Marissa Holland

June 18, 2014

The American Immigrant Narrative

            In his article The Triumph of Narrative: Storytelling in the Ages of Mass Culture, author Robert Fulford states, “There is no such thing as just a story. A story is always charged with meaning; otherwise it is not a story, merely a sequence of events…There is no such thing as a value-free story.” The need to tell not merely a story but one’s own story seems to be an essential human trait primarily when one has been through some sort of hardship. The American immigrant is not exempt from this need. The American Immigrant narrative is the personal stories of those who have left their native countries and made the voyage in search of the quintessential “American Dream.” These stories have helped to shape our histories and narratives which in return have created the culture in which we all have lived. While one personal immigrant narrative cannot possibly speak for the entire population, it does provide insight into the experiences of the immigrant thus creating a story and not the so-called “sequence of events.”

            While each immigrant narrative is personal in nature, there are key characteristics that are present throughout (Obj 2c). The first is that all immigrants have made the decision to voluntarily leave their country. This decision is motivated by a variety of factors depending on the background of the immigrant and country of origin but none the less the decision was made by the individual. These immigrants are interested in leaving behind their previous culture in search of a new society with more opportunity. In his letter “What is an American?” Crevecoeur writes:

I wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an enlightened Englishmen, when he first lands on this continent… He must necessarily feel a share of national pride, when he views the chains of settlements which embellishes these extended shores. When he says to himself, this is the work of my countrymen, who, when convulsed by factions, afflicted by a variety of miseries and wants, restless and impatient, took refuge here…

Crevecoeur is highlighting a notion that true “work” has gone into the process of immigrating to America. Many immigrants must save the funds to bring their family to this new country in a certain order known as “chain migration” most often beginning with the father, then mother at a later date, and lastly the children. These immigrants have had to work and make sacrifices in order to begin their voyage: they view America as their reward. Crevecoeur continues:

Here they become men:…here they rank as citizens. By what invisible power has this surprising metamorphosis been performed? By that of laws and that of their industry. The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption; they receive ample rewards for their labours.

Immigrants have chosen to work in order to venture to America; what begins now is their actual voyage. This voyage will have its own stages and hardships.

            Andrew Carnegie’s immigrant narrative is an excellent example of Crevecoeur’s notion that a narrative is more like a story and not merely a sequence of events. Although Carnegie is writing of his immigration, there are certain literary qualities to his writing that allow for it to be enjoyed as literature. This comes from the details and emotions he employs when expressing the events. He spends a great deal of time describing his boat voyage from his home in Scotland to America. Carnegie himself tends to complicate the immigrant narrative in that he was not so excited about leaving his home in his native country. Economically his family needed to migrate but Carnegie had many emotional ties to his home. As he was boarding the ship and leaving port, he states:

On the morning of the day we started from beloved Dumfermline, in the omnibus that ran upon the coal railroad to Charleston, I remember that I stood with tearful eyes looking out of the window until Dumfermline vanished from view, the last structure to fade being the grand and sacred old Abbey. During my first fourteen years of absence my thought was almost daily, as it was that morning, “When shall I see you again?”…

As I was about to be taken from the small boat to the steamer, I rushed to Uncle Lauder and clung round his neck, crying out: “I cannot leave you! I cannot leave you!” I was torn from him by a kind sailor who lifted me up on the deck of the steamer. Upon my return visit to Dunfermline this dear old fellow, when he came to see me, told me it was the saddest parting he had ever witnessed.

While Carnegie exemplifies negative emotions associated with leaving the native country, there are plenty of narratives where the immigrant is eager to leave behind their old ways and is optimistic and positive about the changes that are to come. In “In the Land of Free” written by Sui Sin Far, the main female character and her son are viewing America for the first time while still on board the ship bringing them to their new home. She states to her son,” See, Little One--the hills in the morning sun. There is thy home for years to come. It is very beautiful and thou wilt be very happy there.” While some immigrant narratives can be seen as looking back on what they are leaving behind, many are more often than not looking forward to the opportunities to come.

            The third stage of the immigrant narrative is when the immigrant has arrived but has not yet assimilated. Because they have not been fully accepted into the new dominant culture, they are faced with resistance and discrimination. The dominant culture dictates the characteristics and mindsets that will need to be adopted in order for the immigrant to truly assimilate, or “become American.” With the ideals of the American Dream being challenged, the immigrant does not always know how to handle or how to make sense of the new culture they are being faced with.

