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Sample Student final exam answers 2019
(2019 final exam assignment) Part 1: Essays: dominant culture overview |
LITR 4340
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Kaytlynn Smith
14 May 2019
The Foundational Cultures of
America
Although America’s dominant culture
remains distinctively white in some aspects, Immigrant and Minority narratives
attest to the cultural diversity found within the U.S., revealing much about the
historical inequalities that permeate American society even today. Although
similar in terms of certain themes, Immigrant and Minority narratives diverge in
several ways, most noticeably at the point involving choice. Despite these key
differences, Immigrant and Minority narratives remain similar in terms of
alienation, risks of discrimination, hardships, and differing attitudes towards
assimilation into American society. Moreover, New World Immigrant narratives
express themes found within the cultural overlap that occurs within immigrant
and minority narratives as depicted with and against America’s dominant culture.
While today’s America is derived from a
plethora of unique cultures artfully stringed together, a sort of dominance
persists in terms of cultural influence in American society. Once immigrants
themselves, the early Puritan colonists help lay down the ground work for the
dominant culture that many other cultures assimilate to in the United States to
this day. While some writings reveal some sort of assimilation to native culture
as necessitated by survival, most early Anglo-immigrants held so strongly to
their own ideals, that they actually washed much of the rich Native American
culture away from what we now deem the “dominant American culture.” Some
persisting symbols connected to this dominant culture include the option of an
extended childhood, better access to formal and higher education, financial
stability, and the remnants of a once strongly enforced color-code that still
marks the privileges of simply being “unmarked” in American society.
To better understand the origin of
America’s dominant culture, we must first consider the religious ideals that
helped found much of America’s dominant culture’s ideals. Bradford’s
Of Plymouth Plantation showcases
these religious ideals, attributing the first wave of Anglo-immigrants to
America as an attempt to practice protestant religion and restore “ancient
purity, and recover their primitive order, liberty, and beauty.” These puritan
ideals reveal a sense of moral superiority and lend explanation to the expulsion
of Native American culture, as Puritans perceived anything different from their
ideals as “corrupt.” Additionally, America’s governmental framework,
The United States Constitution,
retains a religious tone in its role as guidelines for American governing, and
much like the bible, it is sectioned off using numbered sections and subsections
for readers to refer back to when needed. It’s this cultural climate that
influenced many of the privileges associated with today’s dominant culture in
the United States.
In her poem, Enid Dame, exemplifies the
privileges of dominant culture, specifically the ability to maintain an extended
childhood that allows individuals to explore different identities. Her poem,
The Road to Damascus, Maryland…,”
depicts a thirty year old white female experiencing what some would term an
existential crisis in the backseat of her parents’ car as she contemplates what
she will make of herself in terms of maintaining a stable future identity.
She confesses that she found “relief” when they changed the subject to food,
exemplifying a privilege that so many other Americans do not have. Dame also
alludes to the stark differences between the dominant culture and potentially
immigrant, minority, or even dominant culture sub-groups, described driving
“between rosebushes and trailer parks.” While she may take on what some may deem
an annoyingly privileged tone, Dame also manages to bring these issues to light
in her writing, bringing these overlooked differences to the forefront for
readers to critique and analyze for themselves. Through her writing, Dame
exemplifies one of the biggest key indicators that elevate the dominant culture
in terms of privilege: choice.
While the narratives portray some
overlap in terms of defining “choice” by exhibiting moments of gray area that
suggest limited choice, minority narratives typically involve forceful removal
of people from their indigenous or home land, like the Native Americans and
African Americans that descend from slaves. To truly contrast the immigrant and
minority narrative, a black and white definition of choice must be instated to
specify that immigrant narratives result from the choice to leave a native
country, in many cases for a brighter future, while minority narratives,
described as “voiceless and choiceless,” lack any form of choice. Most notably
driving this idea of choice, the perception of “the American Dream” largely
constitutes whether the narrative falls under minority or immigrant. In her
short story, Soap and Water, Anzia
Yezierska exemplifies the ways in which “the American Dream” drives immigrant
narratives, pushing herself to obtain a professional education, earning her a
secure position in American society and working towards socio-economic success.
