Cana Hauerland

27 June 2008

Everyone wants a “piece of the pie,” or do they?

In American Immigrant Literature we are constantly faced with identifying "the American Dream" (Obj. 1) properly according to each immigrant and minority narrative. The concept is seemingly easy to define, especially if you live in America and belong to the dominant culture, yet the immigrant and minority narratives define this term differently. Their definition is impossible for one of the dominant culture to understand having not experienced that of a recent immigrant and minority firsthand although one can somewhat understand it through the readings of their narratives. Oftentimes, the dominant culture associates "the American Dream" and "The Dream" (Obj. 3) with achieving a "piece of the pie", which is viewed as a gaining a "piece of America", or something of a materialistic value; however, in immigrant and minority narratives "the American Dream" and "The Dream" is portrayed differently. It is no doubt that immigrants and minorities desire something, but they earnestly yearn to achieve "half of the pie". The "pie", in this "half of the pie" concept, can be represented as America and the dominant culture, and "half of the pie" is not money, but simply equality and freedom. 

In search for "half of the pie", immigrants and minorities from different ethnic backgrounds prove to share a common cause (obj. 1c). In "Soap and Water", the woman comes to America exhausted from the her job in the sweatshop with "nothing but a blind aching feeling" and a "longing for self-expression" (Yezierska 107). Her inspiration in coming to America was not materialistic, but rather a yearn to "express [herself] and voice her thoughts", yet she encounters "victimization" (obj. 1b) upon her arrival "because of [her] appearance" which eventually forces her to work for less wages than her qualified ability (Yezierska 107). The "half of the pie" constantly sought by this woman was finally achieved when she was accepted by the dominant culture who is described as "one from the clean world human enough to be friendly" and "from the other side of the world who was so simply and naturally that miraculous thing - a friend" (Yezierska 110). This friend changed the woman's life of hardships instantly making her forget the past and exclaim that she has finally "found America" (Yezierska 110). The woman in “Soap and Water” never sought after money, or a "piece of the pie", but she needed acceptance in America, "or half the pie", and after achieving this equality she was completely content and living "the American Dream" through the eyes of an immigrant.

The woman in "In the Land of the Free" arrives to America appearing to be in search of a "piece of the pie", or materialism, revealing her husband is "making a fortune fore thee", yet the idea of "fortune" to these immigrants is not that of the dominant culture's. The woman's husband is a "Chinese merchant in business for many years" who has provided her a fortune of a flat apartment above his grocery store (Sui Sin Far 6). Sadly as a result of "victimization" (obj. 1b), her son is kidnapped by the government, and to get him back she offers her "jade earrings, gold buttons, hairpins, comb of pearl, and five rings" worth "much money". The physical aspect of her home and neighborhood does not suggest the jewelry was purchased in America; therefore, this woman probably had these jewels before she and her husband immigrated which supports the theory that she is not in search of the "piece of the pie", or materialism, either, but instead she in search of "half the pie", equality and freedom.

Not only do the women in "Soap and Water" and "In the Land of the Free" unify in terms of seeking "the American Dream", but they also connect with each other through "victimization", oppression by the dominant culture, thus sharing a common cause. Multicultural differences exist between these women, yet there is a parallel in their sought after “American Dream” (Obj. 1d.) Parallels in experiences and identities such as these are found with the minority and immigrant experience illustrating a “zipper effect”. Sometimes the immigrant and minority may be “zipped” together thus comparing in their experiences, yet they may be “unzipped “ with their experiences only paralleling or separated altogether.

