Sandra Murphy

Part Two: Long Essay

45 minutes preparation time and 3 hours writing and revising

The Distinction between Immigrant and Minority Literature

The distinction between the Immigrant Narrative and Minority Literature is one that is seldom considered. Many readers would find it difficult to articulate any significant differences between the two genres. The lines of demarcation are often nebulous and subject to reader interpretation. Nevertheless, differences do exist and these distinctions deserve attention.

As stated in Objective One of the course aims, the immigrant narrative is a fundamental story or model of American Culture and it is directly related to the concept of the American Dream. America is country of immigrants and many of our ancestors came to America in search of a better life. For millions of Americans and immigrants, the American Dream is a reality. Many immigrant narratives share a common theme that echoes the promise of the American Dream—with hard work and perseverance, success is assured. This theme is shown clearly in The English Lesson by Nicholasa Mohr. Each Tuesday evening, a dedicated band of immigrants gather together at the local school to study the complexities of the English language under the enthusiastic, though somewhat patronizing, tutelage of Mrs. Hamma. They come between jobs, fighting off exhaustion and familial objections, for a single purpose—to learn English and to make the American Dream a reality for themselves and their families. Mr. Fong’s statement is typical. He says, in his broken English, “I taking the course in Basic English to speak good and improve my position better in the country. Also to be eligible to become American citizen”(IA 24).

However, the path to success and the American Dream is seldom easy to navigate. Anzia Yezierska’s Soap and Water chronicles the painful struggles of a young Russian Jewish immigrant to find the real America and realize her American Dream. Isolated, oppressed, and denied employment and equality, she questions the very existence of that promised land, America. Close to despair, she recalls, “ My body was worn to the bone from overwork, my footsteps dragged with exhaustion, but my eyes still sought the sky, praying, ceaselessly praying, the dumb, inarticulate prayer of the lost immigrant: “American! Ach, America! Where is America?” It is only through the kindness and compassion of her former professor, Miss Van Ness, that she finally finds the real America and the long awaited promise of a new and better life (Handout 109-110).

Like all significant changes, immigration requires the immigrant to move through very specific stages. Objective 2 of the course aims speaks of the need “to chart the dynamics, variations, and stages of the immigrant narrative.” The syllabus identifies five basic stages common to immigrant literature. These stages include:

·         Leaving the Old World

·         Journeying to the New World

·         Shock, resistance, exploitation, and discrimination

·         Assimilation to dominant culture and loss of native culture,

·         Rediscovery or partial reassertion of ethnic identity.

Many of these stages are beautifully and poignantly expressed in Sui Sin Far’s In the Land of the Free. As the story opens, Lae Choo and the Little One have left the old world and made the long journey to the new world of America. Met at the waterfront by Hom Hing, the family is filled with hope and optimism that America will be their promised land. Too soon, however, they are stunned to learn that they must leave the Little One behind. He has no papers and will not be permitted to go ashore. Hom Hing who has in many ways reached the assimilation stage, tells his grief-stricken wife, “Tis the law, and ‘twill be but for a little while-until tomorrow’s sun arises”(IA 5). The wheels of justice turn slowly and inexorably, however. It is more than ten months before Lae Choo and Hom Hing are reunited with their son. Ironically, it is this reunion that inflicts the cruelest blow of all. During the time the Little One was held by customs in a missionary school, he assimilated to the dominant culture of America and forgot his native world. When his mother moved to hold him, he “shrunk from her and tried to hide himself in the folds of white woman’s skirt” and he told his mother, “Go ‘way, go ‘way!”(IA 11).  This bittersweet reunion leaves the reader wondering what the fate of the Little One will be. Will he have to re-experience the first three stages of the immigrant narrative as he is reacquainted with his loving parents and their ways? Or will he retain his newfound assimilation to the new world as he enters stage five and rediscovers his ethnic identity?

