Sample Student final exam answers 2016 (2018 final exam assignment) Part 1: Essays: dominant culture overview

LITR 4340     American Immigrant Literature (Model Assignments)

Ruth Brown

Narratives: Piecing the Puzzle Together

Before enrolling in this course, I was completely unaware of the difference between immigrants and minorities, rarely even thinking of them at all. Since then, I have realized that I am part of the dominant culture and I want to make sure that I keep learning and growing, instead of accepting what I’ve always known or been told. Although the terms immigrant and minority are sometimes used interchangeably in our society, there is a distinct difference. Immigrants are people who willingly and voluntarily come to a new country, often searching for opportunity and education. Whereas, minorities are not willing, but rather forcefully, made to travel and often meet with oppression, discrimination, and hostility. There is a distinction between immigrants and minorities, but there is also an area where the two groups blend to form a third identity, New World immigrants. All three of these identities come in contact with the dominant culture, and must choose whether they will assimilate to or resist the dominant culture. By examining the narratives of these four groups, one can better understand the uniqueness each group possesses.

The narratives of these four identities possess distinct traits and often have symbols that assist in uncovering new thoughts and ideas within the story. The literary term narrative refers to a story or plot and is connected with the idea of mimesis, or imitation. Mimesis is art imitating life, and that can be seen through these narratives. The lives of immigrants and minorities are being represented and reflected through the use of narratives. Analyzing these narratives is almost like putting a puzzle together; one must examine the individual pieces and decide how to put them together to make a whole. The pieces can be symbols, themes, and characters and they all work together to complete the narrative. Often in the narratives of immigrants or minorities, the leading idea is either assimilation or resistance and the three key pieces to the puzzle of assimilation or resistance are cleanliness, relationship with the law, and education.

One of the most important and recurring themes of the dominant culture is cleanliness and sterility. Immigrants, minorities, and New World immigrants must assimilate to the dominant culture by sterilizing their own identity and adopting cleanliness, plainness, and impersonality. The first wave of dominant culture to come to America were the Pilgrims in the 1620s. Their fashion alone speaks cleanliness and sterility, as they were clothes of drab colors that emphasized functionality over style.

In Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford also describes how committed the remaining able bodied Pilgrims were to cleaning and taking care of all the sick in the community. At a risk to their own health, they “fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them; in a word, did all the homely and necessary offices for them which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named.” Bradford describes the Pilgrims doing all of this without complaining because it was an act of love to their community. This sets the example that to be a member of the dominant culture, one must be willing to clean and care for others without objecting, even at risk to one’s own health and life.

One sees the young student in “Soap and Water” doing exactly this to assimilate to the dominant culture. She is trying to assimilate and earn a college degree along with a teaching position, but is denied her diploma based on her appearance and lack of hygiene. She notices an almost absurd contradiction that “While they condemned me as unfit to be a teacher, because of my appearance, I was slaving to keep them clean.” She worked hard, long hours in a laundry so that she could keep her dream of education and a better life alive, but was continually slighted by the dean of the college, Miss Whiteside. Miss Whiteside’s name even evokes thoughts of cleanliness and sterility as well as her tight personality. The student was sacrificing her own health, physically and mentally, to keep members of the dominant culture clean and taken care of, but she still finds barriers on her journey to assimilation.

While the minority narrative differs from the immigrant narrative, one can again view the theme of cleanliness displayed in the poem “Blonde White Women.” The narrator describes her mother as someone “who always seemed to be mopping.” This is a reference to the minority trying to assimilate and measure up to the dominant culture’s standards, but never being able to fully reach it. Whereas immigrants are able to mostly assimilate after a time, minorities tend to stay separated. As the narrator continues, she describes a time her blond teacher hugged her, but when the teacher pulled away, the narrator could tell “how much she wanted to wash.” This again shows how the dominant culture is associated with cleanliness and sterility, while the minority is looked upon as being unclean or dirty. The immigrant can overcome these standards, but the minority is often trapped and unable to overcome them.