“Like Mexicans” is a prime example of the “zipper effect”, or parallels and differences, for Gary is a Mexican “New World“ Immigrant encouraged by his grandmother to marry a Mexican girl in which she considers “good advice” (Soto 1). When Gary marries a Japanese girl instead, he realizes her family is “just like Mexicans” and compares them to his family calling them “poor people” (Soto 304). Gary and his Japanese bride, Carolyn, have “multicultural differences” (Obj. 1d) in which his Mexican food is “boiling beans, round steak, and bread” while her Asian food is “wide-eyed black and white things” or sushi, which illustrates them being “unzipped”, each on a different side of the “zipper” (Soto 302-304). What “zips” Gary and Carolyn together is a shared struggle in their family experiences (Obj. 1d), for they both come from poor families of “farm workers and pull yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps ranchers” (Soto 303). They find common ground by assimilating to the dominant culture in America (Obj. 2); for example, they eat “sandwiches, potato chips, and iced tea” and drive a “Plymouth” (Soto 303). By finding these similarities they “zip” themselves together through intermarriage which defines stage two of the assimilation process (obj. 2).

The process of assimilating to the dominant culture is like transplanting a plant. There are many stages in which the plant must “grow through” in order to finally adapt itself to the new area. Struggles usually occur with the plant in the transplanting process, yet it almost eventually adapts. This process varies according to the conditions of the plant, as compared to that with an immigrant or minority, thus illustrating the four different stages of The Immigrant Narrative (Obj. 2). “Brown Girl” represents several stages of assimilation interestingly. When Yunior prepares for a date with a girl belonging to a different ethnicity group by removing the “embarrassing photos of his family at the campo, especially the one with the half-naked kids dragging a goat on a rope leash” and “the pictures of himself with the Afro”, he metaphorically represents stage one of The Immigrant Narrative in the fact that he hides his “old world” and leaves his traditional society behind in order to assimilate (Diaz 276). Yunior also represents stages three and four by these acts in which he is avoiding discrimination by loosing his ethnic identity and attempting to assimilate by running “a hand through [his] hair like the whiteboys do even though the only thing that runs through his hair is Africa” (Diaz 277).

Though Yunior is a “New World Immigrant”, he identifies with the minorities and is “zipped” together with them when they share common experiences such as discrimination in stage three of The Immigrant Narrative. Albertine American Horse in “American Horse” feels Yunior’s pain when a social worker takes her son because their culture of living in “one rectangular room with whitewashed walls and little gas stove in the middle” does not meet the standards of the dominant culture (Erdrich 214). Though Yunior and Albertine American Horse are “zipped” together because of their parallels in their experiences, its important to remember that because of their separate “New World Immigrant” and “Minority Status”, their parallels quickly fade and leave them “unzipped” on opposite sides of the coat.

Unlike Yunior, Albertine American Horse is experiencing the “American Nightmare” (obj. 3). The American Horse Indian family was born on American soil and while maintaining their ground, they were forced to become hard and “strong enough like the horse their name [is]” (Erdrich 210). Albertine’s hardness that makes her “more trouble than she [is] worth” suggests evidence of shock into the dominant culture, as in stage three of the Immigrant Narrative process (obj. 2). As an African American, Sylvia in “The Lesson” also experiences shock when she feels a “funny shame” before entering an expensive toy store which “[pisses] her off” and makes her “hang back” from the rest of the group in her class (Bambara 148-149). Because these minority narratives reveal paralleling shock cases resulting from discrimination, Albertine American Horse and Sylvia may be “zipped” together. Unlike Immigrants, but like minorities, Sylvia’s ancestors were brought to America against her will which is explains her curiosity about why Ms. Moore “waits for somebody to stand up and demand their share of the pie and don’t none of [them] know what kind of pie she talking about in the first damn place” (Bambara 150).

If this “piece of pie” was explained to Sylvia as being “half of the pie” to represent equality in America, then she would understand Ms. Moore a little better. In comparison, if the dominant culture realized the Immigrant and Minority need for “half the pie”, equality, instead of “a piece of the pie”, money, then they would be better understood. Finally, one can only achieve this better understanding by reading Immigrant and Minority Narratives as a learning tool and using them as a basis for organizing American Multicultural Literature (obj. 1).