Essay 1: Review, focus, and extend overall seminar experience to demonstrate learning and preview potential applications in research, teaching, or creative writing.

Julie Garza

Multicultural Literature:

Understanding the Differences in Immigrant and Minority Literature through Research

     My overall learning experience in Immigrant Literature is demonstrated primarily through research. Research was the key to understanding the misconceptions, theories, and the problematic themes that occur in minority and immigrant groups. Through research, I attempted to comprehend the course’s multicultural landscape. This essay will primarily cover class objectives 1d-Immigrant Literature celebrates difference, 3d-the overlap between immigrant and minority identities, 3e-New World Immigrants, and 4-the dominant culture . These objectives, with the aid of four immigrant/minority narratives, will ultimately answer the following question: What are the multicultural differences between immigrants, minorities, and the dominant culture?

     There are several pros and cons of organizing multicultural literature in terms of the immigrant story as a cultural narrative. One downside is that the immigrant narrative resembles the minority narrative (Objective 3d). Typically, minorities and immigrants remain distinct from one another, but often the immigrant narrative embodies qualities similar to the minority tale, and as a whole the immigrant narrative doesn't exist entirely independent of the minority narrative, but defines itself against the minority narrative. Similar distinctions will be presented in the narratives below when referring to one another’s culture, “we-they, etc” (Objective 1d). Primarily, American immigrant literature celebrates difference by surveying texts from or about a wide range of American ethnic groups (Objective 1d). The minority narrative appears in Nicholasa Mohr’s immigrant narrative “The English Lesson.” On page 26, there is a conflict between two immigrants, Diego Torres and Aldo Fabrizi. Fabrizi is eager to become an American citizen, while Torres wants nothing to do with America (Objectives 2c and 2d). Torres is proud to be Dominican, and assimilating to the dominant culture would force him to reject his native country. Torres represents the minority narrative, because he resists assimilation and stands in opposition to the dominant culture (Objective 3c). Another problem with the immigrant narrative as a cultural narrative is that immigrant narratives are not only celebrated, but they are criticized too. For example, “The English Lesson” demonstrates ambivalence to gender roles. On page 30, Lali is at the luncheonette and her husband Rudi asks her what she learned in class. She is timid, shy and much younger than her husband, which causes her to depend on him.

Lately Rudi had begun to reflect on his decision to marry such a young woman. They had little in common and certainly seldom spoke about anything but business. People would accuse him in jest of over-working his young wife. He assured them there was no need, because she had the endurance of a country mule (30).

It appears that Rudi adheres to traditional gender roles, and does not give Lali an opportunity to be independent. He controls Lali, yet she does not even seem to notice. His dominance extends to the field of education and literacy as well: Lali wants to learn English for herself, but Rudi views English literacy solely as a means of improving his business. Rudi's influence on Lali hinders her assimilation process and exemplifies the negative side of the immigrant narrative as a cultural narrative. The more positive aspects of the immigrant narrative represent the American Dream and conversion (Objectives 2g and 3). In “The English Lesson,” Mrs. Hamma discusses her own immigrant background (22). Her grandparents were poor immigrants from Germany in search of a better a life. They came to America hoping to work their way up the ladder (Objectives 1 and 2d). Mrs. Hamma’s student, Joseph Fong, also resembles the immigrant seeking the American dream. Fong came from Hong Kong in hopes of improving his position in society, but also to experience the American dream. “I taking the course in Basic English to speak good and improve my position better in this country. Also to be eligible to become American citizen” (24). In contrast to Torres, Fong wants to assimilate to the dominant culture and is eager to learn English, (Objective 4). The overall goal for the immigrants in “The English Lesson” is to improve themselves through literacy, but there are instances of resistance (Objective 3c), especially in Torres’ case.