The shock of this experience is the most widely known characteristic of the immigrant. (Obj. 1) In the short story “Soap and Water” by Anzia Yezierska, the main character has come to American in order to earn her education. She has completed the requirements and had worked very hard to put herself through school but is faced with the dominant culture discrimination by the school’s Dean who refuses to give her the diploma based on her appearance:

She told me that my skin looked oily, my hair unkempt, and my finger-nails sadly neglected. She told me that I was utterly unmindful of the little niceties of the well-groomed lady. She pointed out that my collar did not set evenly; my belt was awry, and there was a lack of freshness in my dress. And she ended with: “Soap and water are cheap. Anyone can be clean.”

What is interesting to note is that the main character actually works in the laundry where she cleans clothes before and after class. The exhaustion of this work has left her with little energy to find the time to groom herself. It is ironic that the dominant culture, personified by the Dean, is expecting the immigrant class to assimilate to its ideals of how a woman should be presented but at the same time they are also expected to hold the grueling jobs such as the laundry at the same time. It leaves the immigrant feeling helpless; however, it is the relentless positivity of the immigrant that sets their narratives apart from others. Although she eventually graduates with her degree, the main character is still unable to find employment for the very reasons labeled by the dean. Even through this, she states:

And so, though my faith in this so-called America was shattered, yet underneath, in the sap roots of my soul, burned the deathless faith that America is, must be, somehow, somewhere. In the midst of my bitterest hate and rebellions, visions of America rose over me, like songs of freedom of an oppressed people.

It is this positive outlook that drives the immigrant to push passed the minority- like discriminations that they face upon arrival and venture towards full assimilation into the dominant culture.

            In her short story “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs,” author Chitra Divakaruni writes of a young Indian woman who also comes to America in search of her education. This woman, Jayanti, is known as a “model minority” meaning she is hardworking and will most likely accomplish more success than the average American (Obj 2b). This does not mean she is exempt from the discriminations of the immigrant. Although she is from a well off family in India, Jayanti is faced with the poverty and discrimination her family has faced in their dangerous, American neighborhood. Her aunt and uncle are quick to try and sway her vision of America as the land of opportunity. Although she is aware of their living situation and the hardships of their daily life, Jayanti still imagines a world where she attends college:

dressed in a plaid skirt and a matching sweater. My legs, elegant in knee-high boots like the ones I have seen on one of the afternoon TV shows that Aunt likes, are casually crossed. My bobbed hair swings around my face as I spiritedly argue against the handsome professor’s interpretation of Dreiser’s philosophy.

Although she is aware that her aunt and uncle have not successfully assimilated to the dominant culture, she is undeterred and feels as if she can and still dreams of herself in the terms of this culture.

            It is possible for full assimilation to take place for an immigrant culture: however, it is not an immediate process. The first generation of immigrants are usually characterized as “clueless” to the ideals of the dominant culture, easily understood as they are the first in their family to have such contact. The second generation is the group that will write about their experiences. This generation is the bridge between the old country and the new country. They are not immigrants but they are close enough to the generation that immigrated to have a recollection of the experiences. They are also beginning to become part the American society. By the third generation, the immigrant is usually fully assimilated to the dominant culture. However, the last stage of the immigrant narrative arises out of this full assimilation and it is the rediscovery of one’s ethnic identity (Obj 2d).

            In the story “In the American Society” an Asian immigrant family is at different stages within their own assimilation. The mother and father as the first generation immigrants are slow to become assimilated and accepted by their new culture. The father especially is reluctant to accept the new ideals of the society in which they live. The mother has become obsessed with earning her membership into the country club while the father clings to his identity as a “God-father” like proprietor of their restaurant which is managed much like a business in his home country. The parents have two young girls are nearly fully assimilated into the dominant culture. They teeter between supporting their mother or their father in their individual ideals. In the story’s conclusion, the father is mistreated by the white, American host of a party in which they are attending. The host is chastising the father with his expensive jacket which he has purchased solely to attend this party. When the host has pushed the father to edge, he throws his jacket into the pool to the embarrassment of his wife and the amazement of his daughters. When they exit the party, his daughters who had previously been annoyed at his reluctance to assimilate to the culture, congratulated him on his performance to the man personifying the dominant culture. “That was great” and “Way to show em” were his rewards. These daughters who had begun their assimilation to country are now more aware of the ideals from the ethnic and cultural heritage.

