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LITR
5831 World / Multicultural Literature: |
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Liz Davis
21 June 2016
Overcoming culture shock to reach the American Dream
Whether you were are a native of the country or an
adopted child of America, we all want to be successful. Everyone
wants
to achieve the American Dream—to buy a house with a white picket fence, climb
the ladder of success, own a minivan with the stick-figure family on the back.
To be successful in life, you must have a strong desire to work hard, but not
everyone has that drive. In this country; there are a select few that out-do
everyone. The “model minority” or ideal immigrant, is the idea of
the hard-working
immigrant who is committed to education, and still retains some of their home
culture.
The model minority label is used on any new immigrant group that comes to
America and exceeds the ideals of the dominant culture. In the past, the Jewish
culture was known for being the model minority, but today the Asian Americans
are referred to as the model minority. It seems that most immigrants have a
stronger desire to move to the top of the totem pole and be successful in this
country than most Americans, but why? The immigrants become the “model minority”
and leave the Americans behind in the dust. I decided to look at Trina Silva’s
2012 midterm “The Journey to Becoming a ‘Model Minority’: Analyzing Immigrant
Narratives,” Lori Wheeler’s 2014 midterm “Writing Their Own Story…And Yours, And
Mine: The Immigrant Narrative,” and Amy Sasser’s 2012 midterm “Fantasy and
Falsehood: The Immigrant Narrative and the American
Dream” to see why the
model minority tends to be so successful in America and what struggles they face
in the country.
In Trina Silva’s 2012 midterm “The Journey to Becoming
a ‘Model Minority’: Analyzing Immigrant Narratives,” she states that “education
and literacy [serve] as part of the route to assimilating to the dominant
culture and becoming a model minority.” This statement holds true for many
immigrant characters in the literature from class. First, Silva notes that in “A
Wife’s Story” Panna is a prime example of a model minority because she is
“unmarked” and is a “well-bred, educated woman with manners.”
She
comes from an
upper-class family, has an education but since she is in America, she is an
entirely different person; she is a nobody. She wears dull clothes, instead of
bright clothes, including pants—which she wouldn’t normally wear in India as her
husband notes. She doesn’t want to lose her
culture,
but once her husband comes to town, she realizes that she has acculturated to
the dominant culture more than she thought. Though Panna fits in
comfortably,
her husband is shocked at the
cultural
differences. She
is living in America to pursue higher education while her husband lives and
works in India. Panna fits the mold for the model minority because she has the
commitment to her studies while still maintaining the ties to her husband and
traditions in India. Similarly, Silva mentions “The English Lesson” and the
importance of education and literacy to Ms. Hamma. While all of the characters
are learning English as a second language before they go to work, Ms. Hamma is
there to inspire them to achieve their goals of the American Dream. While there
is the importance of education to Ms. Hamma, there is also
the importance
of literacy to the students, especially the character of Mr. Paczkowski, who I
would identify as a model minority in this case. Though all the students have
the desire to work, Mr. Paczkowski came to the country with a degree but must
start again from the bottom and work as a custodian at a hospital—but that won’t
stop him. He has the motivation to overcome his language barrier, put in the
extra time at work, and the shame of cleaning toilets even though he has a
college degree so he can accomplish the American Dream for his family.
He
told Ms. Hamma that he would be taking another English class next semester. He
is a true rags-to-riches story; he is willing to overcome all obstacles to of
culture, education and work to reach the top.
In Lori Wheeler’s 2014 midterm “Writing Their Own
Story…And Yours, And Mine: The Immigrant Narrative,” she brings up the idea of
the model minority. She defines the model minority as “immigrant cultures and
people who model
perfectly
the dominant culture’s preference of an immigrant who desires
to quickly assimilate
and share its own
values.” Wheeler notes that the Jewish immigrants were the first ideal
immigrants and were then followed by the Asian Americans. For instance in “In
the American Society," she states that Mr. Chang opens a pancake house in
America because he wants to “gain the respect, authority, and power that his
grandfather had in China.” Mr. Chang comes to America, and though he may not fit
the mold entirely, his family does become a model minority family. The pancake
house is a success, and Mr. Chang becomes lazy. Wheeler states “he exploits his
employees” and hires illegal immigrants in their place; he has assimilated to
the American lifestyle. The Chang family has reached a point in their life when
they can live comfortably, for now, and live the American Dream and maybe even
join the Country Club. Wheeler says that the American Dream is a lifestyle; it
is a way of living. It is a “way of
living
that demonstrates you have assimilated into the dominant culture and have become
part of the larger group.” As much as the Changs have accepted the
dominant
culture into their lives, the dominant culture is still
struggling
to accept
the Changs, or outsiders in general, into their society. Wheeler mentions that
when the Changs go to the American
party, Mr.
