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2019 Midterm1
(assignment) |
LITR 4340
American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
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Ronnie Abshier
The Rules for Successful Assimilation and Acceptance
Amongst many of the model assignments that I reviewed
from the courses of American Immigrant Literature’s past, one dominant theme
seems to stand out: What traits are present in those who are successful in
assimilating after immigration, and what traits contribute to unsuccessful
assimilation. Carrie Hutton’s “German
Immigrants and Their Journey to Being German-American,” Tammy Tran’s “Conflicts
and Solutions: A Comparison of Immigrant and Minority Narratives,” and Anthony
Randall’s “The Dominant Culture” all touch on what it takes for successful
assimilation as well as the difficulties that immigrants face in doing so.
The story of German
immigrants is one of successful immigration and assimilation into the dominant
culture. While they did face some resistance in the beginning, for example
Benjamin Franklin questioning whether Pennsylvania would become a colony of
aliens, many German ancestors these days aren’t even aware of their heritage,
according to Hutton, because of their successful assimilation. I found Carrie
Hutton’s research paper interesting because I only recently discovered that some
of my ancestry includes German, which is clearly a supporting idea to what
Hutton was arguing in her research—that Germans assimilated so well that they
became part of the dominant culture.
Tammy Tran
highlighted the difference between the narratives of those who immigrate to the
United States versus those who had the United States thrust upon them. While
minorities feel the pressure to assimilate being forced on them, true immigrants
are generally inclined to assimilate on their own in order to fit in with the
culture of the country they have chosen to move to. Tran describes this in her
essay by using “Soap and Water” by Anzia Yezierska. With this example, she
describes the difficulties that the narrator faced with the cleanliness expected
of the dominant culture. This particular entry interested me because until this
class, I was unaware of just how transfixed we as Americans are on the idea of
being clean. Although cleanliness is one of the factors that the dominant
culture is accustomed to seeing, there are many other ways that immigrants are
expected to assimilate such as learning the language, another example that Tran
also points out in her essay.
The ideas of Hutton
and Tran are supported in Anthony Randall’s midterm long essay from 2013. I
chose this essay because it was long, thorough, and offered insightful and well
thought out information that was organized well while still touching on the
battles that immigrants face. In his essay, Randall addresses the difference
between minorities and immigrants and explains some aspects of immigrant
assimilation. Randall claims that as “individuals of the immigrant culture move
into the ranks of the dominant culture, their sense of community and style of
living is similar to that of the dominant cultures...” Here he is explaining
that successful immigrant assimilation depends on adopting the dominant
culture’s style of living, also referencing Yezierska’s “Soap and Water” as a
means of driving his point home.
In all of the
above midterm essays and research papers, the authors did a good job of
explaining the different ways that successful assimilation has traditionally
been done in America. From learning the language, adopting the dominant
culture’s customs, to all-around flying under the radar and blending in,
immigrants to America are able to achieve success in the United States; and
according to Carrie Hutton,
Tammy Tran, and Anthony Randall, they
become indoctrinated by conforming to the standards that the dominant culture
expects from American citizens.