            The immigrant narrative has distinct characteristics that set it apart from other personal narratives. From the voyage to the new country, the discrimination of the culture, and the assimilation to their new home, the immigrant while not identical all have similar experiences. The story telling qualities of the writing give these writings a literary quality allowing them to be appreciated in a literary sense and not merely anthropological sense. In her midterm, Munira Omari states:

When describing and analyzing the Immigrant literature and its features, it is noticed that there are many similar factor that tie these immigrants together; as their search for freedom and a better future. As their themes, symbols as well as patterns, no matter what immigrant group they are, is about one thing “freedom” and how to achieve it. After all, it is what we all look for.

The Minority Narrative vs. the Immigrant Narrative

While the immigrant narrative chronicles the events and emotions of those who choose to come to America, there are groups of people who do not fit this immigrant identity. Two major groups in this category are the American Indians and African Americans. American Indians, not to be confused with the Indian American immigrant group, were inhabitants of what is known as America before it was ever even deemed The United States. They were the original inhabitants who were forced to assimilate to an invading culture. The African Americans were in fact brought to America were not immigrants because they did not do so voluntarily. They were forced out of their native countries and into slavery in America. One could even state that they were not even expected to assimilate until the abolishment of slavery. Until this point, they were considered “human” (for lack of better term) but instead property. Because these groups do not fit the qualifications of an immigrant group, they are considered minorities as they are still not a part of the dominant culture. They have their own types of narratives as well distinguishing themselves from the immigrant narratives.

The biggest difference between the minority narrative and the immigrant narrative is their origins. Immigrant narratives, such as the works of Chitra Divakaruni with “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs,” begin with a hopeful aura that tells the stories of an immigrant who is eager to leave their home in search of the American Dream. The minority narrative usually begins in a much more somber sense where one is either taken or driven from their homes involuntarily. In his own narrative, African American Olaudah Equiano writes of his own migration to America as a slave. He begins by showing the reader the wonders of his African home and then continues with:

One day when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls and in a moment seized both of us, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us to the nearest woods. Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could.

He continues his narrative with his boat travel to America which, with its horrific circumstances of sickness and death, is in stark contrast to the narrative of Andrew Carnegie who also immigrated to America but instead of a boat ride of hope and leisure. Carnegie writes, “During the seven week voyage, I came to know the sailors quite well, learned the names of the ropes…I left the ship with sincere regret.”

            Because the minorities have been forced into the dominant culture, they are not eager to assimilate in the same sense as the immigrants. It is a generally accepted notion that the immigrants will become “Americanized” as expected but it is also expected that the minorities will meet such cultures with resistance. While the main character in “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs” day dreams of wearing American clothes, hairstyles, and discussing American authors, the minorities are more apt to cling to their ethnic origins. Despite these efforts, the dominant culture usually still forces itself upon the minorities. In “American Horse” by Louis Erdich, the little boy Buddy, an American Indian, is afraid of a force coming for him:

There was something coming and he knew it. It was coming from very far off but he had a picture of it in his mind. It was a large thing made of metal with many barbed hooks, points, and drags chains on it…scraping clouds down with it and jabbing or crushing everything that lay in its path on the ground.

It is later on the story that the American child protective services come and physically remove the boy from his home and the refusal of his family. Something was indeed coming for him.

In “The Men to Send Rain Clouds” by Leslie Marmon Silko, the catholic priest of the town is upset that he is not notifies that an American Indian man has died so that he could bring the Last Rites. When the man’s family stated that this was not necessary for him, the priest states, “For a Christian burial it was necessary.” The priest has expected the American Indians to assimilate to the Christian views of death and burial regardless of the fact that this is not their religion. In his midterm, Carlos Marquina states, “There is no choice in the matter for the natives. Either they conform to the dominant culture brought by the Europeans, or they get rolled over and pounded into the ground.”

            One key difference in the minority narrative versus the immigrant narrative is the language, moods, and values that are employed. While the immigrant is attempting to write of hope, hard work, and pride, the minority writes of loss, forced worked, and destruction of their culture.  Their language tends to be more negative and the symbols used are usually darker in connotations. The immigrant who can hope to eventually fully assimilate into the dominant culture is expected to write about their experience in way that glorifies their grievances and hardships. The minority in contrast is allowed by the dominant culture to write more of a critique of the dominant culture as it has forcefully destroyed the culture of the minority. Because of this, the minority wishes to sustain and preserve its ethnic origin while the immigrant will only sustain certain elements of its culture that does not hinder its assimilation.