Chang throws his jacket and Jeremy’s shirt into the pool. Mr. Chang acts like it
is “somehow normal in America,
for
people to be
exploited on
a regular basis.” This
action shows that Mr. Chang is still struggling with acceptance in America and
though he thought he had fully assimilated, he did not fully understand the
dominant culture. Mr. Chang did not know this was not the right action to take
but felt he was being insulted and reverted to his old ways. Immigrants struggle
with acceptance by the dominant culture and rarely achieve it without total
assimilation. Wheeler notes that this event probably sparked a rise in the Chang
family that led to them celebrating their Chinese heritage again.
In Amy Sasser’s 2012 midterm “Fantasy and Falsehood:
The Immigrant Narrative and the American Dream,” she relates the unexpected
culture shock of new American immigrants back to the American Dream. She uses
the example of Chitra Divakaruni’s “Silver Pavements, Golden
Roofs,” since the narrator
is Jayanti, a “well to do Indian woman” who travels to America to live with her
aunt and uncle to further her education. She experiences a culture shock because
it “doesn’t match the fiction she’s constructed in her head.” Jayanti is
disappointed that her extended family’s apartment is small and has mismatched
furniture; it does not look like any of the American homes she saw photos of in
the magazines in India. Sasser brings up a valid point that immigrants, even
some like Jayanti, who represent the model minority, move here and experience
culture shock because they are not prepared for the American lifestyle. Jayanti
had this prefabricated idea of what America looked like based on how the media
portrayed it, but once she moved here it was not at all like she expected it to
be. Likewise, America did not treat her at all like she had expected since she
is a model minority in America and a wealthy woman back in India. She states
“rather than proselytizing about the virtues of hard work as a means to achieve
your wildest desires, perhaps we should focus more on mimetic experiences as a
way of truly preparing immigrants for what they may face when they reach our
shores.” Immigrants are not prepared for the struggle they face when they get to
America: the difference in culture, language, government, education. They must
adapt, survive, and most of them strive to be better than the rest and reach the
top of the ladder of success – and a lot of them get there due to their
perseverance and determination.
Immigrants overcome many obstacles when they come to
America including
acceptance to the dominant culture
and unforeseen culture
shock. Somehow
they
manage to accomplish their goal of the American
Dream because they have the
motivation to succeed in the American lifestyle.
After reading these three student essays, I learned
that all
immigrants must anticipate the unforeseen cultural differences that come with
moving to a different country and prepare for those changes.
This holds
true for all immigrants, not only for the model minority because, though the
model minority is usually more successful because they possess a strong work
ethic, commitment to education and desire
for
a better life overall, the cultural confusion seems to cause problems for
everyone. Once immigrants overcome the culture shock, they accomplish the
American Dream and some even strive for excellence and make it to the top and
become the model minority.
Works Cited
Sasser, Amy L. "Fantasy and Falsehood: The Immigrant
Narrative and the American Dream." LITR 5731
Multicultural: Immigrant Literature UHCL Model Assignments.
N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2016.
Silva, Trina. "The Journey to Becoming a “Model
Minority”: Analyzing Immigrant Narratives."
LITR 5731 Multicultural: Immigrant Literature UHCL Model Assignments.
N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June 2016.
Wheeler, Lori. "Writing Their
Own
Story...And Yours, and Mine: The Immigrant Narrative."
LITR 5731 Multicultural: Immigrant Literature UHCL
Model Assignments. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 June
2016.
Liz Davis
24 June 2016
The Immigrant Narrative: Assimilation and Resistance to the Dominant
Culture
The Declaration
of Independence states that all men are created equal and
are given
unalienable rights including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (“The
Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies”).
