Multiethnic Literatures in the U.S.

Passage:

Maybe I’ll be more like Alicia Leal, the astronaut. Like her, I believe in something that I think my dying, denying, backward-looking people need. I don’t have all of it yet. I don’t know how to pass on what I do have. I’ve got to learn to do that. It scares me how many things I’ve got to learn… Everyone knows that change is inevitable. From the second law of thermodynamics to Darwinian evolution, from Buddhism’s insistence that nothing is permanent… But I don’t believe we’re dealing with all that that means. We haven’t even begun to deal with it. (25-26)

The first question that came into my mind when I was reading this passage was is Lauren a prophet? When she talks about helping her people and getting a message across to them I instantly think about a messenger from God. Especially when she talks about something she is desperately trying to “pass on”. I got the feeling that Lauren is dying to become a leader and to help the suffering people around her. With her concept of a different God and a new type of religion this concept is not that farfetched.

Later on in the passage she becomes more pessimistic and doesn’t even know how she’s going to accomplish helping the world. In fact Lauren mentions that she doesn’t even know what she is talking about. She becomes confused and questions whether any of this chaos is real. It’s like even though she wants to do all these great things, she still doesn’t forget that she is just one human being. Then she talks about her message of change.

The end of the passage talks about this change and society’s attitude towards change. Lauren doesn’t seem to understand the reason for denying change or worse knowing that it’s inevitable yet, still reluctant to actually go with the change. She questions the world around her and wonders why the people don’t see her God that represents change, when it is so obvious.

The end of this passage also got me to think about “Tropic of Orange” and how the author tries to stress that we can not keep living secluded tucked away lives and ignore what’s happening all around us and the people around us. Both the author of Tropic of Orange and Lauren try to understand and question how people can live such “normal lives” when there is so much more going on in the world. How people can deny change.