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Midterm2 (2013 midterm2 assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2013 #1: Essays on New World Immigrants |
LITR 4333
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Dorothy Noyes
New Waves for a New World
From the hopeful hearts of immigrants from
far-off lands sailing towards the American Dream, to the inhumane and
devastating transport of slaves to America from African coasts, America, and its
literature, has long been infused with different and unique cultures and ethnic
identities. There has, however, been a startlingly clear distinction between two
groups: the purposeful immigrants and the resistant minorities. In their
representations, immigrants and minorities have created a spectrum in which they
rest on opposing ends; one that runs from full assimilation to the total
opposition of the dominant culture of the United States. New World immigrants,
however, those of Hispanic or Afro-Caribbean immigrants from Mexico,
Meso-America, and the Caribbean, pose a new and interesting viewpoint of
immigrant literature as we know it thus far. As their own distinct group, they
bridge the ideas and processes of these two groups, blurring lines and
boundaries in the study of immigrant and minority literature.
New World immigrants, those from the Western hemisphere,
begin to show the blurring of boundaries in both their similarities and
differences from immigrants of the “Old World.” Similarly, both groups of
immigrants made a choice, whether based on circumstance or a desire for the
American dream, to abandon their homelands and start a new life in the “land of
the free.” Unlike minorities in this sense, their immigration was deliberate and
not forced upon them by oppressors of any sort. In Nash Candelaria’s “El Patron”
he illustrates this similarity through the immigration story of the father: “’I
did not intend to stay in Mexico and starve,’ he said. He looked around at us
one by one as if to justify himself” (227). These lines show the New World
immigrant as someone who made a purposeful choice to start a life in America.
Whether it was the idealistic dreams of those Old World immigrants, or the
pressure of feeding a hungry family of
the New World immigrants, they were allowed the option to change their lives by
immigrating to a land rumored to have plenty for all.
While there are many similarities between Old and New World
immigrants, it can also be seen that there is a distinct difference in their
assimilation processes. Old World immigrants, those who came purposefully to the
United States with dreams of a new life according to American ideals, are
representative of the full assimilation process. These are groups of people, as
it is seen in Gish Jen’s “In the American Society” who adapt and evolve to
assimilate with their chosen culture, “She had opinions, now, on how downtown
should be zoned; she could pump her own gas and check her own oil;” (159). They
let go of their homelands in an effort to fully submerge themselves and their
descendants into the American culture. As I wrote in “Resistance
Versus Persistence: How Does Immigrant Literature Differ?” in the traditional
immigrant narrative, Old World immigrants assimilate so fully into mainstream,
dominant culture that they trade their cultural identity for that of their
adopted home.
New World immigrants, on the other hand, do not seem to
assimilate as wholly to their new homeland as their Old World counterparts.
“…speak to them in thick English,/ hallo, babee, hallo,/whisper in Spanish or
Polish/ when the babies sleep,” (Mora). These lines from Pat Mora’s poem,
“Immigrants” show the distinction between the absolute assimilation of Old World
immigrants in comparison to the partial assimilation of New World immigrants.
While New World immigrants speak their broken English to their children in the
daylight hours, urging them to become a part of the American society, they also
whisper the language of their homelands into their babies’ ears as they sleep; a
reminder of home and roots that they do not want them to lose.
While many New World
immigrants, especially those of Hispanic or Meso-American descent assimilate
partially, their cultural identity with their homeland remains strong, as is
portrayed in Oscar Hijuelos’ “Visitors, 1965.” “He
was sick at heart for being so Americanized, which he equated with being fearful
and lonely” (317). This short story illustrates both the choice to leave Cuba
and come to America, like the Old World immigrants, but also the shame and
despair associated with assimilation, in losing Cuban identity and becoming
Americanized. Through this, New World Immigrants once again show themselves as a
blurring of previously defined immigrant or minority definitions. New World
immigrants embrace being an American, but on their own unique, cultural terms.
Not only do New World immigrants share the immigration
experience and identity with immigrants of the Old World, they also have many
similarities with minority groups and literature, as well.
Like minority literature, much New World
immigrant literature, especially those of the Afro-Caribbean immigrants,
illustrates a feeling of being an outsider and resisting joining the majority
because they do not identify with the dominant culture. “I muse my life-long
hate, and without flinch/ I bear it nobly as I live my part” (McKay). These
lines from Claude McKay’s poem, “The White City” shows us as readers the same
anger and resistance to being a part of the white masses as has been seen in
previously read minority literature. Though McKay’s family immigrated willingly
to the United States, he not only does not feel a part of American society, but
actively hates it, much like many of the narratives by African American authors
we have read.
However, once again bridging the borders between the
immigrant and minority literature, McKay shows the duality of the New World
immigrant experience in his poem, “America”
by writing,
“Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth”
(McKay).
These lines show that despite the rejection of the white
world he feels he must fight against, this New World immigrant loves the country
in which he lives; that though he is challenged by it every day, he loves his
adopted home, much like the Old World immigrants before him. On the contrary,
Paule Marshall feels this duality negatively in her short story, “To Da-Duh, In
Memoriam” as she writes of her experiences living in New York, but almost
feeling trapped, much like in the minority literature we have read, as she
painted picture after picture of her grandmother’s home, her own cultural
homeland, Barbados. Though she carried with her the cultural identity of
Barbados, she felt it was her curse to live in New York, listening to the
machinery and seeing the filth, when her memories of home were so vivid.
As
a whole, New World immigrants and their cultural narratives bridge a gap that
previously seemed to spread almost infinitely between the two different worlds
of immigrants and minorities. New World immigrants take the deliberate and
formative decision of immigration, as well as the resistance to changing
themselves completely, and make a hybrid of the two groups.
The New World immigrants and their
literature, experiences, and mishmash of cultural identities most aptly
illustrate the melting pot so many people associate with the American Dream.
These new waves of immigrants paint a picture of our changing country; a vivid
and varied picture of blurred boundaries and change for the better.