          The puzzle piece of cleanliness is found in the narratives of New World immigrants as well. New World immigrants are a group distinct from minorities or immigrants, but they also share similar traits. They voluntarily travel to the United States, but often have a history of previous forced contact with the US, and are frequently judged by the color code. When putting together the pieces of cleanliness, New World immigrants also find it difficult to assimilate through cleanliness. In “Like Mexicans,” the narrator, of Mexican descent, visits his fiancée’s family, of Japanese descent, and is put at ease because of the uncleanliness of the estate. He describes their home by saying, “I saw newspapers piled in corners, dusty cereal boxes and vinegar bottles in corners….Dust. Dust lay on lamp shades and window sills. These people are just like Mexicans, I thought.”

The theme of cleanliness is also prominent in the New World immigrant narrative “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie.” The story opens with the act of rearranging and cleaning in order to produce the best results with certain girls. The physical act of cleaning and hiding specific items reflects the inward hiding of pieces of his own identity. 

The second key puzzle piece to assimilating to the dominant culture is compliance with the law of the land. Bradford explains that when the Pilgrims arrived in America in 1620, they wrote the Mayflower Compact establishing literacy and law as the foundations of the dominant culture. They decided the compact was important to “combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation.” Later, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would follow and also become a foundation for both systematic law and social law within the dominant culture. The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” However, as seen through the following immigrant and minority narratives, these rights and equality do not always extend or benefit everyone.

There is an urge to assimilate in the immigrant narrative, “In the Land of the Free,” by following the law of the land. Even when Hom Hing’s son is taken away by the government, he says, “’Tis the law…and ‘twill be but for a little while-until tomorrow’s sun arises.” He has trust and faith in the law and government, and he has hope that it will not be for long. Even though it pains the mother and father to give up their son, they do not resist, but quietly comply with the law. In this narrative, the symbol of the dominant culture is the lawyer who exploits the immigrant by demanding almost everything they have to try to release their son quicker. The wife realizes that the lawyer is “not one hundred man good,” but still gives in to his demands, as many immigrants give in to the dominant culture by assimilating.

Whereas immigrant narratives display trust in authority, minority narratives show distrust for authority, such as in “American Horse.” The government is taking away Albertine’s son, but she has no trust and no hope that it is for the better or will change soon. Buddy compares being taking away from his mother as a “thing coming out of the sky with barbs and chains.” The law and authority that is trusted in “In the Land of the Free,” is now being resisted and fought against by minorities. Buddy does not see the officers as helping him, instead he states, “the cops suck the worst, though…because they’re after us.” Instead of feeling safer, the officers make him feel hunted and threatened. The government is not seen as helpful, but rather as disruptive and cruel. These pieces reveal that minorities are more prone to resisting to the dominant culture, rather than assimilating.

In “Children of the Sea,” there exists a combination of trust and distrust in the law that mirrors the combination of traits in a New World immigrant’s narrative. The people in the boat are fleeing their native country and placing trust in the Coast Guard to find them and allow them to enter the United States. They possess a forced trust, as they have no other option to save them. On the other hand, some doubt the Coast Guard will offer protection if they do not pass as Cubans. One man had tried previously to enter the United States, but the Coast Guard sent him back to Haiti. The pieces in the puzzle of this narrative put together a picture of New World immigrants believing more in the power of the color code, using skin color and preconceived ideas to judge others, than in the power of the law.

The final key puzzle piece in assimilating or resisting the dominant culture is education. As mentioned before, the dominant culture values literacy, and education is often a way for immigrants or minorities to assimilate into the dominant culture. In the 1700s, a third wave of immigrants arrived in America adding to the dominant culture, the Scotch-Irish. They are a unique aspect of the dominant culture because they also possess some minority characteristics, such as having a distrust of the legal system.

