|
2018 Midterm1
(assignment) |
LITR 4340
American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
|
Clark
Omo
22
February 2018
Resistance and Assimilation: The Trials of the American Immigrant
As
has so far been examined in this class, the experiences that immigrants to the
United States of America have amid the assimilation and acculturation process is
thoroughly mixed. It seems that in all cases, the immigrants face a multitude of
challenges ranging from language barriers to culture shock, and then, in some
cases, alienation and deprivation. Such is the case in Austin Green’s essay
“Culture Shock”, Zach Thomas’s essay “To Be or Not To Be”, and Chandler Barton’s
Research report entitled “Deutschland
Uber Alles.” In each of the chosen essays, the experience of the American
Immigrant is outlined and explored. For the immigrant, America often represents
a means of escape and relief from the oppression and conflict experienced in the
immigrant’s homeland. And yet, as mentioned by these essays, entrance to America
includes its own brand of adversity and resistance. The immigrant’s path to
assimilation is marred by trial and heartache, and the question as to whether
they were for naught or otherwise, rises from the examinations and assertions
made by the following selected works.
Green structures his essay around the stages of the “immigrant narrative” as
defined in the course term index. Green begins by stating: “The first two stages
go hand in hand with each other: leaving the Old World, and journeying to the
New World”. The first two stages represent “the basic definition of an
immigrant” as Green puts it; meaning that these two stages ultimately define
what an immigrant is as a person. They are someone who has chosen to leave the
Old World, and hence their old way of life, in pursuit of something better: the
promises and opportunities offered by the New World. Often these immigrants
arrive with nothing, such as Mas in “Bread Givers”. Green recounts of Max: “I
still see that first day when I got off the ship with my little bundle on my
back. I was almost lost in the blowing snow of a freezing blizzard.” Green goes
on to describe the next two stages of the “immigrant narrative”:
“Shock, resistance, exploitation, and discrimination” and “assimilation
into the dominant American culture”, which, as Green mentions, may result in the
loss of “ethnic identity”. Anchee Min’s experience in her excerpt from
Cooked Seed exemplifies this, such as
when Min encounters a sign in Chinese restaurant that reads “No English, No
job”. Green goes on to state that these stages are where “we can see the
immigrant and minority experiences become similar (Stage 3), but it is also
where the two greatly differ from each other (Stage 4)”. The typical experience
for an immigrant, as Green puts it, involves culture shock and alienation,
neither of which is alleviated by the hostile attitudes and treatment given to
immigrants by the dominant culture. To combat this mistreatment, the immigrants,
as Green says, “basically [do] what they can in order to fit into the dominant
culture”. The immigrants strive to assimilate and become part of the dominant
culture; a struggle that involves leaving the immigrants’ old ways behind.
Green transitions from here to a comparison between the immigrant and minority
narratives. According to Green, the minorities do not share the same share the
same goals of assimilation as the immigrant does. Rather, they wish to maintain
their own customs, ideals, and traditions apart from those of the dominant
culture. An example cited by Green is in the story of “The Man to Send Rain
Clouds”, where a Native American allows a Catholic priest to sprinkle holy water
on a native burial. The American Indians maintain their cultural identity in
this story, for the holy water to them provides water for the deceased
grandfather, rather than allow passage into Heaven as perceived by the priest.
In addition to the minority narrative, such a subgroup as the “Model Minority”
emerges. Members of the Model Minority, as Green defines them, are “immigrants
who do not clash with or threaten the dominant culture”. Rather, their goals
correlate more closely with those of the dominant culture. Green uses Thien in
“What Color Would You Like, Ma’am?” as an example. Thien’s family is
hardworking: “"Every member of the family worked at the nail salon, whether they
were licensed nail technicians or not”. Thus, the members of the Model Minority
work and strive to achieve higher goals (such as Thien’s desire to be a doctor)
that solidify their standing within the social stratosphere established by the
dominant culture. Green’s outlining of the stages, as well the individual
implications they possess for immigrants, provides a clear modeling of the
process that immigrants must endure to gain acceptance by the dominant culture,
or, in contrast, the effort that minorities exert to maintain their cultural
heritage.
Similarly, so does Zach Thomas’s essay, “To Be or Not To Be”, also evaluates the
struggles of immigrants and minorities in America. Thomas begins by stating that
minorities and immigrants “are uniquely identified in American literature as a
backdrop to the dominant culture”. He goes on to say that immigrants “are a
dark, layered, and oppressed veil of blue-collared America that keeps the
country from collapsing”. Basically, Thomas approaches the role and status of
American immigrants from an economic and labor-centered standpoint. Thomas
examines immigrant hardships in relation to job acquisition and economic
progress, especially in relation into how immigrants partake in the American
Dream, the “lifeblood of those who wish to be more than what they were given in
their host country”, says Thomas. To illustrate this struggle to find work, and
thus assimilate into the dominant culture, Thomas cites Anchee Min’s struggles
in Cooked Seed to find work as an
artist in America. Thomas states, “Anchee Min did not resist much to the
dominant culture as she knew this was highly necessary to becoming an artist in
America”. According to Thomas, Min utilized her culture’s passive stereotype so
that she could leave the oppression of her come country and migrate to America.
