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2018 Midterm1
(assignment) |
LITR 4340
American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
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Annie
Tran
The Dream and Nightmare of America
I took this course because I was intrigued that there was such a study
about Immigrant Literature. I
thought this was just a course on literature about immigrants, but this course
is more about identifying immigrant and minority narratives.
One of the main misconceptions that I had was assuming that the “minority
narrative” applied to all non-white races, but I learned that “minority is used
loosely in popular speech, journalism, and government” (Objective 2b).
The main difference between the minority narrative and the immigrant
narrative is “choice.” My parents
are immigrants who do not appear to have assimilated very well into the dominant
culture. I viewed our struggles and
failure to economically assimilate to the dominant world as resistance since I
felt like we did not ask for this.
Then, I read African American and American Indian minority narratives, and I
realized that they truly did not have a choice.
The standard immigrant narrative is typically the “story of escaping the
Old World and assimilating to the New World and its dominant culture” (Objective
1). The “dominant culture” consists
of the earlier immigrants from Northern and Western Europe that is normally
identified by “whiteness, modesty, plainness, and cleanliness” (Obj 1).
“Soap and Water” by Anzia Yezierska exemplifies the immigrant narrative;
this short story also displays some stages of the immigrant narrative.
The Jewish narrator voluntarily left the Old World (Russia) to pursue the
American Dream, which fulfills Stage 1 and 2 of the immigrant narrative.
In America, she faced discrimination by the dominant culture in Stage 3
“while they condemned [her] as unfit to be a teacher, because of [her]
appearance, [she] was slaving to keep them clean.”
The connotation of “slaving” in this short story alludes to the immigrant
being treated like a “minority” or African Americans (WEB).At the beginning,
Miss Whitehead attempted to deny opportunities to the narrator when she withheld
her diploma.
The diploma is a symbol of acceptance into the dominant culture.
Soap and the color, white symbolizes the dominant culture’s cold and
sterile attitudes towards outsiders.
Miss Van Ness, who has already been assimilated into the dominant
culture, serves to be the bridge for the narrator to become assimilated—possibly
achieved when she says, “my past was the forgotten night” (38). Her forgotten
past could be her loss of ethnic identity as part of assimilation or stage 4 of
the immigrant narrative. Another
example of an immigrant narrative is Nicholasa Mohr’s “The English Lesson.”
This short story is about a group of immigrants in a Basic English class.
“They had migrated here in search of a better future” (25).
Several of them wanted to learn English in order to obtain a better job.
These are typical means to assimilate and “become American” (2a).
The “Model Minority” label within the immigrant narrative tends to follow
the “ideal immigrants” story rather than the true minority.
“‘Minority’ is used loosely in popular speech, journalism, and
government” (2b), but that term is reserved only to describe African Americans
and American Indians in American Immigrant Literature.
The ideal immigrants typically believe in hard work and faith in the
American Dream, commitment to education as a ticket out/up, and stress the
importance of family stability.
They may assimilate economically and educationally while maintaining ethnic
identity in religion and ethnic customs.
Gish Jen’s “In the American Society,” represents the model minority or
ideal immigrant narrative. One of
the father’s employees, Booker, represents the model minority, “whose boundless
gratitude translated into willingness to do anything. As he also learned
quickly, he soon knew not only how to bus, but how to cook, and how to wait
table, and how to keep the books” (163).
The father took over a pancake house to send Callie and Mona to college.
He is taking advantage of the economic and educational opportunities to
assimilate. They “got rich right
away” (158), which helped them to assimilate right away.
The mother was having her own opinions, bought her own car, pumped her
own gas, and checked her own oil.
Normally, a Chinese woman from the Old World did not or was not allowed to do
any of this. Her desire to join the
country club is the most prominent sign of assimilating to the dominant culture.
There are also generational differences within the immigrant family.
The dad is part of the first-generation character that is “heroic” and
“clueless.” He sacrifices by
working hard to provide for his family and his children’s future, yet he “would
wear only ten-year-old shirts, with grease-spotted pants, to show how little he
cared what anyone thought” (159).
He was “clueless” because his English was broken, and he handles business and
employees as though he was still in China.
In contrast, Mona and Callie have completely assimilated into the
dominant culture as third-generation characters.
They have American names, and they are completely accepted by their
American friends at school. At
times, the model minority stereotype can be limiting.
In "'What Color would you Like, Ma'am?"' by J. Christine Moon, Thien’s
family work hard to make ends meet, “and every single member of family counted
on his future successes. They would all dream and talk about him becoming Dr.
Thien Nguyen” [4]. This type of
pressure is so prevalent in the Asian immigrant family, and the parents usually
strongly encourage career choices within the STEM field.
Ultimately, “the Asian Americans' achievements as an ethnic group
negatively cast true-minority ethnic groups like African Americans as failures
or political nags” (WEB).
African Americans and Native Americans are part of the true Minority
narrative. They did not voluntarily
immigrate to American like traditional immigrants.
Immigrants came to America looking for freedom and opportunity; African
Americans came to America involuntarily and were forced into slavery.
They experienced shock, resistance, exploitation, and discrimination—none
of which they deserved because they did not even want to be in America in the
first place. The minority narrative
is plagued by 350 years of slavery and segregation (WEB).
In The Interesting Narrative of
the Life of Olaudah Equiano, . . . the African, Equiano’s accounts are
similar to the stories of millions of African Americans and others who were
enslaved in America. He was
kidnapped from his native country, endured the horrendous trip on the slave
ship, and became a slave in America and the Caribbean.
He eventually bought his freedom, but he did not completely resist
assimilation. He worked to make
money to pay for a good education, so he was able to read and write (4.5).
In contrast, the children in “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara display
animosity and apathy towards Miss Moore’s lesson and at education as a whole.
This resistance to assimilation is more typical in the minority
narrative. In “Elethia” by Alice
Walker, Uncle Albert’s master attempted to beat him into submission and
assimilation. “But he never would. Never would work in the big house as head
servant, neither—always broke up stuff” (309).
Uncle Albert resisted assimilation all the way until death.
Simply put, both the immigrant narrative with the promise of the American
Dream and the minority narrative with the horrors of the American Nightmare
contribute to America’s culture today.
The immigrant and minority narrative may overlap at some point in the
minority experiences of shock, resistance, exploitation, and discrimination;
however, immigrants had a choice while minorities did not.
The immigrant’s goal is to eventually assimilate into the dominant world,
and the minority’s goal is to create his own identity to resist the dominant
world.