In his book Hillbilly Elegy, J. D. Vance, of Scotch-Irish heritage, explains his journey of encountering the “American Dream” and elevating his status through education. He grew up in the Rust Belt of Ohio, poor and being raised mostly by his grandmother. Hardly anyone from his family had ever attended college, but his grandmother stressed the importance of succeeding academically and that it would be his way to “make it.” Vance recounts the time his grandmother spent $180 to buy him a graphing calculator for one of his high school math classes. He writes, “we didn’t have cell phones, and we didn’t have nice clothes, but Mamaw made sure that I had one of those graphing calculators. This taught me an important lesson about Mamaw’s values, and it forced me to engage with school in a way I never had before.” A fundamental and core belief of his grandmother was succeeding in education, and this reflects the dominant culture’s view of education as a tool to advance in society.

In the immigrant narrative, “What Color Would You Like, Ma’am?” the theme of education also represents a puzzle piece in the idea of the “model minority.” The term “model minority” actually refers to immigrants who are seen to possess desirable traits, such as a high success in education, strong work ethic, or respect for authority. In this narrative, the “model minority” characteristics are seen in Thien, who studies hard in school, respects his parents and other family members, and also helps work in the family business. His education is in essence the “American Dream.” Thien understands the sacrifices his parents have made for him and he wants to be able to succeed so he can take care of them later in life. Thien fully realizes the expectations of his family when he states, “after all, he would be a college student soon, and every single member of family counted on his future successes.” The pieces of this puzzle show that immigrants are not just working for themselves, but usually for their families as well.

Shoba Narayan writes about her experience as a member of a “model minority” seeking education in Monsoon Diary. Narayan describes that as a Foreign Fellow she “was given carte blanche to study whatever I wanted for one year. I signed up for all those subjects that I had been interested in but never had the opportunity to pursue: piano lessons, theatre, modern dance, music composition, and journalism.” Education and being an international student allowed Narayan to learn and explore so many areas, as well as interact and learn the different traditions and culture of America. Because she was open to learning and she was living in a New England town, she experienced and became aware of many symbols of the dominant culture including, steepled churches, white picket fences, Colonial homes, and bagels. Her journey for education connected her with a host family that became her “window into family life as I attempted to piece together the jigsaw puzzle that was America.”

In the minority narrative “The Lesson,” there is a hesitation and skepticism towards education. The children of the neighborhood hate Miss Moore and the lessons she teaches. They do not see how education has benefited Miss Moore and they don’t see the potential for it in their own lives. The puzzle pieces show that as a minority, the children experience more oppression than immigrants do and there is doubt that education will ever help break the cycle they seemed trapped within.

In the New World immigrant narrative “The Making of a Writer: From the Poets in the Kitchen,” there is again an idea of mixing, where the puzzle piece of education is a blend of old and new language and ideas. Paule Marshall describes some of the first education she ever received, listening to her mother and friends talk in the kitchen. She heard the women discuss politics and current affairs, and listened to the women create their own language by mixing sounds and words from many cultures. She also learned about the women’s heritage and native homes before America. Marshall writes that when people ask about her formative years and who has influenced her, she must “always acknowledge before all others: the group of women around the table long ago….the best of my work must be attributed to them; it stands as testimony to the rich legacy of language and culture they so freely passed on to me in the wordshop of the kitchen.” The education Marshall received in her own kitchen make up some of the most influential and vibrant pieces in the puzzle of her narrative.

All four identities, the dominant culture, immigrants, minorities, and New World immigrants, interact with the choice of either assimilating or resisting within their own narrative. Cleanliness, relationship with the law, and education are three key pieces to the puzzle of assimilating or resisting within these narratives. The dominant culture sets the standards and values of cleanliness, compliance with the law, and success in education. Immigrant narratives find more assimilation through cleanliness, trust in the law, and the idea that hard work and education will benefit them and ease their transition into the dominant culture. However, minority narratives explore the failure to measure up to cleanliness standards, distrust of the law, and a doubt that education will benefit their situations. While, New World immigrants find connections to others through different standards of cleanliness, and possess a blend of trust and distrust for the law, as well as unique learning and educational experiences.