Assimilation, research indicates, is usually accomplished within three generations. Sometimes the assimilation process occurs more quickly, particularly among Asian immigrants who are often referred to as the model minority. For many immigrants, however, rapid assimilation is a double edged sword. Although it cuts through the barriers to acceptance by the dominant culture, it often results in painful wounds to the immigrant and the family. This dynamic is clearly illustrated in The  Woman Warrior  by Maxine Hong Kingston. The female narrator of the story battles against the anti-female bias of her traditional culture while struggling to find self-worth and approval in the modern culture. Ultimately, she says, “I had to get out of hating range.” It is only from that distance she can convince herself that her “family loves her fundamentally” (Handout 200). In a sense her assimilation to the dominant culture has made her once more an immigrant—forever out of reach of her family.

While the promise of the American Dream, the process of assimilation, and the stages that lead to Americanization are common themes of the immigrant narrative, the themes of the minority narrative are strikingly different. Objective 3 of the course aims states the difference clearly with the assertion that the minority narrative more often chronicles the American Nightmare as opposed to the American Dreams. In many cases, minority groups have found themselves trapped in stage three, subjected to continual shock, resistance, exploitation, and discrimination.

In the case of some minority groups, such as African Americans and Native Americans, the choice to immigrate was denied. They were persecuted, enslaved, and forcibly removed from their homeland. Unlike the immigrants, who chose to come to America and assimilate, African American and Native Americans were compelled to do so. This lack of choice creates a very different social contract within these two groups. For them, the American Dream is quite simply a nightmare from which they cannot awaken.

The different reality of these two minority groups can be seen in much of their literature. James Baldwin’s No Name in the Street speaks clearly of the rage and alienation many black people feel toward the dominant culture of America as he argues with an old friend about the role of black soldiers in Vietnam. Baldwin refers to America as a “slave master,” and equates the service of black troops in Vietnam to defending “one’s murder and one’s murderers” (Handout 289). His are strong words, surely, but they are honest words. They communicate the anger and frustration many blacks feel toward America and her failed promises.

Native Americans share this anger and frustration. American Horse by Louise Erdrich shows the nightmarish reality America has provided her native people. Confined to reservations, living in poverty and bereft of hope, many Native Americans view the dominant culture as an enemy to be avoided. Even little Buddy knows. He doesn’t need his mother to remind him to hide from the cops or the white woman with them. He feels the danger. In his mind he pictures the white world as “a large thing made of metal with many barbed hooks, points, and drag chains on it, something like a giant potato peeler that rolled out of the sky, scraping clouds down with it and jabbing or crushing everything that lay in its path on the ground” (IA 210).

The continuing discrimination and oppression of African American and Native American is due in part to the color code. Americans have a marked preference for white or light-skinned minorities and immigrants. In fact, this preference is so strong that some immigrants, particularly those from Latin American, Mexico, and the Caribbean frequently experience a downward assimilation and are identified with an oppressed minority which limits their opportunity to assimilate and achieve the American Dream.

This in-between identification and downward assimilation due to color code is what drives the poem Immigrants by Pat Mora. The poem paints the portrait of loving immigrant parents who desperately want to assimilate for the sake of their children. They “wrap their babies in the American flag, feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie.” They surround them with the icons of the dominant culture. Yet, in the darkness of their bed, they worry it is not enough. They wonder, “Will they like our boy, our girl, our fine American boy, our fine American girl?”(Handout)

The same longing to fit in, the same anxiety can be seen in Junot Diaz’s How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie. The narrator’s flippant attitude can’t hide the longing for acceptance in the white world. As he fantasizes about a possible tryst with a white girl, he says, “Tell her that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more than you love your own” (IA 178).

In truth, all any of us—white, black, red, brown, yellow or mixed—want is to belong. Despite our differences, we are very similar. These similarities are evident as we read one another’s narratives. All of us experience different stages as we journey through life. Each of us has felt our dreams crumble at our feet and have woken screaming from a nightmare that never seems to end. As we have forced ourselves to get up, get moving, and continue trying, many of us have wondered if the promise of America was simply a pipe dream. Perhaps that is what we should take from the stories of America’s immigrants and minorities, the fact that at the heart of things we are very much the same.