This assignment was to help argue certain ideas using multiple texts to draw conclusion by being using critical

thinking. This is a Critical Thinking essay. It was written to offer my thoughts combined with their words to express code-switching and why it is necessary in every day situations. Without acknowledging this ideas we might do this regrettable that could otherwise be avoided if looked at reasonably and critically. This essay has also been revised from a previously written version but stays true to the previous form.

Jarek Rettinghouse Collin Ludlow-Mattson English 114 November 7th 2013 Is Code-Switching Necessary? Why are the poor communities known for violence and how are these norms changed when the environment changes? The assumptions made from Culture that are shown in A Culture of

Poverty are prevalent and applicable with ideas which includes but are not limited to Codeswitching, problems with wealth vs violence, self-esteem, and self defense to another book called

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. In these books both authors discuss their hard
times in relation to hardships while in their youth compared to where they are now in life or a transition to another place where it was necessary to code-switch. They both recall a time when they have been in a fight and realize in the process the need for code-switching in their lives. For

Arnold, it is about fitting in to wherever he is, the reservation or the white high school. In A

Culture of Poverty it was about defending ones self pride from where he grew up and the customs
that had followed which don't belong in a professional work setting. I believe it is prominent in less wealthy communities to feel that fighting is necessary for defense and to be strong in order to get by but that when moved to another location where these street rules do not apply, one must be able to code-switch and accept the need for code-switching and discover this out of insight or from personal experience in order to be accepted in the new area. In the Culture of Poverty, Ta-nehisi Coates writes about an experience he has after a run in with an angry individual that had been featured in an article that he did not appreciate. He then tries to pick a fight with the writer. In the latter, after the author almost gets into a brawl with this man an idea hits him. He looked back and said. 'Or what.' / I closed in on him, and quietly but seriously, responded, You really want to find out? The author had already made the decision to fight him if it came to it from nothing more than what he realized was another man threatening him over an article that he had written, that now belongs to the company of which he works. He did not have any idea of the consequences that would surely follow him had he not managed to avoided a physical confrontation. The idea of code-switching for him at the time might have been a bit more subtly apparent in his profession with language but managed forgo this when his put in a similar situation from when he was younger. When he thinks about his childhood and how he grows up he discovers a bit of insight on his attitude. I think as a younger man, I would have been proud of that moment. For surely, I had

adhered to Article 2 of the Code Of The Streets--Thou Shalt Not Be Found A Punk. Had the gentleman stepped outside, I had already made the decision that I was going to swing. I didn't believe in threatening people and then not following through. He refers to a street rule he had picked up when he was young. He then follows to delve deeper into this thought process to realize the same rules don't apply everywhere you go but are always there from previous experiences. The street rule referred to was something he had picked up from where he grown up, a poor area, to an extent of self defense and normal behavior to be expected. The idea that follows is his own reflection on where he came from and how it relates to his behavior. If you are a young person living in an environment where violence is frequent and random. The willingness to meet any hint of violence with yet more violence is a shield. He defends himself with violence when he was young and from personal experience to a situation that might not have as much need for such aggression. When later reflected after discussing his situation with his friend, he has a realization of this need for code switching and how he should change his behavior accordingly. He understands the relationship between his two locations and the affect on so many Americans that share the same views as he does. The shield can be related to a pack of wolves and hunting ones pray. The weaker or sicker animal is the easier kill and is more likely to be gone after being that it cannot fight back. The same can be said for bullies or aggressors and the victims. The more likely you are to fight back the easier it is for you to be left alone. Except there is always the occasion where the victim although never winning will always fight instead of running away. In the The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part Time Indian, Arnold when he was young, was

stuck between two worlds in which he was always an outcast. Both authors realize this change through a fight after being put in a different situation from a time in there childhood and in Tanehisi Coates' case transitioning to his professional career as he is older. Arnold was at the bottom of the food chain and was always a target for this but always had the same attitude that of A Culture of Poverty, being that they will always confront a person that insults them or their family because that was what they grew up being taught. On the reservation where he lived and had grown up it was customary to fight whenever anyone you cared about or you were getting insulted or even when you thought someone was going to insult you. The way they lived differed from the high school that he went to, which was far from the reservation and was filled with richer white kids that in turn did not think the same way they did just like A culture of Poverty. Both of these people come to understand what it means to code-switch and live in between the wealth and violence being carried over from where they came from. Focusing on the ideas from The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part Time Indian, a situation where a fight is customary in one place does not mean the it will have the same effect in another just like in this example. I was absolutely confused. /I had followed the rules of fighting. I had behaved exactly the way I was supposed to behave. But the white boys had ignored the rules. In fact, they followed a whole other set of mysterious rules where people apparently DID NOT GET INTO FISTFIGHTS. (pg 62) Arnold learns the need of code-switching in order to attempt to conform to his new locations although always not quite fitting in ways that the average white kid did at the school. He also learns an important lesson of the differences between the reservation and the high school and realizes that he fits into a middle category of both schools and although difficult to

conform to both might favor one or the other at any given time. Just like in the other text, Arnold comes to a realization of the street rules and mannerisms changing depending on where you are located. Again, something that is true in one place doesn't make it true everywhere. Early on in the book, Arnold reflects on his situation at the reservation. Poverty doesn't give
you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor. (2.54) He

believes that being poor does not teach perseverance of how to hang on in life but instead how to be poor. Being poor teaches you how to be poor and not how to have great integrity. It simply eats away at his self-esteem and his mind. Although he doesn't own much he wants more out of his life and he transfers from the school on the reservation, Wellpinit, to a white wealthier high school, Reardan, in an attempt to have a chance to escape his surroundings and his status of being poor. This holds to be true with both pieces of literature and where they have both come from. The author of the other piece of literature got out of his situation and surrounding through his literature, and although he works as a professional writer now, the same mannerisms still hold on from the way in which he has grown up. Arnold travels between his school and the school school where lived in order to find a solution to his intellectual desires and curiosity. Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger. (pg 118) He is from one world but is forced to travel to another in order to try and improve his life. He doesn't fit into each category anymore and doesn't quite fit in. It is difficult for him to transition especially when no matter where you go you are an outcast and don't quite fit in. He has to code-switch to try and relate but in the end he is accepted by both sides but still does not belong. Feeling that he does not

quite fit in to either, it seems as if he must adhere to one more than the other in order to succeed. My views are different but it also has heavily to do with where I am located. I live close to Oakland which has similar locations that adhere to these ideas. Even where I live there are people who feel this way but I have always tried to take a pacifistic view of my surroundings. I understand his need for the threatening and following these rules to be picked on but being that I was never strong or in a situation where I need to result in violence but instead diffuse the situation. This technique might not have worked as well for his situation but for mine considering I grew up in a middle-class rural area where violence is not so prevalent I do not have these same ideas although I can relate to them. Although I am not poor I can relate in a small way in order to budget for the things that were more important to me and my family than useless things. Education is a good way to escape your class and bring your family up with you. Situations change in each location and code-switching is important in every day life no matter where you live. Although both of these people have had difficult childhoods they have been able to push past them in order to succeed professionally in the literary world. Although violence is prevalent in poorer areas, that does not mean nobody can change it either from the inside or the outside. It is important to be strong and remember where you come from but always look at each situation with a feeling of equality and take a look at what we are doing when these situations are going on around us and question whether or not this should be what should be happening and where violence is not necessary.

Works Cited:

http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2010/10/a-culture-of-poverty/64854/ Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2007. Print.