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

Samuel Mathis

8 July 2010

The Cultural Immigrant Narrative

          The past five weeks have been an intense learning session for me.  Much like Kristin Hamon comments in her final exam “Learning to Listen to the Stories of Others,” I took this course out of partly selfish reasons.  I thought that I understood the immigrant tale of “rags to riches” and that every story would be similar.  How wrong I was.  Throughout this summer, I learned that the “rags to riches” dream most immigrants have is not something easily achieved, and very rarely do immigrants actually believe they have finally gained riches in the American Society.  What I found interesting about this pattern is that it was usually culturally based.  As we studied the Immigrant tale culturally, I found that those from similar cultures faced similar problems as compared to the dominant culture around them.  I was initially skeptical of basing the immigrant stories culturally instead of chronologically, but now I understand that the immigrant tale is timeless.  It does not need to be studied in relation to its place in history because it is history itself and can stand on its own merit.  This essay will examine what I learned based on the cultural separation this course took, and by separating the stories culturally, we are able to see that the “rags to riches” story is only truly achieved by relatively few immigrants.

          The first encounter with the “rags to riches” story came in our discussion of the dominant society narrative.  Andrew Carnegie’s story is a true example of the American Dream that most immigrants seemed to be searching for in subsequent stories.  Coming from Western Europe gave Carnegie and his family the benefit of fitting in with the already present dominant society.  He was able to achieve his dream of wealth, yet he still had to learn the value of hard work and the trial of hardships.  Once he became an adult, Carnegie gave away much of his money, but that was only after he knew the hardships of poverty.  We also see this “rags to riches” story in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night.  O’Neill puts a different twist on the story as the audience sees how Mr. Tyrone is terrified of losing any wealth that he has accumulated.  He found a way to provide for himself and his family, but instead of wise investments like Carnegie did, Tyrone spends his money foolishly and loses it often.  This is a subtle twist of the “rags to riches” story, but we can still see how the dominant society immigrant is able to achieve the American dream, even if he does not realize he has.

          In contrast with the dominant society, Asian immigrants usually imitate the “rags to riches” story, but they do not fully achieve the wealth that their dominant culture counterparts do.  Gish Jen’s “In the American Society” shows the effort of East Asian immigrants to incorporate themselves into the dominant society and their utter failure in the end.  Ralph Chang is very conscious of his finances and does not have the extra money to spend on nice things.  His suit, marked down ten percent of its original price, still has the price tag in it in case he wished to return the suit and get him money back (170).  This small fact shows the reader that he has not achieved the worry free aspect of the American dream like Carnegie, but instead must concern himself with prices and sales like Mr. Tyrone.  In “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs” by Chitra Divakaruni, Jayanti’s uncle is working towards the “American Dream” of becoming rich.  However, because of their association with the minorities of the area, Bikram-uncle has come to understand that “The Americans hate us. They’re always putting us down because we’re dark-skinned foreigners, kala admi. Blaming us for the… economy, for taking away their jobs” (75).  Jayanti soon learns that her uncle speaks truth, and she herself becomes unbelieving of the “American Dream,” understanding that it requires her to be white, just like the dominant society, before she will ever achieve her dreams.

          In my second research post, I delved into the terms and language used to describe Mexican immigrants and their journey to America.  I found that the dominant society has made these immigrants into a minority more so than an immigrant culture.  Mexican immigrants are described as dirty, lazy, and altogether undesirable.  I also learned that the term “alien” began being practiced in 1986.  This fact opened my eyes to the unfair treatment that Mexican immigrants are receiving.  Mexican Americans and immigrants are not given the opportunity to work towards the “American Dream” because of the language used to degrade and oppress them.  In “Barbie-Q” we read how the little girls do not get new dolls, but must make do with dolls that smell like smoke and have melted feet (Cisneros 253).  Cisneros presents to her reader a family that did not get the opportunity to achieve success like other cultural groups.  Because they were associated with illegal immigrants of their culture, their family was forced to work low paying jobs and were not given the financial stability to buy their children new toys.  However, this is not to say that I support illegal migration to the United States.  I still believe that any who desire to come to the U.S. should do so through the proper channels, but I don’t believe I will be as harsh in my judgment and language on those who do come here illegally.

          Another cultural group that faces opposition and is unable to achieve the “rags to riches” story because of their perceived race is the Afro-Caribbean culture.  Junot Díaz’s “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” shows how instead of working towards bettering himself, the narrator has become stagnant and passive in his situation.  This is not to say that he does not have ambitions or dreams, but the narrator has come to the realization that he will not be able to get more than the “government cheese,” “pictures of yourself with an Afro,” and “basket with all the crapped-on toilet paper” unless something drastic is done in his life (Díaz 276).  The narrator does not try to better himself or become someone.  He is content with who he is and puts on masks for the various girls that he dates.  Despite his happy-go-lucky attitude and charm, he is still an immigrant who is treated like a minority by the dominant society.  When he is with the Whitegirl he reminds himself to “[t]ell her that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more than you love your own” (Díaz 278).  The narrator has understood the same concept that Jayanti comes to realize.  They both know that the “rags to riches” story only works on those who are a part of or have fully assimilated into the dominant culture.

          This class was an eye opener for me.  I had always believed that the immigrant story of anyone who was published was the same “rags to riches” story with slight variations on the hardships gone through while working towards the riches aspect.  I never expected the “rags to riches” tale to be one sided in regards to the dominant culture.  By studying the immigrant tales based on their culture and nations of origin, I learned that each group that enters the U.S. is faced with varying circumstances and difficulties.  From the Native American attacks and harsh winters of the colonists to the inaccurate racial profiling of Afro-Caribbeans, each cultural group of immigrants faces unique hardships.  Instead of being a class where I just read and learned about the style and process of immigrant writings, I found a type of literature that is as varied and stylistically different as the authors themselves.  Each story, memoir, and poem offered a new example of how immigrants comprehend the United States and its people.  I do not believe I will ever view immigrant literature as just another type of story.  It is a living, changing form of storytelling that shows the changes in American society and highlights some of the unfair policies in our nation today.  Immigrant literature is a means of seeing the United States from a point of view beyond that of the dominant culture.