This semester you read several memoirs, including pieces by Ernesto Galarza and Russell Baker. Return to “Barrio Boy” and “No Gumption” now. How are these two memoirs similar? How are they different? In what ways are the authors’ choices and depictions related to the subject matter of their stories?

6 answers

Has to be four paragraph essay
What don't you understand about this assignment?
So far I have:
The stories are different because in the story No Gumption the boy has to deliver newspapers because he was forced to in order to make money to help his family and he had to learn about hard work. While in Barrio Boy is an immigrant that moves to the United States of America during the revolutionary war. The immigrant needs to learn English also he and his family were very poor so was the economy at that time. The similarities between these two stories is because both boys must learn how to work hard as their families were poor along with the economy. At the end of both stories both of the boys find the jobs they needed and wanted for No Gumption rather than delivering the newspapers he writes the newspapers.
The other boy in Barrio Boy learns how to speak English because his teacher helped him. Both No Gumption and Barrio Boy have the same conflicts and they both are written in first-person point of view and they also share some of the same values. Both of the boys lived in close time periods and were very poor. They went through a lot of tough times to get to where they got but at the end of No Gumption and Barrio Boy they completed a lot. Both of these stories are talking about young boys being very poor and trying to find work.
The difference between these two boys and stories in No Gumption it talks about a boy who's mother does not want him to be like his father and wants him to gumption. As for Barrio Boy the young boy is an immigrant and it does not talk about his youth and getting a job like No Gumption. Instead it talks about him going to school to learn how to speak English. The authors chose to relate the subjects for example, this is reflected in the story and change the setting and the way the story feels.
I need one sentence in the 3rd paragraph and one full paragraph more
I think you need an introductory paragraph that sets forth the basic premise of both stories: boys growing up in "hard" times, one an immigrant, the other a native-born American. Then you should organize the similarities together in one paragraph, then the differences in one paragraph (or vice-versa in order). The fourth paragraph should summarize how both stories address the same kinds of difficulties overcome, and how both boys achieved their goals against the difficulties presented by their circumstances.

Note that "gumption" is a noun, not a verb. Baker's mother can't want him to gumption. She might want him to have some. And I do not understand your last sentence above.
thank you so much Reed