Long before the written word was used to record history people throughout the world handed down their cultural beliefs, superstitions, values, and histories through the telling of stories.  These stories we are told and given as we grow up help shape and define who we become and how we perceive those around us as we move out into society to take our place among others.  In the case of the immigrant and minority narratives, although there is somewhat of an overlap in the structure, they are really two distinct classes of narrative and must be viewed separately to get the full meaning of each.  Where in the immigrant narrative the driving focus is what the subjects give up in search of what they believe will be a better life, quite the opposite can be seen in the minority narrative where you see what is taken away or denied to the characters which help strengthen them and their resolve to achieve what society says they cannot have.

Often times we see an overlap in the organization of the immigrant and the minority narratives, and this may take place when the characters of the immigrant narrative reach the stage of assimilation to the dominant culture.  In the story “The English Lesson” we see where this can take place.  As most of the students respond in their essays for the class that they want to learn English to help them achieve assimilated American values such as a good job and full citizenship, there is one in the class, Diego Torres who insists on not wanting to assimilate or become an American citizen he just wants to become financially more secure.  In responding this way, he is shunned and discriminated against in the classroom, because as he fails to assimilate he is then being looked down upon as if he were a minority and not an immigrant with conflicting ideologies. These can be exampled in the text with the line: “Mrs. Hamma applauded with a polite light clap, then honed to find the next speaker.”  Where the teacher had vigorously applauded all the other immigrants “correct answers” (those expressing assimilated views) she only politely and lightly clapped before quickly rushing to find another student to speak.

However, when the characters in the narrative give themselves over completely to assimilation into the dominant culture, this does not always grant them a free ride out of the way of persecution and discrimination.  This is exampled in Anzia Yezierska’s “Soap and Water.”  In this case no matter how hard Anzia worked, taking on every assimilated value that she could, she faced adversity along the way at every step.  Having decided to become a better American by expanding her education and becoming a teacher, she faced not only discrimination from the institutions of higher learning based on her appearance, but at the same time those from her same cultural group who were not as fast to assimilate discriminated against her in the workplace where she worked to support her way through school.  This can be very disastrous for the immigrant who is not so strong willed to overcome adversity on both the home and foreign fronts when trying to assimilate into the dominant culture.

The minority narrative can be quite a contrast to the immigrant narrative, and although the two share some characteristics there is a big difference in the two.  In the case of the minority narrative, the minority characters did not choose to come to this county, nor did they choose to face an “assimilate or get left behind” attitude that most are faced with.  These people are generally born from parents who were in one way or another forced to come to the United States through either slavery in the nations early years, or seeking political or religious asylum.  I would venture to say that in the case of the minority narrative, the lack of assimilation is what makes the group stronger, and makes the stories more interesting.  The lack of assimilation helps build the characters, and it makes the reader step back and think, not only about how the group of people were forced into a system they wish to have no part in, but it also makes them think about the role(s) they might have played in reinforcing assimilation on a people that does not need it.  By not assimilating entirely into the dominant culture, some minority groups are allowed to hold on to certain values and ways of life that strengthen them as individuals and as a community.

It seems that assimilation is the key to not only the immigrant but also the minority narratives.  For instance in Paule Marshall’s “The Making of a Writer” we see a move away from assimilation by the main character.  When the young writer ventures away from the norms by going to the library and expanding her horizons with literature from African American authors, she is ashamed at first, because having started to assimilate it somehow felt wrong to her. In the end however the young girl finds strength and perseverance through these works, and they help to redefine for her what her culture is all about.  If she were to fully assimilate and never read any of those works that were not included in the “normal” school curriculum, she would have never had access to the works that help define her as a person, realizing that as a minority she could still accomplish things and did not have to always conform to what society says is the only right way to act and respond.

In the poem by Chrystos, “I Have Not Signed a Treaty with the United States Government” we see quite the opposite in the minority view on assimilation.  Instead of moving away from assimilation to rediscover ones heritage, it is an outright refusal to accept assimilation due to a deep understanding of one’s culture and the role that the dominant culture had on forcing a race of people into minority status.  (those that were left after the attempt by our government to racially cleanse them from the face of the planet)  In this case the author is part of the “original” dominant culture that was here before the European colonization of the Americas.  To see it from the authors point of view, assimilation is not an option.  To assimilate into the dominant culture would be the acceptance that the ethnic cleansing of the American Indian was right, and that the American government had done no wrong in the way the American Indian was tricked, lied to, and forced from the places that they called home so that America could achieve its manifest destiny.

In addition to the immigrants and minorities, there is a third group who seem to fall somewhere in the middle of both the immigrant and minority narrative.  This group most often involves the children of immigrants born after coming to the “new world.”  With immigrant parents who have just arrived or have not been here long, these children are in this in-between type of limbo, where they are not quite immigrants and not quite minorities but get treated as both.  For instance in Sandra Cisneros “Barbie-Q” we see the children of immigrants to America who are impoverished and living pretty much hand to mouth as their parents struggle to make ends meet.  Not old enough to know of assimilation or the consequences involved in doing so or not, they are happy to have the toys of the dominant culture, even if theirs had to come from a fire sale where the toys are slightly ruined due to smoke and water damage. 

Another good example of this is seen in Martin Espada’s “Coca-Cola and Coco Frio.” In this case we have a young kid who is eager for the trip with his family back to the “old world” where he hopes to be exposed to the original culture of his family, only to get there and be served the traditional refreshments that he gets in the United States.  This is a strange duality where you are told that your not American, you don’t fit into our culture, but yet how can this be when you come from a land where you use the same commodities and household goods that the dominant culture in the united states where you now live.  In this case the child had no connection with his original cultures contributions until he came across the Coco Frio vendor who introduced him to something that he would never get back home in the United States.  It was only fitting that the poem ended with the sad coconuts drooping on the trees never to be used in Coco Frio.

All the above examples clearly show the role of culture and assimilation in the immigrant narrative and also the minority narrative as well as those that are in between.  It appears that one of, if not the key factor, is assimilation into the dominant culture.  Recapping we see that in the case of the immigrant narrative assimilation to the dominant culture is what helps to achieve the American dream, although it may not be realized within the same generation that assimilation occurs.  In the case of the minority narrative we see how the rejection of assimilation can lend strength, resolve and a sense of community and perseverance to the characters.  Assimilation to those caught in the middle of the minority/immigrant narrative can be somewhat misleading to them.  The thought that assimilation should bring about good changes does not always occur, and even though fully assimilated these people can find themselves treated as minorities for a number of reasons, more likely than not it is due to peoples prejudice based on appearance.

Overall this has been a great learning experience for me to carry over into my career as a teacher, not only does it lend insightful ways to introduce material to students to help them recognize the differences in others that make them unique, but it also allows a way to teach multiculturalism to students at an early age before the prejudices of the dominant culture get in the way.

[Jason]