     Like “The English Lesson,” Anzia Yezierska’s Russian immigrant narrative “Soap and Water” explains the negative experiences of immigrants in the American education system. Both narratives include elements of the sunny side of the immigrant narrative, but they examine the unavoidable barriers that immigrants go through while achieving the American Dream. Also, these immigrant narratives represent objective 1d-Immigrant Literature celebrates difference. In “Soap and Water” a Russian immigrant woman comes to America in hopes of an education but finds herself treated poorly. Her diploma is withheld by the dean of the college, Miss Whiteside, because of her unkempt personal appearance. It seems that everywhere she goes “big fences” stand in front of her dreams: “I came because I longed for the larger life, for the stimulus of intellectual associations. But everywhere I went I saw big fences put up against me, with the brutal signs: 'No trespassing. Get off grass'” (paragraph 20). She receives her diploma, but she finds trouble finding a job, and feels that she slipped through the cracks of education. She wants to be clean, but her job prevents this. She irons the shirtwaists of the “white man,” and clothes them better than herself. This is similar to the image of cleaning toilets in “The English Lesson.” Similarly, there are certain obstacles or barriers preventing the character in each story from assimilating to the dominant culture. The Russian immigrant in “Soap and Water” dreams of America, but her experiences shatter her faith in the dominant culture. She notes that people in the laundry room where she worked held certain grudges against her because she was attempting to improve her station in life by receiving her diploma. She felt constricted while working in the laundry room, but frees herself from the pressures imposed by her fellow immigrants when she leaves her job. Finally, after meeting with Miss Van Ness, she fully assimilates to the dominant culture.

Just as contact with Miss Whiteside had tied and bound all my thinking processes, so Miss Van Ness unbound and freed me and suffused me with light. My past was the forgotten night. Sunrise was all around me. I went out from Miss Van Ness’s office, singing a song of new life: ‘America! I found America.’ (Paragraphs 36, 38, 39)

Whereas “Lesson” promotes education, goals, and assimilation, “Soap” focuses on the downfalls of assimilation. Immigrants come to America ignorant of the social pressures placed on them. In the case of the Russian immigrant, she did not believe enough in herself, which hindered her assimilation process. The story ends on a positive note, but she could have avoided much of the grief she endures by finding hope in herself prior to the visit with Miss Van Ness. When the positive and negative sides of both narratives are examined, it becomes apparent that they have certain distinctions, but they agree on one factor: celebrating difference (Objective 1d). In addition, both immigrant narratives mimic the American Dream and conversion narrative by expressing the immigrant story as one of opportunity.  The old world of oppression and inequality stands in opposition to the new world of liberation and equality.

     Some cultural groups are excluded or slighted in the assimilation process, such as the Native American Indians in Louise Erdrich’s minority narrative “American Horse.” Erdrich’s narrative exhibits the potential limits of the immigrant/minority experience as an organizing narrative of multicultural American literature. The narrative deals with setbacks, tests, and resistance to the dominant culture (Objectives 3c and 4). Albertine experiences dissatisfaction with the American Dream, as she lives the “American Nightmare” instead (Objective 3). She is an example of the homogenized American identity, living with a sense of loss and little change in her native beliefs. In my Midterm Essay 2, “Assimilation and Resistance in Minority and Immigrant Narratives: The American Dream versus the American Nightmare,” I explained the downfalls that Albertine goes through as Native American Indian. Albertine is a perfect representative of the slighted minority group. She is an alcoholic who will not assimilate to the dominant culture and subjects her son, Buddy, to a harsh, impoverished life. As stated in my midterm, loss and survival are recurring themes in Native American narratives, but they also sometimes appear in immigrant narratives, such as “Soap and Water.” Although I did not want Buddy to leave his mother, the abduction of Buddy is necessary. Unfortunately, Albertine is left in the darkness of her alcoholism, and continues to live the American Nightmare.

