Christine Pearson

To be American: Follower or Leader?

            As an immigrant arrives in America, expectation of assimilation is a given. The immigrant has all ready been anticipating this vast land of diverse cultures, and enormous opportunities. Even if the underlying cause of this journey is oppression, war, or financial, the immigrant has a depiction of what America is. America is seen as freedom. Freedom to be and become who ever you want to be. However, this newfound citizen is busy, planning, cultivating, and dreaming of a future, primarily made up of someone else’s ideals, the dominant culture.

            So who is the dominant culture? This question is difficult to answer, seeming that those who make up the dominant culture are products of immigration themselves. As the Pilgrims arrive, this community of people bring with them, standards, derivative of the Bible, beginning with the Exodus story. Though the American Indian has claim to parts of this land, the Pilgrims, whose original purpose for coming is religious freedom, soon lose sight of this purpose and individual dreams and need become the focus of society. As seen in William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation:

Also the people of the Plantation began to grow in their outward estates…by which many were much enriched and commodities grew plentiful. And yet in other regards this benefit turned to their hurt, and this accession of strength to their weakness. For now as their stocks increased and the increase vendible, there was no longer any holding them together…By which means they were scattered all over the Bay quickly and the town in which they lived compactly till now was left very thin and in a short time almost desolate (281-283).

The Pilgrim starts out truly wanting to be a “separate” people. As biblical tradition goes, a Christian is an example of how God interacts with the Jews, circumcised or not because of Christ, and is a “peculiar people”. According to Deuteronomy 7:6, God’s  “…chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people”. Bradford parallels everything to the Bible, as he describes the Pilgrims motivation, expectations, and ultimate journey “to the promise land”.

The Pilgrim, however, did not assimilate to the Indian or any other being. Though there is evidence of influence in American culture, such as corn, this people construct and identify what America’s dominant culture is today.

            Another characteristic of the dominant culture is that each individual prefers to be ordinary, in the sense, that one is not prone to elaborateness. Life needs to be simplistic, but full of underlying wealth, seen later in the after life. The pilgrim dress is plain, and each individual is basically unmarked. Education is vital, especially pertaining to the will of God, seen through the eyes of the Jew and others throughout time. It seems rather ironic that a people, such as the Jewish culture, are made an example of the characteristics of God; however, these people undergo such hardships at the very hands of its benefactors through out history, though this culture, when some immigrate to the U.S. by way of a national migration, become a model minority, walking and talking like the dominant culture or assimilate.

            Next, the dominant culture tends to be against the idea of intermarriage. “Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son” (Deut. 7:3). As seen through the Pilgrim experience, the Pilgrim will not marry or have relations with the Indian, at first.

            Though these depictions are in no way a complete account or description of the dominant culture, especially in regard to the Jewish and Pilgrim experiences, one can definitely begin to see a pattern here. Immigrants, whether truly aware at the time of arrival, embark on this kind of voyage. As assimilation progresses, the picture begins to align itself with these heritages, with the idea that with hard work, renewal, and self-reflection, anything is possible, as seen through many pieces of literature such as Soap and Water by Anzia Yezierska. This is easier for the immigrant that looks and acts like the dominant culture. Even if an immigrant does everything “right”, such as take night classes to learn the English language, it seems to be never completely obtainable, because of factors such as skin tone and unknown cultural traits. The immigrant may try to hold on to individual and cultural differences, but this begins to be felt as a hardship, and most of the time these traits will disappear over time, as the immigrant assimilates.

If not, the result is like unto the Jewish culture. Once considered the model minority, because of the acceptance of ideals such as a plain life, hard worker, not idle, cleanliness, literate, and covenant driven, this culture ultimately does not assimilate. As time passes, separate facilities such as after school programs for the Jewish children, begin to surface. Intermarriage, though somewhat relaxed, is still an abomination. As seen in the Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska, immigration to America, and abroad for that matter, is difficult and therefore, sometimes-complete assimilation is never truly assessable. Sarah seems to do all the right things such as pursue an education, take care of her parents and so forth. However, in the end, she is torn because if one is to hold dear all these things, then why is she withheld still as different? Why can she not hold onto her heritage, and not forget who she is?

So what about the idea of an all immigrated America? Though the dominant culture has its distinct ideals and characteristics, so do others who have chosen to be a citizen of this nation. As Americans, should we be more prone to accepting an individual as he is, because after all, is not this what America is founded upon, belief in ones identity as right to set aside oneself, in that belief? I do not know, this is a difficult subject. If one is allowed to be different, who’s to say who is right or wrong? When does one’s belief become wrong, and if it affects another, such as murder, what then? On the contrary, the Pilgrims movement across the Atlantic separated them from others, to fulfill their ideals and purpose. Even though the dominant culture, at one time, over ride the American Indian, to achieve their goal of separateness, the original plan warrants some respect in trying to overcome odds to embark on a life that one holds to be vital and necessary, which underlying ideals start out being for the good of all men to all men (biblical tones).