LITR 4333: American Immigrant Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Answers 2003

Sample answers to "Large Question" on Asian American and Middle Eastern Immigrants.

• Regarding their responses, you might consider questions of assimilation or resistance, adaptation, and issues of gender, equality, family, and community.

[complete essay]

The Asian Americans and Middle Eastern Americans face two enormous challenges as immigrants in American society. As residents they live in a society that follows traditions with far less diligence than those of their old world. In addition their physical appearance makes them easily distinguishable as being outside the traditional American lineage. The combination of fierce pressure to maintain old world traditions coupled with being easy targets for isolation because of their appearance creates very disparate views of immigration and assimilation in immigrant literature. In many cases the theme of the literature is the techniques used to achieve assimilation.

In the case of Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao, the focus was on college. Mai’s ticket to being accepted in the American culture was to enter college and surround herself with free thinking people who would be less inclined to label her because of her appearance. The implication is that Mai’s intellect would overcome any prejudices that might exist among her peer group. The side effect of such a tactic is seen in “Thank God for the Jews” by Tahira Naqvi. The main characters have become educated and are seemingly assimilated to American culture. They are absorbing all the luxuries of American life. However, when the aunt’s visit is announced, suddenly everything is in jeopardy. They have become so assimilated that they have been successful at breaking the strong ties to tradition.

One thing can be said about American traditions: they are stringently observed until they become an inconvenience. In fact, probably the one true American tradition that is fiercely clung to is the desire to make everything as convenient as possible. Fatima and Ali bought halal that was prepared the Islamic way occasionally. But most of the time they opted for the packaged meat from the grocery store and Fatima would recite the proper words to adhere to the ritual of preparing meat the Islamic way. Their assimilation was complete. They had become so educated in American society that they chose convenience over the old world methods of meat preparation.

The choices made by Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants between old world and American seem to mirror the experiences seen in other immigrant narratives. These choices tend to take the assimilating generations further away from their ancestry. The result is that while later generations might enjoy a certain measure of financial and social success within the dominant culture, they do so at the risk of alienating themselves from their old world culture.

In many cases, following generations sought to abandon the old world simply because of their appearance. In “When I was Growing Up” by Nellie Wong, the narrator realized early that those who fit the appearance mold of American society received praise simply for their beauty. Her appearance made her feel very much outside the dominant culture despite being born to it. Her desire to conform and be accepted led her to turn her back on old world culture. She even makes the leap to thinking like an American when she recognizes that perhaps Chinatown is a good place for her, although she learns later it is simply an Asian American ghetto. Although the idea of living where her appearance would not set her apart is appealing, the insinuation is that she would prefer to not share the poverty of the old world in America.

 What happens to those who cling to the old world is that they begin to try to sector themselves off like the Jews do. Unlike the Jews, because they are so fiercely committed to their traditions, they make little effort to try to at least interact within the dominant culture. The result is the creation of enclaves of old world culture that attempt to bring the old world to American soil. This is where the challenge of assimilation really manifests itself.

Because they are so easily identifiable as non-Anglo, Asian and Middle Eastern immigrant enclaves are teeming with old world loyalists. Members of the dominant culture feel uncomfortable in those environments, so they tend to avoid interaction with people in those enclaves. While this may sound like a success for old world loyalists, it is actually a disservice. The enclave can only support itself for as long as membership and resources remain within the boundaries of the society. As the younger generations become educated and financially viable, they take their money to American merchants.

The end result is that the commitment to tradition and the obvious difference in appearance isolates Asian and Middle Eastern cultures from the dominant culture more decidedly than other immigrants. Their road to assimilation is harder as a result. For those who do succeed in assimilating, they are forced to completely abandon the old world because the traditions are in such stark contrast to American traditions that they are not convenient enough to maintain. [Rob]

[complete essay]

While the narratives of Asian American and Middle Eastern American immigrants share similarities with the standard immigrant narrative, these groups must confront other issues in addition to those normally encountered by immigrants withy respect to the dominant culture. In Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Bharati Mukherjee’s “A Wife’s Story,” and Hamod’s “After the Funeral of Assam Hamady,” one discovers many of those issues, as well as how those immigrants reconcile the values of the old country with those of the new.

In Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge, the primary issue, is, as a former student of Dr. White’s states in an earlier essay on this subject, that “For many Asian or Middle Eastern Immigrants, the difference between their Old World’s highly traditional and hierarchical cultures and the rapid change and social mobility in New World America causes barriers to their assimilation and happiness” (CR). This story follows a Vietnamese woman’s attempts to deal with those issues, which are only compounded by her mother’s refusal to talk of their past to any great degree. Added to this is the fact that the daughter must care for her mother to some extent, which represents a reversal of roles—a hierarchical shift in traditional Asian family structure where the parent cares for the child. The daughter must also “speak” for her mother on occasion, something that is unheard of in other cultures where “children are to be seen and not heard.”