Altogether, “American Horse” presents us with an example of a slighted multicultural group, and exhibits qualities of Objective 3d—the overlap between immigrant and minority identities. In addition to Essay 2, my Research Post 1: “Literacy in Progress: Education and Literacy Rates among Minority and Immigrant Cultures,” discusses the need for literacy among minorities and immigrants. Literacy is the key to success in motivating education, but it is also a barrier for the immigrant/minority groups that resist assimilation. Generally, immigrants assimilate and lose their ethnic identity within 1-3 generations (“The English Lesson”), but minorities remain distinct or maintain distinct communities (“American Horse”) (Objective 3c). I learned that there are not only resemblances between immigrant and minority narratives, but there are differences too (Objective 3d). This overlap between identities works in positive and negative ways, as seen in “Soap and Water” and with Diego Torres in “The English Lesson.” If an immigrant does not want to assimilate to the dominant culture, then he or she runs the risk of “downward assimilation” (Objective 3c). This is typical in New World immigrants, because instead of climbing the dominant culture’s educational-economic ladder, any ethnic group (including whites) may assert difference by choosing separatism, tradition, male privilege, separate language, and other behaviors that resist assimilation and advancement. Also, New World immigrants create an identity somewhere between the immigrant and minority patterns (Objective 3e). “Downward assimilation” is present in the narratives listed above, and several characters in the narratives are slighted or excluded, but it occurs more often in New World immigrant cultures and narratives.

     In Junot Diaz’s New World immigrant narrative “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, and Halfie” the narrator describes the different approaches to dating girls of different races and cultures. Although his descriptions of dating are grotesque and in some ways offensive, he exhibits qualities of Objective 3e-New World Immigrants create an identity somewhere between immigrant and minority patterns. Diaz’s narrative describes the “Immigrants’ Second Reason for Less Commitment to Assimilation,” (White, Online Syllabi). The events that cause a negative assimilation process to the dominant culture take various sides and parties. Sometimes, immigrants view America as a “policeman” or a “bully” in addition to being a “land of equality and opportunity.” Also, New World immigrants can find themselves “in between” or creating a new immigrant identity that doesn’t completely fit the model immigrant or the minority identity, (White, Online Syllabi). In “How to Date a Browngirl” the narrator discusses putting back the government cheese, so that his mother will not yell at him. The reference to the government cheese is an example of America helping minorities and immigrants. The narrator creates a new immigrant identity, by labeling every girl he dates. He places certain labels on these girls, which act as rules to dating. The rules soon become a control method for what to do and what not to do. Basically, the narrator has certain criteria for dating in America and is somewhere “in between” a new immigrant identity, (Objective 3e).

     To conclude, I may have connected these four narratives too “loosely,” quite possibly crossing the lines that define them as immigrant and minority narratives. This came to my attention when answering the question that guides this essay: What are the multicultural differences between immigrants, minorities, and the dominant culture? After much meticulous research, I stumbled across Kristen Hanon’s final exam essay “Learning to Listen to the Stories of Others.” Hannon’s essay describes the problems with associating and organizing our seminar subject in terms of the immigrant story as a cultural narrative:

The terms “minority culture” and “immigrant culture” are not interchangeable. This is one of the first epiphanies Dr. White created for me during this summer session. I teach an entire unit on “cultural identity,” and cannot count how many times I must have ignorantly lumped narratives together that were dissimilar. Objective 2 helped me understand the immigrant narrative by explaining that ‘no single text tells the whole story of immigration, but the larger narrative is always implicit’ (paragraph 2).

I reviewed Objective 2 repeatedly while reading the narratives discussed above, yet have come to the understanding that Hanon’s belief is a possible approach to observing this class seminar’s subject. Although the immigrant narrative resembles the minority narrative, it is important to remember that typically, minorities and immigrants remain distinct from one another. As Objective 1 d state, some immigrant narratives may independently separate themselves from each other to “celebrate difference.” In addition, as a whole the immigrant narrative doesn't exist entirely independent of the minority narrative, but defines itself against the minority narrative.