Immigrants that are new to the American society are often so used to their own culture that it is difficult for them to accept and adapt to the American culture. The language that is spoken, as well as the various holidays and traditions that Americans entertain themselves with, aren’t what most immigrants would deem a neccessity for their life to move on. Nonetheless, they still have to be accustomed to these things if they have any chance of suceeding in a land where knowledge is key. The story “My Favorite Chaperone” written by Jean Davies Okimoto, follows the life of a young girl who along with her brother Nurzhan, her mother known as mama, and her father whom she refers to as Papi have immigrated to the United States from Kazakhstan, through a dating magazine. Throughout the story each family member faces problems that causes them to realize just how different their life is know that they’ve immigrated.. Even though Jean Davies Okimoto doesn’t tell the reader this, based on textual evidence we are …show more content…
In her family’s homeland, Kazakhstan, an interaction between a boy and a girl is unacceptable. Due to the fact that Maya’s family isn’t accustomed to the American culture just yet, Maya’s father finds shame in the fact that his daughter would do such a thing. Upon returning home Maya’s father is quick to blame her mother for her actions. “Is this how you raise your daughter! Is this what you teach her? Lessons to be a toy for American boys!” Maya’s father may have believed that her actions were shameful, but Nurzhan, her brother, believed differently and felt the need to voice his thoughts to their mother. “It’s different here, Mama. I’m sure Maya and those guys were playing. Joking, like in a game.” This shows that Nurzhan was sympathetic to his sister’s actions, and that he truly understood that everything wouldn’t be the same
The daughter is not happy with her dad being so oblivious to the fact that she did not want to talk about her English class, and would rather talk about her social life. In Tortilla Sun, the mom is just being selfish, and really not taking her own daughter’s feelings into consideration. “ ‘Opportunity? For me? Or for you?’ ”
(Alvarez pages 94-95) Yolanda struggles with the idea of this in her first year of college and begins to discover how her immigrant upbringing has affected her relation to English language and sexuality, The Americans around her seem
Lessons from the Culture Every year we see family emigrate to other countries, and they face many challenges. The stories “Sweet, Sour, and Resentful”, by Firoozeh Dumas, and from “Fish Cheeks”, by Amy Tan, share similar cultures and really interesting stories. Also, both families from the essay share several challenges that they are face when they move to the United States of America. The two families share many similarities; however, they differ in to keeping their culture, showing openness, and teaching a lesson from their culture to others.
Assimilation is usually meant to indicate what happens to immigrants in a new land. However, “rejection, loneliness, discrimination—these were the byproducts of living in the United States” (Ghymn 37). In Marilyn Chin’s essay on assimilation “How I Got That Name,” the speaker acquaints the readers how she got the American name “Marilyn.” The tension between the two cultures is evident, for the speaker is treated as “Model Minority.” Her race and ethnicity define her; in fact, the stereotypes inscribed with her race restricted and cage her significance in the society.
ENG 122: 5-2 First Draft of the Critical Analysis Essay In the article “Eat Turkey, Become American,” Marie Myung-Ok Lee uses her family memories of Thanksgiving to share with her readers, with personal details and historical data, her family's migratory trajectory to the United States, and their experience living in a small town in Minnesota. The author also discusses the country's immigration system and how their Korean background affected her parents' process of obtaining citizenship. And how, despite a part of the city's population being racist and xenophobic, a group of people from the community where they lived joined forces to save a doctor from being deported. The article's main claim to illustrate the difficulties of immigration in a family is persuasive because it explores how children perceive a foreign culture, highlights the problems with the immigration system and xenophobia in the nation, and suggests ways the community can work together to help other immigrants who are experiencing a similar situation.