Yezierska describes the American Dream, claiming “the impossible was a magnet to
draw the dreams,” explaining that the American Dream represented the only form
of hope that pushed her immigrant narrative forward.
Similarly, Anchee Min’s
The Cooked Seed allows insights to
the immigrant narrative, while also exhibiting the gray areas in the idea of
choice that allow her story to relate to her roommate, Takisha’s, minority
narrative. After Takisha accuses Min of not understanding “what it is like to be
owned,” to which Min reflects that she didn’t actually know what it was like to
not be owned, recounting her harrowing experiences under the Communist Party of
China. Although Min’s only path to survival lies in her emigration to a foreign
country to escape the dangers of the oppressive Chinese government, Min still
ultimately possesses the choice to leave that minority stories simply do not
contain. In The Interesting Narrative of
the Life of Olaudah Equiano, . . . the African, Equiano describes his
capture and removal from Africa into slavery as “fate,” suggesting a level of
choice that simply does not exist in his circumstances. In fact, Equiano later
reveals the motivation to assimilate to the dominant culture actually lies in
his longing to return to Africa after gaining freedom. In this sense, the
immigrant narrative often revolves around an individual’s ability to take their
fate into their own hands, while minority stories largely result from
involuntary removal from their homeland and their attempts to navigate their
circumstances.
Like Olaudah Equiano, many New
World Immigrants express a longing for their home-land, but attempt to balance
this cultural perseveration with assimilation, often finding themselves stuck
between two (or more) different cultures. Although New World immigrants
voluntarily immigrate to the United States, they have likely suffered
involuntary exploitation and/or oppression at the hands of Western explorers,
which grants much overlap between the New World Immigrant narrative with the
immigrant and minority narrative. In Paul Marshall’s
“The Making of a Writer: From the Poets in the
Kitchen,” the author’s maternal figures assimilate into American society,
adopting the English language, but add layers of meaning and context to the
words that somehow preserve their cultural values. Similarly, Martin Espada, in
his poem Coca-Cola and Coco Frio,
exemplifies the ways in which cultures preserve ancestral roots despite moving
away to a new country, referring to his family home-land as “Puerto Rico, island
of family folklore”.
The poem expresses a battle between
his culture in Brooklyn and his cultural ties to Puerto Rico, using maternal
imagery of the homeland to distinguish his mixed loyalties. While many New World
Immigrants left their homeland by choice, many express a longing to return, as
indicated by their frequent visits back and forth between America and their
family origins.
In terms of proximity, the
dominant culture does not uphold such loyalty to their homeland; rather, many
white-European descendants base much of their loyalty into different regions of
America, most noticeably in the Scotch-Irish attachment to Appalachia. In his
novel, Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance
writes about both the positive and negative traits observed in the “intense
sense of loyalty” and “fierce dedication to family and country” that make up the
foundational ideals of Scotch-Irish American culture (3). Although this
subculture bears many traits comparable to that of immigrant and minority
narratives, like crippling poverty, the Scotch-Irish have the upper hand in
terms of being “unmarked,” allowing them some privileges that differentiate
their experiences from that of immigrant and minority narratives.
Another way to examine the differences
and similarities between minority and immigrant narratives stem from
receptiveness and aptitude in assimilating to the dominant culture. In her poem,
Blonde White Women, Patricia Smith
recounts her apparent desire to resemble the blonde white women of her world,
revealing a growing awareness to the cultural and visual markers that separate
her from the dominant culture. Smith recounts attempts to assimilate as a child,
wearing a dull gray mop head to cover her “nappy” hair, and rubbing the pink
crayon on her hand “until the skin broke,” revealing the extent to which society
conditioned her to inherently resent her natural appearance and culture.
However, the poem shifts in perspective, as seen through her diction, indicating
a growing sense of self and confidence, noting that she can find no shade of
crayon “darker, more beautiful,” than the color of her own skin. Characteristic
of a true minority story, Smith’s struggle to find her place in a society of
white women exemplifies the struggles and discrimination that minority cultures
experience, where these cultures often find themselves resisting assimilation to
a society that does not necessarily allow them to assimilate due to the cultural
markings that stamp minorities as different from the dominant culture.
