It is important to understand Villanueva's writing style as it contains a mixture of theoretical ideas justified with subjective personal experiences. He engenders a new way of thinking, by doing so, connoting the necessity to transform our political, social, and cultural institutions that classify one community as inferior to another. First and foremost, an individual reform must take place, recognition of community and not individuality that white culture strictly enforces. A means to gain status for mobility within society means shedding of ones "kinship" and disassociating with the negative stereotypes involved in the subjugation. The minority group typically adjusts to an "acceptance of authority without evaluating the content of its source that may as well be nothing more than empty presences of strategic devices" (Bhabha 155). The study of language then empowers the minority to investigate the source of oppression instead of turning a blind eye. Not only does Villanueva critique and call to attention these oppressive institutions but he also offers a medium in which to remedy the oppressive forces: through a rhetoric reform. .
The theoretical exposition, rather than the narrative form, of Bootstraps serves to bring our awareness to the social stratifications that tangle American society and moreover the institutions of education. Villanueva utilizes the ideas of theorists and scientists to show the use of rhetoric and the varying attitude towards language, more so, superior and proper verbal construction. He continues to critique the American school system for creating "a competitive system which measures individual achievement" (Villanueva 40). American society then perpetuates a standard of learning that is disguised as "proper" or "correct" but in reality, students are learning the "white way" submerging them into the dominant dialect in hopes of gaining social or economic prestige or acceptance (Villanueva 40).