Immersing oneself in a new community can come with difficulties such as language barriers and balancing two different identities. Firoozeh may have decided to add a “simpler” name, but had to deal with the emotional turmoil that came with people not knowing her actual Iranian heritage. Firoozeh also had to help her mother adapt to American culture by translating because her mother could not speak English. Firoozeh’s father had to adapt to the language barriers because his version of English was incomprehensible to the average American. Every single member of Firoozeh’s family had to adapt to American culture by giving up parts of their original identity because they had to make a place for themselves in their newfound
For a nine-year-old who wants nothing more than to make her mother proud this was exciting. In the beginning, we can see her excitement and desire, “in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so.” (Tan). However, as we follow the story we see her excitement quickly fade to sorrow and anger. The high expectations immigrant families place on their children is still a very relevant social issue and can be witnessed throughout the United States.
The father tried to teach his daughter the culture through rice cooking, but she fails to replicate the method; whereas the brother avoids the cultural lessons by integrating himself into the local culture. This heavily suggests the brother rejects speaking the language and the culture, compared to the daily exposure of the Canadian culture and speaking English. The story “Simple Recipes” masks itself as a family having internal conflicts on the dinner table. While analyzing the story, it suggests the difficulty of integrating the local and origin culture in multicultural immigrant families.
Challenges and hardships encountered by foreigners immigrating into the United States are demonstrated through Jake’s experiences with the Shimerdas, the Russians, and other foreigners. Due to the Shimerdas limited capacity to speak, read, write, and understand
Discuss the context of your selected article, the author's purpose, and the style and tone. What have you learned from this early analysis? In her personal essay “Eat Turkey, Become American,” Marie Myung-Ok Lee reflects on her immigrant experience in the United States. She discusses how celebrating Thanksgiving has helped her connect with her American identity and how her family has adapted to American culture.
Richard Rodriguez and Gloria Anzaldúa are two authors who both immigrated to America in the 1950s and received first hand experience of the assimilation process into American society. During this time, Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had struggled adjusting to the school system. Since understanding English was difficult, it made adjusting to the American school system increasingly difficult for Rodriguez. Whereas Anzaldúa, on the other hand, had trouble adjusting to America’s school system due to the fact that she didn’t wish to stop speaking Spanish even though she could speak English. Both Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had points in their growing educational lives where they had to remain silent since the people around them weren’t interested in hearing them speaking any other language than English.
Firoozeh writes about her life as an Iranian immigrant to America. Her family is treated with kindness by neighbors when they come to live in America and get lost on their way home from school: “…the woman and her daughter walked us all the way to our front porch and even helped my mother unlock the unfamiliar door,” (Dumas, 7). Firoozeh and her mother are not discriminated against because they are immigrants who don’t speak English, the Americans help them despite their differences. Had the neighbors not been helpful and patient, Firoozeh’s journey home would have been somewhat traumatic and daunting. While this a rather specific isolated example, it can serve as an analogy for all immigrants’ experience.
Similarly, “Naturalization” by Jenny Xie is the story of a family who recently immigrated to America going through gauntlet of assimilation. In this paper I am going to analyze, discuss, compare and contrast the authors attitudes towards their parents according to perseverance paternalism and passivity with society. In Martin Espada’s “The Sign in My Father’s Hands” the central theme to the poem is social justice. His father is fighting for equal employment opportunities.
In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America,” from 50 essays, Bharati Mukherjee contrasts the different views of the United States from two Indian sisters. The author distinguishes her American lifestyle to her sister’s traditional Indian lifestyle. Both sisters grew up in Calcutta, India, moved to America in search of education and work. Bharati adjusts to the American society very quickly, where her sister Mira clings to her Indian traditions more strongly. Despite both sisters living in America, only Bharati is an American citizen, while her sister Mira is not.
All of them meet on the day when they are caught by the unpremeditated massive earthquake which hit the US visa office of the Indian consulate. It is on this day each of them shares an ‘amazing’ story from their private life which also provides an avenue for the understanding of the dynamics of immigrant experiences. Before beginning with the details of the work, I would like to mention that the author