Similarly, some immigrant narratives
reveal instances of resistance towards cultural assimilation to the dominant
culture, as seen in Le Ly Hayslip’s,
Child of War, Woman of Peace. After leaving Vietnam and marrying an American
man, despite her best efforts to assimilate to her new family’s culture, she
faces constant criticism and speculation that further alienates her from the
dominant culture. However, after receiving a vision of “purity” at a state park,
Hayslip’s motivation to assimilate reignites: “I was starving now and ready for
anything from the great American banquet” (IV.II 125). While her cultural
practices and even her image and dress marked her as different against the
dominant culture, Hayslip’s narrative embodies the immigrant narrative in that
she rediscovers the American Dream and thus readily accepts the path to
assimilation.
Because of the proximity of New World
Immigrants to their homeland, land outside of the U.S. within the western
hemisphere, their aptitude to assimilate becomes complicated as loyalties often
become divided between the homeland and the U.S. In Paule Marshall’s “To Da-Duh,
in Memoriam,” she reconnects with her homeland through visits to her grandmother
in Barbados, taking in her grandmother’s cultural teachings, while sharing her
experiences from New York. In the short story, Marshall suggests her longing for
Barbados in her artistic recreations of the “swirling Van Gogh suns and palm
trees” (IA 377). Despite her longstanding residency in New York and ties to
American culture, Marshall exhibits a longing for her family’s homeland that
often characterize New World immigrant narratives.
Generational and academic progression
can serve as another key indicator that differentiates an immigrant narrative
from a minority narrative, often exhibiting a strong sense of familial
obligation, educational advancement, while balancing cultural assimilation to
the dominant culture. In J. Christine Moon’s “What Color Would You Like,
Ma’am?,” she exemplifies the generational progression through protagonist,
Thien, who carries the evident burden to succeed in the STEM field, carrying his
family up the ranks of America’s social ladder, while also maintain his familial
duties to the family and their business. Thien’s narrative explores the
pressures experienced in “model minority” stories, where the children of
immigrant parents, likely Asian, aim towards academic success for the sake of
their parents’ sacrifices to initiate the possibilities towards a better life
through their immigration to the New World. Evident in the scene where he
returns the sixty dollars given to him by his mother, Thien displays a strong
obligation to his family and awareness of his parents’ sacrifices, both cultural
and financial.
In contrast, Toni Bambara’s
The Lesson paints a different
attitude towards assimilation and education, characteristic of a minority
narrative. In this text, Bambara recounts her own childish perspective growing
up, laughing at, and even hating, Ms. Moore, the neighborhood symbol of
education (IA 145). While it is not necessarily Bambara’s childhood attitude
towards education that constitutes a minority narrative, Bambara’s story reveals
the instinctive feeling that education, especially for African American youths,
seemed unnecessary and unnatural, interrupting the usual flow of routine that
Bambara and Sugar followed on a daily basis. Reflecting on the lesson, Bambara
implies a sense of internalized anger towards the unequal distribution of wealth
that Ms. Moore revealed to the group, noticing “something weird is going on,” as
indicated by a weird feeling in her chest (IA 151). While immigrant narratives
typically showcase the struggle to achieve high academic and financial success
for the sake of the previous generations’ sacrifices, minority narratives paint
a different picture in terms of reception towards education, based more so on
the societal conditioning that proper education is reserved solely for the
dominant culture, thus thwarting minorities from feeling natural in seeking a
higher education that society deems unnecessary on their behalf.
The early puritan immigrants of America
also resisted the then established cultural norms, considering anything outside
of their belief system “corrupt.” According to Bradford’s
Of Plymouth Plantation, Puritan
settlers maintained a disdain for their childrens’ attempted assimilation to
American culture, worrying of the potential degeneration of their offspring,
much to the “dishonor of God” (ch.4) This resistance to assimilation marks some
similarity to other minority and some immigrant narratives, although the puritan
ideals came to be the foundation for America’s current dominant culture.