Min did not resist the demands of the dominant culture, but rather the saw the
importance they held, if she was to obtain a solid means of monetary income.
Thomas links this narrative to the In the
Land of the Free, where Chinese immigrants face similar challenges when
confronted with America’s emphasis upon socioeconomic status as opposed to
cultural tradition. Thomas states of the husband in this story: “The father of
this Chinese baby has to work exceptionally hard to get his son back from being
deported”. The father had a more progressive and noticeable assimilation to the
dominant culture, as opposed to his wife. However, his lack of substantial funds
hinders his ability to obtain his son, as his wife must resort to bribing the
lawyer with her own jewelry. Not all immigrants choose to assimilate, however.
Thomas then transitions from the Chinese perspective to that of the Jewish
American viewpoint. Thomas cites Anzia Yezierska’s short story “Soap and Water”,
in which the protagonist acknowledges the obsession with cleanliness within
American society as the “tyranny of their culture”. Not all immigrants wish to
assimilate fully to the demands of American culture, for doing so would mean
submitting to outrageous dictates regarding not only money, but also free will.
Like Green, Thomas also contrasts the experiences of minorities with those of
the immigrants. He begins by stating that “minorities do not view the American
Dream in the same fashion as immigrants”. For minorities, the American way of
life appears threatening and monstrous. Thomas uses Equiano’s story, saying that
the reason Equiano chose to assimilate was not because he wanted to gain status,
but was because he wanted to return home, or buy his freedom. Thus, the minority
narrative contains more resistance to the dominant culture, as noted by both
Green and Thomas. The stories of minorities therefore place greater emphasis
upon the origins of a minority culture, as well as the advantages that the said
minority culture has over the dominant. Differences in values also arise, thus
elevating the minority culture to the purpose as a sort of foil against which
the dominant culture, compares. Green and Thomas both acknowledge this issue by
identifying how the minority maintains a stubborn resistance against the
dominant culture.
Standing in both similarity and contrast is the tale of German immigrants
analyzed in Chandler Barton’s research report “Deutschland Uber Alles”. Barton
recounts how German immigrants contributed a great deal to American culture,
society, and settlement, as they were one of the first major waves of
immigration the USA. Barton states that misperceptions surrounded German
immigrants originated from “perceived connections to the ‘evil empires’ of
Kaiser Wilhelm and Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich”. As a result, German immigrants
were viewed with suspicion and apprehension, despite their cultural links to the
English culture that so pervaded America. Barton identifies language as a major
reason for why the English immigrants initially regarded the German immigrants
with disfavor, saying the “language barrier between the German immigrant and
naturalized WASP American provides the first natural barrier between
assimilation and acceptance”. With time, however, Barton recounts that the
Germans chose to assimilate by forming enclaves and communities where they
assimilated slowly through the inception of every new generation. Like the
Chinese and others mentioned in the course and Thomas’s and Green’s essays, the
Germans faced similar opposition to assimilation.
It appears as though all immigrant groups face opposition so long as they are
different in some way, whether it be skin color, language or culture. Therefore,
all cultures stand a chance at assimilation, such as the Hispanics, which Barton
states “seems capable of repeating the pattern of the Germans: arriving in high
numbers, clumping together in enclaves, being feared and ostracized by
“nativists”; yet, through only a few generations of adaptation and assimilation,
to become a key, integral part of American dominant culture and identity”. The
Hispanics, like the Germans, may very well indeed join the dominant culture as
did the Germans, which goes to exemplify that assimilation is never a simple and
quick process. Time must be lent to the task, as well as patience.
Green, Thomas, and Barton all offer unique and insightful analyses into the
plights of both immigrants and minorities as they try to assimilate. For Green,
the assimilation as portrayed by the literature comes in stages, but ultimately
the plight of the immigrant trying to assimilate is contrasted against that of
the minorities, who in some cases resist assimilation. Thomas does much the same
thing, though his approach focuses more around economic acquisition and the
necessity of work to the immigrant. And Barton’s work focuses on the German
immigrant and the misperceptions and accusations that hindered them in their
endeavor to assimilate. Ultimately, each essay displays as a test for both sides
of the participators. As mentioned by each of the selected works, assimilation
means isolation, accusation, and disadvantage for the immigrants, as well as the
challenge of facing something new and alien to the dominant culture. But by
acknowledging these obstacles and disadvantages, insight has been given into how
the process of assimilation (and resistance thereof) works, as well how the
shortcomings of the procedure can be corrected.
