In both “Son” by Andrew Solomon and in “The Chinese in All of Us” by Richard Rodriguez write about their lives. Richard Rodriguez he writes about his life, and he also thinks of himself of Chinese which lead to problems. In “Son” by Solomon, it explains the two different kinds of identities vertical identities like the ones that connect us to the members of our families, and the horizontal identities we form on the basis of characteristics.

The ideas from Solomon‘s essay can help readers understand Rodriguez’s short story is the importance of vertical, horizontal identity and school.

The first comparison from “Son” by Andrew Solomon and in “The Chinese in All of Us” by Richard Rodriguez is vertical identity. Vertical identity is when children opinions at a young age aren’t there beliefs. For example it could be there parents’ beliefs. An example from Solomon of vertical identity is when he was 7 years old; a cashier at a store asked him what color balloon he wanted. He wanted a pink one. Solomon said, “I wanted a pink one. My mother countered that I didn’t want the pink, but under her glare, I took the blue one. That was my favorite color is blue but I am still gay is evidence of both my mother’s influence and its limits” (374).The main point in that quote from Solomon was that he wanted a pink a balloon but his mom wanted him to have a blue balloon but she made him think that blue was his favorite color. An example of vertical identity from Rodriguez is that the nuns showed up and he refused to speak English. Rodriguez said, “When I walked into the classroom, I was such a minority. I remember the nun wrote my name on the black board: RICHARD RODRIGUEZ. She pronounced it. Then she said, repeat it after me. It was not that I could not say it. Rather, I would not say it. Why should I? Who was this nun? She said: Repeat your name after me loud enough so all the boys and girls can understand. The nun was telling me not just to speak English, but to use language publicly. I would not. I could not. I refused to speak up, to look up.” (6). The nuns wanted Rodriguez to speak English but he refused to. After a couple of days later some nuns came to Rodriguez house and asked his mom to speak English at home. He said, “At first, it seemed a kind of game. We practiced English after dinner” (5).

The second comparison from “Son” by Andrew Solomon and in “The Chinese in All of Us” by Richard Rodriguez is horizontal identity. Horizontal identity is when children get their influence from by society as they get matured. An example from Solomon of horizontal identity is that he learned to be gay. Solomon said, “ Being gay is a horizontal identity; most gay kids are born to straight parents, and while their sexuality is not determined by their peers, they learn identity, by observing and participating in a subculture outside the family” (370). Solomon is explaining in the quote that you weren’t born gay and your peers can’t determine if you are gay but it is learned by identity and participating into thing that you wouldn’t normally doing. An example of horizontal identity from Rodriguez is that he learned things from TV and his friends. Rodriguez said, “We are more apt today to recognize the colors of America than perhaps we were several decades ago. On the TV ad, on the football field, in the bank, in a room like this—we have grown used to different shades of America” (6). This means Rodriguez has learned things from people on TV ads, on the football field, and people in the bank. Rodriguez said, “A friend of mine, who went to Bryn Mawr College in the 1950s—when she was the only black student in her class—remembers coming home to North Carolina. She remembers getting off the Greyhound bus. She remembers walking up the sidewalk on the hot early summer day. When she got home and walked up the five steps of the front porch, her mother was waiting for her behind the screen door. “I don’t want you talkin’ white in here,” her mother said” (5). This means he learned that his friend walked home and her mom will scold her if she talks white.

The third comparison from “Son” by Andrew Solomon and in “The Chinese in All of Us” by Richard Rodriguez is school. An example from Solomon is that he wasn’t invited places, how he not popular and he had no friends. Solomon said, “I drew no parallels between everyone’s avoidance of Debbie’s party and my own unpopularity, even when, a few months later, Bobby Finkel had a party and invited everyone in the class but me. My mother called his mother on the assumption that there had been a mistake; Mrs.Finkel said that her son didn’t like me and didn’t want me at his party” (375). This means Bobby Finkel didn’t invite Andrew to his party because he thought he was weird. Solomon also said, “My first year there, Debbie Camacho had a birthday party in Harlem, and her parents, unacquainted with the logic of New York private education, scheduled it for the same week as homecoming. My mother asked how I would feel of no one attended my birthday party, and insisted that I attend. I doubt many kids in my class would have gone to the party even if there hadn’t been such a convenient excuse, but in fact, only two white kids went out of a class of forty” (374-375). This means that nobody would go to Solomon’s party because Debbie Camacho had a party too. An example of school from Rodriguez is didn’t talk in school for a year. Rodriguez said, “I would not. I could not. I refused to speak up, to look up. Half a year passed. The nuns worried over me. Speak up, Richard. Stand up, Richard. A year passed. A second year began” (4). This means he didn’t want to talk in school. Rodriguez also said, “A friend of mine—let’s call him Michael—tells me he’s confused by America. Mike goes to junior high school in San Francisco. His teacher is always telling him to stand up, look up. “Speak up, Michael, we can’t hear you! Look at me, Michael!”(3). We learned from his peers that they didn’t talk.

In both “Son” by Andrew Solomon and in “The Chinese in All of Us” by Richard Rodriguez write about their lives. Richard Rodriguez he writes about his life, and he also thinks of himself of Chinese which lead to problems. In “Son” by Solomon, it explains the two different kinds of identities vertical identities like the ones that connect us to the members of our families, and the horizontal identities we form on the basis of characteristics. The ideas from Solomon‘s essay can help readers understand Rodriguez’s short story is the importance of vertical, horizontal identity and school. Also, in “Son”, his parents made an influence on his life in both positive and negative way. Rodriguez has horizontal and vertical identities too.