LITR 4332 American Minority Literature Model Assignments Final Exam Submissions 2013

Jillian Norris

Searching for Identity in a Minority Culture

            Possibly the single most important aspect of our lives that culture has an effect on is the sense of self or self-identity. Most of us are in touch with our familial history to some degree because we believe that it is important to know who we are and where we come from. For minority groups those origin stories are even more significant. The history and culture of Mexican Americans and American Indians are full of flavor, tragedy, and a uniqueness that separates them from European origins, which is why individuals from those cultures are very in touch with their roots. Heritage, culture, and degree of assimilation are all contributing factors when it comes to how an individual within a minority culture identifies themselves. Through the narratives and poems discussed in class, we have seen how Mexican American and American Indians exemplify American minority literature in regards to the dilemma of assimilating vs. resistance. These two minority cultures also hold many similarities and differences in terms of how self-identity impacts religion, family values, and personal mindset in the minority individual.

            Truly knowing yourself and having a firm grip on personal beliefs and values are important things to have as one gets older. For American Indians and Mexican Americans these things are heavily influenced by their culture. This is, in part, due to their stance on assimilation and resistance when it comes to living in America. As a minority culture, they were at one point faced with involuntary or forced participation, although over time they have been given the choice to either assimilate into or resist American culture. Luckily, these groups seem to have found a middle ground between the two in order to function in American society and reap all of the benefits that this country has to offer, while still holding on to the personal beliefs, values and customs of their own culture. The American Indian narrative Love Medicine does a wonderful job of telling the story of American Indian life as it has changed over a generation and how culture affects the identities of the characters in the story. For example, the Kashpaw brothers, Eli and Nector, excellently represent both sides of the culture spectrum at work in this novel. While Nector went away to school, Rushes Bear hid Eli and raised him in the traditional Indian way. As a child, Nector was surrounded by Western culture where he learned to speak English and understand American customs. This could be why he eventually became such a prominent political member of the tribe as he became an adult. As an educated man knowledgeable in the ways that a society is supposed to function, he became an effective chairman in a community that was lowly adapting to modern lifestyle. Nector was an important man to everyone in the tribe, but he never seemed to see himself that way and I think that was because of his life in American schooling where no child is any more important than the other. While he was away at school, I think Nector lost an important part of himself by not being educated in the Indian way, and may have actually come to identify more with American culture than American Indian. Eli, on the other hand, was raised in the way of the Indian and has little to nothing in common with his brother. He is the embodiment of the traditional Indian and rejects the ways of Westerners even though they are ever so slowly encroaching on the Ojibwa people. He is even willing to adopt those who feel rejected by modern society or feel that they do not have a place to belong, such as June Morrissey whom he eventually teaches the Indian ways of life. These two men couldn't be more different, and it is because of the culture they were immersed in that they came to identify themselves as more Western or more traditional Indian.

            Bless Me, Ultima also depicts the struggle for self-identity in the form of young Antonio. The entire novel revolves around Antonio's yearning to find his identity because of the pressures thrust upon him by his family. Antonio's parents were raised in the conventional Mexican lifestyle, and therefore share those Mexican values with their children. However, Antonio and his siblings are living in a time in place that is heavily influenced by American culture, so they feel the need to assimilate in some fashion in order to participate in the world around them. Antonio's parents even want him to become an educated man while still holding onto the Mexican way of life that they are used to. However, this comes with its own set of challenges as being exposed to American views causes him to question his understanding of his own religion, which is so engrained in Mexican culture, and even begin to feel self-conscious as the other children laugh at him for eating traditional Mexican food for lunch. Throughout the book, Antonio struggles with other aspects of his identity, as I discussed in my previous essay, but in the end he is able to find that happy medium in which he can experience American culture and all it has to offer while still remaining firmly grounded in his Mexican roots.  

            Finally, the discovery of self-identity among minority cultures can be seen in Phyllis Wheatley's "On being Brought from Africa to America" and Maya Angeleou's "Still I Rise" as it pertains to two particular African Americans at different points in American history. Phyllis Wheatley's situation involved her being taken as a child from Africa and becoming a slave for a well to do white American family. Upon being placed in this family, Wheatley was educated in the American language, reading and writing, and most importantly Christianity. As she grew older, Wheatley came to appreciate all of the things that her owners had taught her and I believe she eventually came to see herself as American because she so willingly embraced everything about American culture and did not dwell on her African roots. Maya Angelou's poem tackles self-identity from two angles: womanhood and minority status. It is a very passionate poem, full of voice and expression in which the reader can clearly interpret the speaker as both woman and of African descent because of the strong images she uses to identify herself. In this poem, the speaker does not appear to be struggling with her self-identity, but is in fact drawing strength from her roots as an African American woman. She shows great pride in both her womanhood and her African heritage and challenges the reader to object to that confidence.   

            As human beings, we are all heavily influenced by the world around us, the people in our lives, and our own unique history. All of these things contribute to the people that we become and the values and personal beliefs we hold dear. For American minority groups, preserving such values and beliefs is of utmost importance in order to always remember where they came from and what their culture has endured. One way to preserve and share these things with the masses is through literature. Jasmine Summers even makes mention in her research journal that at one point American Indians had such an influx of written literature that the time period came to be referred to as the Native American Renaissance. Jasmine says the reason for this sudden influx was due to the loss of identity, land and culture among American Indians and the desire to preserve their culture and customs through text. With literature, readers are granted a special personal insight into the lives of people and cultures that they are unfamiliar with and are able to gain a better understanding of  those cultures as they contribute to modern American society. Luckily, as time goes by and dominant and non-dominant cultures alike change with the times, we will always have these pieces of literature to remind us of our roots, where we come from, and how far America has come as a society.