not just some jock who had a gift for finding the person with the football. Kingston's sister went first for that lesson recital. Kingston says, "She sounded as if she were trying to sing through weeping and strangling. She did not pause or stop to end the embarrassment. She kept going until she said the last word and then she sat down." Kingston went next saying, "When it was my turn, the same voice came out, a crippled animal running on broken legs. You could hear splinters in my voice, bones rubbing jagged against one another. I was loud, though. I was glad I didn't whisper." Kingston was able to find her voice by using her sister as inspiration. She saw that her sister was scared and she was still able to finish the lesson, thus giving Kingston enough confidence in herself to stand up and speak loud. Boucher has a similar experience in the championship game. He is able to use his skills for tackling to get the rest of his teammates involved. The opposing team is so concerned about stopping Boucher that they neglect the other players enabling them to make plays that win them the game. Boucher earns the respect of his teammates by allowing everyone to get involved and make it a team game. They in turn, make him a part of the team. children his own age. They both talk with their own accents. In The Language of Silence, Kingston says, "...the way Chinese sounds, ching-chong ugl
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Approximate Word count = 1290
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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