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

Pam Richey

Creating the Mosaic of the Immigrant Narrative

Early in the semester we discounted Crevecoeur’s analogy of the American culture as a melting pot of immigrant cultures. As the immigrant narrative leaves the more traditional narrative of cut ties with the old world, come to the new, work hard, assimilate and obtain the American dream to be replaced with different stories of sacrifice and compromise between American culture and the old world the melting pot the analogy breaks down. The analogy of a mosaic instead took its place. The more I contemplated this analogy, the more I began to understand the complex nature of the immigrant narrative. What is a mosaic? It is small fragments in different shapes, sizes and colors merging together to create a larger picture. Not all of the materials may match, they may not fit perfectly together, but when viewed from a distance they create a clearer picture. The American immigrant narrative, like a mosaic, merges not only different ethnicities but individuals as well to create a multi-textured image of America.

In a mosaic the fragments making up the whole rarely match or fit together perfectly. Often there are gaps and overlaps. The same can be said of the immigrant and his or her individual narrative. Each individual has a different story to tell, different experiences that create them and their edges, shaping them and their narrative into who they are. One of the first short stories we read in class, “The English Lesson”, is a perfect example of this mosaic culture. The students in the story are the fragments waiting to find a place in the bigger picture. Each student has a different narrative that brought them to the class room to learn English although most have similar stories the edges do not fit perfectly. Diego Torres who does not want to become a citizen, just make enough to go back home, rubs Aldo Fabrizi the wrong way. Yet, by the end of the course they are seen to be arguing in a friendly way at the back of the classroom. They may not fit together perfectly in the mosaic of the classroom or the bigger mosaic of American culture, but the overlaps and gaps in the picture create a more textured classroom culture. They may always fundamentally disagree on the merits of citizenship, but their argument shows that the class made them think and possibly reevaluate their beliefs because someone else questioned them. The fact that they take the time to argue shows they will not follow Crevecoeur’s pattern to melt into a new man and take on new opinions and new ideals. They have instead created a new pattern within the mosaic. Similarly in “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” two cultures come together to overlap and create a deeper texture. When the Native Americans ask the priest for the holy water, they combine two cultures. It is not something that is compulsory, I sincerely doubt that all Native Americans will start going to Mass to ask a priest for holy water. It was an individual overlapping of cultures that only happens when we are considerate of the emerging picture.

The mosaic artist may also take two fragments that are from the same source and rework them to fit into different aspects of the mosaic. It is not just different ethnicities that create this texturizing of the pattern, but also different individuals. Jake and Gitl both come from the same background in Yekl: A Tale From the New York Ghetto, but each reacts to immigration in a different way thus creating a new pattern from the fact that they have been pulled apart. They are fragments chipped off of the old world that once fit together. But Jake, reshaped by his own initiative no longer fits near Gitl, his wife from the old world. He now finds himself in a pattern that she will not or chooses not to fit into. Both find their places in the overall mosaic, but at different ends of the spectrum. Jake finds himself with a woman he is unsure he wants in a new life that his assimilation has brought him and Gitl settles into her modified assimilation with a new husband that values the traditions she wishes to hold onto.

One of the tricks a mosaic artist may use is to add fragments of different colors to flesh out what would otherwise be a flat two dimensional piece of art. In “The English Lesson”,  Mrs. Hamma has already been placed in the picture firmly ensconced with the dominant culture. Yet she still adds her own color to the dominant culture through the immigrant narrative in her past. The story of her grandfather’s immigration gives not only a little depth to her character, but also helps to flesh out the dominant culture she represents. Yes, she may actively try to suppress her students as they tell their narratives, especially when they veer off the track she has laid out as evidenced in her attempts to curtail Diego’s anti-citizenship speech and William’s digression into the description of his homeland.  In “In the American Society” another large dollop of immigrant narrative is flung into the midst of the dominant culture. Although when the Chang family enters the dominant culture’s pattern it has a more dramatic effect. Instead of enhancing the dominant culture, they end up highlighting the flaws. When the drunk man accosts Mr. Chang at the party the dominant culture ends up looking bigoted and flawed and instead highlights the dignity in Mr. Chang who instead of allowing himself to be belittled takes a stand.

A mosaic is never perfect. Sometimes there are gaps where the mortar or glue shows through. This is where the imperfect parts of American culture show through, the American Nightmare, the Color Code, the political policies. In “The Lesson” Miss Moore highlights these discrepancies by showing the children the world of the dominant culture. These children will not be invited into this world like the Chang children were. They are on the outside with their faces pressed against the glass now that Miss Moore has shown them the window is there. Some may fight for inclusion in the dominant culture or at least acceptance, but most will ignore the ugly gaps and focus on the picture. Or as Cana Hauerland put it in her final last year “after enduring the struggles faced for equality by these minorities, you will be awoken to a new American Immigrant commonly labeled a minority because of the color code, a resemblance in skin color.” In my own studies into the Afro-Caribbean immigrant I have found that rather than prejudices within the dominant culture affect political policies. Despite the fact that American interference has created the poverty that most Afro-Caribbean countries are struggling to free themselves from they are portrayed as lesser nations and many are deported as soon as they arrive. And we as a country are deprived of a piece of the mosaic that could have been.