Keith Vyvial

Writing time: 2 ½ hours

Immigrant Narrative: A Necessary Lesson

            Around ten years I remember hearing the term “multiculturalism” tossed around all the time.  Back then I remember thinking that I did not really need to learn more about multiculturalism.  I at least understood the basics if not all there was to understand; besides, I knew I was not prejudiced, myself.  Then, this summer the American Immigrant Literature class came available.  I came into this class thinking that it would be the same as my other literature classes in terms of reading and interpreting the works.  However, as the course progressed, I found that it was so much more than those other classes.  The immigrant narrative goes beyond the characters of the individual stories.  When viewing them together, they helped to tell the story of the United States as a whole.  As Objective 1 informs, the immigrant narrative is a fundamental story of American culture.  More importantly for me, in a sense the stories helped tell me more about myself.  I discovered that I did not know everything; there is so much more to learn.

             Two of the most important assignments which helped benefit my learning were the research postings.  With the first posting, I chose to explore my Czech heritage and found a significant wave of Czech immigrants called the Moravian Brethren.  I discovered that this group did a number of great and influential things for American dominant culture.  The research also made me aware of personal misconceptions and preconceived notions I, unfortunately, held.  I actually had the idea in my mind that all immigrants suffered greatly in their attempts to achieve the American Dream; this was certainly not the case with the information I found about the Moravian Brethren.  Although some do have hardships, this is not always the norm.  I also learned that there is always more to the story than what I have previously been told, such as the mistreatment of the American Indians.

            This American “dominant culture” was something I always understood to exist, but I never developed a deep understanding of what it represents.  I learned to view it as the accepted cultural norm to which immigrants often assimilate.  The Moravian Brethren of my first research posting were part of the dominant culture; I myself am part of the dominant culture.  This dominant culture is identified with a sort of blandness; the image is of very nondescript colors, fashions or lifestyles.  This seems to be a manner of blending together and becoming another unidentifiable part of mass culture.  This gives a whole new image of the “melting pot” mentioned in Objective 2.  Instead of a great “melding together” of different cultures, this idea displays a “melting away” of one’s cultural identification.  It also brings to mind the Color Code where light/dark is associated with clean/unclean or bad.  The blandness of the dominant culture is the whiteness of the Color Code.

            When thinking of the dominant culture and the Color Code with regard to immigrant narrative, I am reminded of “Soap and Water” by Anzia Yezierska.  It clearly displayed the idea that the dominant culture can view an immigrant as undesirable or unclean.  Miss Whiteside represents the power and prejudice of the dominant culture; her name clearly marks her as part of the Color Code.  She withholds the narrator’s diploma because she deems the narrator undesirable and unclean.  It seems that Miss Whiteside does not want the narrator to be identified with the school; it would create a black mark on the school.  She is not able to look beyond the external dirtiness and see the value of the person inside.  It is not until the girl speaks up and shows her own strength that Miss Whiteside gives her the diploma.  When the narrator finds her idea of the American
Dream I discovered that there is no one true American Dream.  It represents different things for different people.  One of the trials facing immigrants is discovering for themselves their ideal fit into the American Dream.

            In comparison with the immigrant narrative, I was able to learn about the similarities and differences they bear with the minority narrative.  Like immigrants, they witness prejudices at the hands of the dominant culture.  In contrast, they often seem more resistant to assimilation for acceptance.  Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” helped me to better see how minorities view dominant culture and their resistance to assimilation.  Miss Moore takes the children to a toy store as a lesson in the dominant culture.  Their values and beliefs come out as very different.  The narrator sees a toy train for $35 and thinks how that kind of money could be put to much better use, like the purchase of a new bunk bed.  This narrator does, however, feel some sense of and shame for not belonging to the dominant culture.  She thinks, “Not that I’m scared, what’s there to be afraid of, just a toy store.  But I feel funny, shame.  But what I got to be afraid of?  Got as much right to go in as anybody.”   This minority sees the difference in values with the dominant culture as ridiculous and impractical.  However, she has that sense that not becoming a part of the dominant culture is a bad thing.  It is probably even more difficult since she is a child and children tend to have a large desire to fit in with everyone else.

            I also learned about a third group which I had never thought about before the class.  The Afro-Caribbeans lie in the middle between immigrants and minorities.  They make the travel to the New World but are still in close proximity with their homeland and, like the immigrants, often still feel a sense of devotion to it.  Edwidge Danticat’s story “Children of the Sea” gives a sense of the feelings of a group of Haitians.  The young man has joined others in a boat to America.  He does not have as much of a desire to leave his homeland as it is a necessity to leave.  If he stays, he will be killed by those in power for being a rebel.  In fact, he would have a reason to stay since his lover remains there.  It is a shorter distance to America than for most immigrants, but it is a journey filled with terrible hardships and sacrifices; the boat is overloaded, it is sinking and it does not contain enough food to support the people aboard.  Just like the immigrants, these people go to great lengths and pay terrible sacrifices in hopes of a better life in America.  However, for the young man in particular, this better life is more out of necessity than desire.

            My learning curve in the class culminated in what I see as the ultimate immigrant narrative.  William Bradford’s On Plymouth Plantation tells the story of the Pilgrims’ migration from England to the New World in an effort to find the religious freedom they desired.  The Basic Stages of the Immigrant Narrative can be seen in their story.  Like many immigrant migrations, their travel was met with numerous hardships and sacrifices.  However, rather than assimilating to dominant culture, these immigrants went to a still savage place and established themselves as a dominant culture.  The Native Americans already there were displaced as the new minority.

            This course helped me understand a very important topic.  It is an ongoing struggle to hold on to a culture while assimilating in a desire for more acceptances from the dominant culture.  I also learned to have more empathy for those immigrants and minorities struggling for the same dreams and lives which we all ultimately desire.  Despite resistance, American culture is enriched more because of these different cultures.  It is these cultures and these narratives which come together to tell the story and shape the diversity of America.