Many New World Immigrants, especially
those of Afro-Caribbean decent, experience similar circumstances concerning
pre-determined educational advancement per the dominant culture, but while they
may suffer some repercussions of American discriminate color coding, New World
Immigrants experience a level of ambiguity within their ethnicities and can
sometimes use this ambiguity to their advantage. In his article “How to Date a
Browngirl,” Junot Diaz attempts to hide aspects of what he seems to feel are the
unattractive parts of his Dominican culture to appeal to a girl. Diaz also uses
his racial ambiguity to his advantage noting, “she’ll say I like Spanish guys,
and even though you’ve never been to Spain, say, I like you” (IA 278).
Similarly, in Edwidge Danticat’s “Children of the Sea,” she briefly refers to
the American color-coding that affects immigrant acceptance into America when
one of the passengers on the boat to the U.S. remarks “now we will never be
mistaken for Cubans,” (IA 101). Because New World immigrant migration to the
U.S. remains relatively new in the history of immigration trends, Americans
often group New World immigrants with existing immigrants or minorities using a
color-code of skin tones.
Another way to differentiate between
immigrant and minority narratives lies in the working class’s ability to relate
to the immigrant narratives of striving for socio-economic success, especially
when reflecting on their own distant ties to the immigrant narrative. In her
article, “The American Society,” Gisha Jen recounts Mrs. Lardner, a member of
the local country club who insists on advocating for Jen’s mother’s membership,
referencing her own Jewish ancestry (IA 162). Mrs. Lardner attempts to identify
with Jen’s family’s plight to assimilate and fit in to the dominant culture,
drawing from her own connection to her father, a third-wave Jewish immigrant,
declaring this information a “secret,”. Through her attempt to identify with
Jen’s family’s assimilation process, Mrs. Lardner reflects the dominant
culture’s tendency to misunderstand the true extent to which immigrants suffer
discrimination and difficulties in assimilating to American society, due to
their own lack of proximity to their immigrant ancestors. In this way, dominant
cultures tend to glorify immigrant narratives, largely fixating on the “rags to
riches” stories that drive capitalist society forward.
Similarly, Anzia Yezierska’s
Bread Givers explores the narcissism
that can permeate retellings of old immigrant stories that embody the rags to
riches stories, especially in Max’s story, comparing his eagerness to share his
story to “inviting him to a feast to ask him to talk about himself”.
Additionally, Yezierska implies a level of embellishment in Max’s rags to riches
story, as indicated by the rich language used to describe the American dream as
experienced by Max. In this story, Yezierska relays a true rags to riches story,
while using subtle shifts in diction and figurative language to suggest the ways
in which people can glorify immigrant narratives, typically very artfully but
sometimes unrealistically as well.
While New World immigrants tend to come
to America for socio-economic advancement and better lives for their families,
they also face complications assimilating to American society, like finding
work, pursing higher education, and climbing the economic ladder, stemming from
their complicated loyalties to tradition and American culture. In “How to Date a
Brown Girl,” Diaz refers to a story about how tear gas cans cracked in one of
the local’s basements, dosing the entire neighborhood in “military strength
stuff” (IA 277). Diaz advises the reader to leave out the part where his mother
immediately recognized the smell from the year the United States invaded his
homeland, implicating some feelings of resentment towards America. By leaving
this information out, Diaz tries to impress the American girl, who may interpret
such implications of resentment towards America unattractive. In doing so, Diaz
exemplifies the struggle to assimilate because of obligations to both American
culture and Dominican culture that permeates so many New World Immigrant
narratives.
While immigrant, New World Immigrant,
and minority narratives share many similarities that unite through the shared
plight of otherness, and the struggles to exist in a society against another,
dominant culture, key differences help define and shape the cultural backdrops
of contemporary American society, revealing historical progression towards
cultural tolerance. Although American society still requires much work in terms
of fostering a culture of tolerance, one way that society can continue to
progress is by knowing the differences between the immigrant and minority
narratives, and how both narratives serve as sources of immense cultural
perseverance and strength that can help promote a society appreciative of
cultural diversity.