These three rights
define the American Dream, which is the idea of leading the ideal American
life—starting from the bottom and climbing the ladder of success, pursuing an
education, having a family, and supporting that family; becoming the
breadwinner. This great American document and the ideals that it states
motivated immigrants to move to America to start fresh in a new country. What is
the American Dream for some people, is not always the case for all
people; it is what some people would call
the American Nightmare (Objective 3). Minorities are either forced to come to
the country, as the African Americans were, or had their land invaded, as the
American Indians did. While many
immigrants come to America to absorb the culture and assimilate to the
lifestyle, there are some
ethnic
groups, including minorities, that chose to reject the dominant culture and
instead revert
to their traditional
ways of the Old World and these ideals
are expressed
in their immigrant narratives (Objective 3C).
When immigrants reminiscence
about how they came to America, they tell the story as if it was a magical
adventure that keeps the listener on the edge of his or her seat. The story
begins with leaving the Old World behind and starting a long journey to the New
World of America. Next, once they arrive in America, they experience culture
shock, discrimination and sometimes exploitation. Eventually, they assimilate to
the dominant culture and lose their ethnic identity and cut off those ties to
the Old World. Finally, they rediscover some of their traditions of their
identity back home in the Old World, but only partially (Objective 2C). Though
this type of narrative seems somewhat trite, it is still magical once someone
begins to tell the story, as seen in the short story by Anzia Yezierska titled
“Bread Givers.” Max Goldstein’s “face kindled with pleasure” as he began to
recount his arrival to America and Sara is eager and excited to hear his story.
Not only are the characters within the story
intrigued
by the narrative, but the
story compels the reader to learn more about the
characters in the novel. Narrative can be very powerful. Sometimes the stages of
the immigrant narrative are adjusted when the minority experiences the journey,
and it becomes the minority narrative. The main stage that changes is the
assimilation to the dominant culture because minorities did not choose to come
here voluntarily. Since minorities, particularly African Americans and American
Indians, in this case, have animosity toward the dominant culture, why would
they want to lose their culture and assimilate into the dominant culture that
they hate so much? (Objective 3) The minority narrative can be compelling as the
immigrant narrative as well, but in a different matter because it shows
resistance to assimilate into the dominant culture. In the immigrant narrative,
new Americans quickly leave their Old World traditions to assimilate quickly to
New World ways, while minorities reject assimilation in the New World and prefer
to practice the traditions of the Old World.
The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie is a true
rags-to-riches tale of an immigrant coming to America with nothing, making his
way to the top, and giving back to the community. Carnegie was born in
Dunfermline, Scotland and was brought up with tons of Scottish pride. He
mentions “…the early impressions remain, sometimes for short seasons
disappearing perchance, but only apparently driven away or suppressed. They are
always rising and coming again to the front to exert their influence, to elevate
his thought and color his life. No bright child of Dunfermline can escape the
influence of the Abbey, Palace, and Glen.” Though his home country meant wonders
to him, when the Carnegie family moved to America, young Andrew quickly
assimilated into the culture of the New World. Since he was young when he moved
to America, it was easier for him to integrate into the culture and leave his
traditions of the Old World behind. Andrew Carnegie succeeded in America because
he adapted to the dominant culture easily and gave up his Scottish roots. Andrew
started at the bottom in the cotton factory, then worked as a bookkeeper, then
as a messenger, and eventually got into railroads and worked his way to the top
through stocks and hard work. His father, who at first did not even want to give
up his loom to go into to work at the cotton factory, was not as successful in
the America because he was still thinking like an Old World traditionalist. His
mother had the same thought process when Andrew decided to hire the servant girl
once they became wealthy and it became necessary. Carnegie writes, “It was with
the greatest reluctance my mother could be brought to admit a stranger into the
family circle.” She grew up in Scotland, and now she lived in America and is
resistant to accept a stranger into the nuclear family. Even though Andrew’s
parents were reluctant to assimilate and leave their Scottish culture behind,
Andrew’s quick assimilation was a success because the dominant culture accepted
him rather quickly as well. Since he did not look different, only had a
different accent, he did not take long to adjust to the culture and drop his
Scottish roots and the dominant culture probably barely noticed since America
was such a melting pot at that point (Objective 2A). Since Carnegie was such a
philanthropist, the name Carnegie is synonymous with America now: Carnegie Hall,
Carnegie Deli, Carnegie Mellon University—and it’s a name originally brought
from Scotland.
