Why the caged bird sing

Habig                                                                                                                               18/12/17

Clara                                                                                                                                         TL

Why the Caged Bird Sings :

Global comprehension :

1. This document is an article from Newsweek published on September the 10th 2001, and written by Alan Zarembo wich is called “Why the Caged Bird Sings”.

1. This text focuses on a Mexican woman who calls Ana.

1. Ana lives in New York : L1 «  To reach New York City, Ana crawled into the United States.. » and L19 «  Relatives had […] and they took her in to their apartment in the New York borough of Queens ».

1. Ana has 35 year old.

1. She is an illegal immigrants, she didn’t have papers.

Detailed comprehension :

1. The journey and arrival :

6. Ana come from Puebla in Mexico : « Ana has yet to return to Mexico » L8 and « But back in Ana’s hometown of Puebla » L38

7. she was working for a sock factory.

8.  a) Ana came to the USA by crawling in a drainpipe, walking across the desert and hiding in a car to avoid being caught. « To reach New Yor City, Ana crawled into the United States through a moonlit drainpipe, trudged across the Arizona deset, scrunched onto the floor of car a car » L1 to 3.

9. It's a Mexican family that arrives in the United States a few years before that helped her in their apartment, then it's a service that helped her find a job and she work in a laundry, after that it's a woman who helped her by offering her a job as a cleaning lady and who opened her a whole network by advising her friends. L18 to 21, L21 to 24, L26 to 30, L32 to 35.

1. Her career: 

10.  She had 3 different jobs, first she was a laundry women, then she     became a maid, then she made a living by being a broker.

“Ana took a job in Manhattan folding and delivering clothes for a laundry” then “Ana met Christina, a teacher who offered her a job cleaning her studio apartment” “Soon Ana had enough clients to quit the laundry business”.

11. a) Ana earned $ 200 a week to work twelve hours a day, six days a week, to bend and deliver clothes.

b) In her former work, in Mexico she earned eight times less.

12. Ana now earns $ 50,000 a year. “last year Ana made $50,000, and because her business is off the books, the money is  tax-free”

13. Little by little she climbed up the social ladder .To begin with, Ana was a laundry woman. Although her income was only 200% a week, she had a better paid job than in Mexico.

Next she became a maid .Eventually  she made a living by being a broker.

Her story is a “rags to riches” story since she started with a low-paid job and is now fortunate even if she’s still an illegal immigrant because we can read line 12 “the money is tax-free” and line 50 “her business is off the books”.

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