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2016 Midterm2
(assignment) |
LITR 4340
 American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
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Jennifer Robles
Peeling Back The Layers
For my web highlights, I tried to find a
similar theme that may have come up beyond our classroom discussions. I wanted
to see if former students had a different insight or even a new interpretation
of the readings. What I found were some exceptional “ahh-ha” moments that helped
me develop my long essay’s thesis.
Cesar Cano’s “White and Black Nation: With Hues of
Brown,” caught my attention right away with his use of vivid language. He began
with “Resentment. Fear. Anger. These three emotions mix with awe and desire to
define New World Immigrants.“ These five words perfectly encapsulated the New
World immigrant experience for me. Cano’s language is colorful and poignant as
he says “The ancestors of African Americans were robbed of their cultural
identity and language when they were uprooted and forced into slavery. Likewise,
Afro-Caribbean immigrants are robbed of their culture and language upon entering
this country and assigned a history not their own, exclusively based on skin
color.” Wow. I had never thought of Afro-Caribbean immigrants being robbed of
their cultural identity just like African Americans were, and all because of the
color code. This statement really secures how much Afro-Caribbeans are even
forced to identify with a people whom they have no relation.
In Dorothy Noyes “New Waves for a New World,” I was
impressed with her interpretation of two of the poems we read in class. I read
“America” but did not get the total sense that McKay was “bridging the borders
between the immigrant and minority literature...
“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.” I cannot stop
rereading those lines and feeling the intensity that I did not feel before.
Noyes also makes a reference to Pat Mora’s poem “Immigrants.” I very much liked
the poem and even used a few lines in my own essay but Noyes gave me one of
those “ah-ha” moments in which I grew a whole new dimension of appreciation for
the complexity of the poem: “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...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.”
In research report starts, I found that I was
interested in wanting to read more of Alexandra Alvarado’s “Betrayal or
Opportunity?” and her perspective on the second generation in comparison to the
first. She states that “The second generation of the Mexican-American immigrants
is usually the ones that see the bigger picture about education. The fact that
without an education they might end up in jobs like their parents who are
struggling to make ends meet.” It is an interesting theory because in model
minority narratives, we see 1st generation immigrants doing everything possible
in order to give their children the best education possible. I felt that this
statement was in counteracts her previous statement in the first paragraph “The
first-generation immigrants begin to see the restrictions that their education
level has on their opportunities here in America.” I am interest to see what she
found throughout her research and if this is another difference among New World
versus Old World immigrants.
Each of their respective essays gave me
something new to think about, something I had not yet considered and something I
wanted to learn more about. What I learned is that each of the narratives and
poems we have read in this course are extremely complex, with layers upon layers
left to peel.