In many of these countries where these hierarchical structures exist, another issue that immigrants bring to this country is that of gender dictating one’s role in society. Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior and Bharati Mukherjee’s “A Wife’s Story” both illustrate this issue, with Kingston’s describing Asian values and Mukherjee’s depicting those of India, another country whose traditions dictate that women—and particularly wives—take a subservient role to the males in that culture.

Kingston mixes realism and fantasy in her tale of an American girl whose alter ego is based on Fa Mu Lan, a Chinese warrior princess. As her warrior self, the main character proves that a female can be an empowered individual, and the “real” character attempts to prove that by putting her education to use, although her mother repeatedly tells her that “girls are useless’” which reflects the values of the old country, which causes the main character to struggle to mediate between the two worlds’ conflicting values.

Mukherjee, as well, contends with these gender issues when her husband arrives in New York to visit while on leave from work in India. Although he seems to recognize her as an equal, he expects her to submit to his wishes, which include his desire to have her return to India without completing the Ph.D. degree that she has come to this country to get. She does not return, which indicates that she deals with these types of challenges better, perhaps, than those who are less educated—and, therefore, less empowered—than she.

While these first three issues focus on hierarchical structures such as traditional parent / child and male / female roles, Hamod’s “After the Funeral of Assam Hamady” explores the issue of religion in the immigrant narrative. In this poem, there are three generations of one family present, and this cast of characters represents different stages of the immigrant narrative. While the grandfather adheres to old traditions in demanding that they stop to pray as their religion dictates that they must do as “the sun sets,” the grandson is indifferent to the custom, which is indicative of Stage 4, assimilation. He has turned his back on the old traditions, yet he “tolerates” the older generations’ behavior, just to humor them, it seems.

In these four examples, characters deal with the conflicting values of the old and new customs. These narratives are typical of the special challenges that immigrants from these countries must deal with, and one must realize that what makes these issues particularly challenging is the fact that the behavior displayed by most of these characters might not have been tolerated in their old cultures. However, one thing is certain—the values of American society provide peoples of other cultures with the means to mediate these conflicts, if, as the characters in these four examples prove, one so chooses. [James]

[Excerpt(s)]

Mai and her mother overcome these obstacles and challenges well.  The television actually serves as a medium to their homeland.  The images may be gruesome and depressing, but they are able to maintain a connection.  During Mai’s college interview, she remains calm by remembering the Vietnamese myth of the three warrior sisters who never panicked under pressure.  Mai is eventually accepted into Mount Holyoke University. 

            Another way Mai and her mother overcome their challenges is in the ethnic enclave in which they live.  The Vietnamese town where they live is an opportunity for the immigrants to hold on to their heritage and customs, while enjoying “the economic benefits of the New World” (Spring 2003 Final Exam—CR).  [Christy]

  In an interesting scene in Monkey Bridge,  the protagonist must deal with the patronizing questions from a member of the dominant class.  Because most Americans are at least somewhat familiar with the war in Vietnam, whenever they encounter a Vietnamese immigrant, they may be likely to ask questions to the immigrant.  But their questions can be irritating and offensive to the immigrant, and they do not know it.  When Mai is on an interview at Mt. Holyoke college, the interviewer begins by interrogating Mai with questions about when she was in Vietnam.  The interviewer cannot and does not realize that a third world country that was torn apart by war was a horrible and sad place to be, and instead asks Mai, "Gosh, what a shock it must have been.  What was it like over there?"  What Amy Layton fails to see is that her question shows how ignorant she is and puts Mai in a compromising situation as she cannot answer honestly.  If Mai answers honestly, then she would not be answering in the way that will gain her admission into college.   Knowing that she cannot answer truthfully, Mai provides a general answer about the climate.  She understands that she should give small-talk answers and keep them brief as she is being interviewed.  Mai must look past the condescending questions from the member of the dominant class and tell the interviewer what she wants to hear. She navigates her way through the American culture by understanding it and behaving appropriately. . . .

     Middle-Eastern immigrants face many of the same challenges as Asian-American immigrants as they try to assimilate into America.  Sometimes, it causes these immigrants to begin to feel pessimistic towards America.  In the story, "Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs," the uncle expresses how people in America treat him.  As Divakaruni writes, "The Americans hate us.  They're always putting us down because we're dark-skinned foreigners, kala admi.  Blaming us for the damn economy, for taking away their jobs.  You'll see it for yourself soon enough (Divakaruni 75)."  Members of the dominant class are categorizing all non-white people into one category and labeling them as foreigners.  The uncle has obviously been told what he is describing, and because he is non-white, he is instantly recognized as a "foreigner." 

     Also in "Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs,"  the women wear their traditional dress out in public and this further identifies them as immigrants.  Again, members of the dominant class place them into the category of non-white, and in this short story, the women are walking around the neighborhood and the white boys call them "nigger."  They are identified and instantly called a name which places them into a subservient class according to the members of the dominant class.  When this happens, the younger girl wants to rush at the boys, and her aunt wisely holds her back.  The younger girl wants to explain to the boys that she is from a family that is considered to be a "good family" in India.  She wants to point out to the boys that they have incorrectly identified her, but they would not understand that. [Jane]

Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants are becoming facets of the dominant cultures standard narrative of success and the American Dream.  There have been several challenges they had to face in order to assimilate with ease.  One major challenge is in their inability to change their physical appearances.  Most immigrants are marked by their accents, but after a few generations these markings are lost.  Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants have an extra set of markings they originally had to deal with that kept them separate.  As I stated in my research journal, these immigrants were not even able to become citizens of the United States until 1954 and they were thought as different just because of their appearances.  It is harder to escape discrimination when you do not look like the majority of the dominant group.  However, since 1954 there has been a large shift in attitudes towards Asian and Middle Eastern Americans (this is not to say they are completely accepted, merely it has become easier).

Another challenge the Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants have had to face is the large differences in culture between the East and West.  It is harder for these immigrants to hold onto their culture while being an assimilated part of the dominant group, while groups like the Jews whose traditions are not too far outside the norm of the dominant group.  The American Jew can move in and out of the dominant world easier, by keeping their culture and traditions to homes and synagogues.  But some people’s traditions are not as easy to remove as the Kippah worn during Jewish prayer.  Like shown in “After the Funeral of Assam Hamady”, the narrator shows the difficulty of being true to ones traditions while trying to be a part of the dominant group.  He shows the difficulty of being a part of his identity as, “Three old men chanting the Qur’an in the middle of a South Dakota night…. I’m embarrassed to be with them… an old woman strains a gawk.”  And then as he is reflecting about his embarrassment of being seen as different he also shows the difficulty of losing his identity as he said in the end of the poem, “I travel….burying my head…I am standing here now trying so hard to join them.”  This poem shows how hard it is to be a part of the dominant culture while holding onto his culture since his culture is seen as awkward to the dominant group and isn’t easily mixed. [Giselle]

Asian American and Middle Eastern Americans face special challenges beyond those that are part of the standard immigrant narrative.  The clash of merging a highly formal and traditional culture into the fast-paced, informal American culture is one of these challenges.  The most evident culture clash is in gender and family structure. [Lori]

Discrimination is reflected on in Amerka, Amerka, as Anton Shammas discusses the use of the name Abdul, but the essay ends surprisingly with an optimistic view.  Instead of feeling conflicted about living in America as a Middle Eastern man, the narrator reflects that, “it is nice too that you can live in this country for decades without being forced to go native” (299). “No matter how deep I have traveled into the American life, I still carry my own miniature…Middle East in my mind.  There is little space for Amerka in the most private of my maps.”  Maybe this is reflective of a changing immigrant narrative, one that embraces diversity instead of repelling it, where cultural differences mix and mingle with the dominant culture but no longer crave to be “washed clean” of their identity in favor of becoming American.  The America Shammas envisions, “…is big. It has enough room not only for the newcomers but also for their portable homelands” (300).  I agree. [Claudine]

Asian Americans and Middle Eastern Americans face special challenges when entering American culture because they come from strong traditional and hierarchical cultures. This conflicts with American culture, which is a fast-paced, rapidly changing world, attempting to achieve an equality of the sexes. 

        In Mikhail Naimy’s His Grace, the hierarchical culture of the Middle East and the problems that it causes the Middle Eastern immigrant are clearly seen. In Lebanon, As’ad al-Da’wag is a “bey’ or a sheik, someone who is looked up to simply because of his title. When he becomes an American immigrant, no one cares about his title. He now sleeps on a subway bench and is living the American Nightmare. He resists assimilation by staying mentally back in the Old World, much like Reb Smolinsky in Bread Givers. The “sheik”, still desiring to enjoy the traditions of Lebanon, goes nightly to Abu ‘Assaf’s restaurant where he is treated by Abu the way he would be treated in the Old Country. Abu, also an immigrant from Lebanon, achieves the American Dream of having his own business, yet he cannot get away from the “shadow” of the Old Country. He assumes his proper role when the “sheik” appears but is able to go back to being an American when the “sheik” leaves. . . . [Jeanette]