Another immigrant story that tells the tale of
assimilation to the dominant culture is “Soap and Water” by Anzia Yezierska. In
the story, a woman is struggling to receive her diploma because of her
appearance. A school dean, by the name of Mrs. Whiteside, denies her the diploma
because her clothes are dirty and informs her “Soap and water are cheap.” This
statement is ironic because the narrators’ clothes are dirty because she works
“slaving in a laundry” before and after attending college. The narrator
immediately assimilates into the dominant culture when she arrives. She says
that “starvation forced [her] to accept the lowest-paid substitute position. And
because [her] wages were so low and so unsteady, [she] could never get the money
for the clothes to make an appearance to secure a position with better pay.
[She] was tricked and foiled.” She quickly converts to the dominant culture by
accepting a low-paying job and, therefore, becomes an unmarked member of
society. Once the narrators’ assimilate into the dominant culture, she thinks
all hope is lost for her to become a teacher, but then she meets Miss Van Ness.
Miss Van Ness is an outsider like her and gives the narrator hope that she can
achieve her goal of reaching the American Dream. Once she meets Miss Van Ness,
she realizes that coming to America was the right choice and that an outsider
can make it in America if they work hard enough and stay motivated.
In “The Cooked Seed” by Anchee Min, the main
character assimilates from to the new world around her. In the nonfiction piece,
she moves from China to Chicago to attend college and she is forced to learn a
new language, which she humorously struggles with throughout the story. Anchee
moves to America with little knowledge of the country and even less knowledge of
how the people and society function, which causes numerous problems for her. The
language barrier causes problems in her education, employment status, and social
life. Anchee has to take an English course to learn the American language, but
she prefers to learn English from watching TV shows such as
Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and TV
commercials. Likewise, when Anchee is searching for a job, her lack of English
hinders her from employment in a Chinese restaurant because she cannot speak to
customers. She also misses out becoming a “human guinea pig” in an experimental
drug trial because she cannot understand the terms and conditions. Similarly,
when Takisha, an African American woman, is trying to lecture Anchee about why
she cannot become friends with their neighbor, Kate, a white woman, the language
barrier arises again. Takisha tells Anchee to look up the word slave in her
dictionary, but it translates to “proletarians,” which is not the best
translation. All of these are examples of Anchee’s desire to integrate into the
dominant culture through learning the language and omitting the use of her
native language. Anchee’s desire to assimilate into the dominant culture shows
that she wants to leave her native culture behind and learn the American
lifestyle and achieve the American Dream. Anchee could be referred to as a
“model minority” because she quickly assimilated into the dominant culture, has
a commitment to education, has hard work ethic and strives to reach the top
(Objective 2B). When she applied to college in Chicago, she lied on her
application and said her English skills were “excellent.” The reader quickly
learns that her English skills were not up to par, but she had the desire for
the American Dream and would do anything to move to America. She mentions when
she is out on the streets of Chicago that she wanted to take a picture of her
beneath the American flag and send it home to her family in China. That she felt
that she had stepped into her TV as he was walking through the tall buildings
because it “didn’t feel real walking between them.” Not only is Anchee living
the American Dream, but she is also living her dream of escaping her country of
China. Assimilating to the country is her choice, and she is happy to do it as
long as it gets her away from China.
On the contrary, Dr. Rose Ihedigbo’s “Sandals in the
Snow” takes a different approach to the role of assimilation, particularly
minorities, in the immigrant narrative and adapting to the New World culture.
Though the Ihedigbos are of African decent, they are not minorities because they
moved to America by choice; therefore they are immigrants. The Ihedigbo family
emigrates from Nigeria to live in Massachusetts, and though they acculturate to
some of the ways of life of the dominant culture, they refuse to adapt to all of
their ways because they still maintain familial ties and values along with the
pride associated with Nigeria. Rose mentions how “necessary it was to keep their
children connected to their roots, especially since their offspring lived most
of their lives in a school context that silently demanded their conformity to be
accepted.” Though they lived in America, Rose required the children to go to
Nigerian gatherings, and she raised the children with traditional Nigerian
values. The children are treated as minorities in school since they are the only
African children enrolled in the school. The other students treat the Ihedigbo
children as outsiders and cause them to acculturate more quickly than their
parents. For example, Onyii feels the need to wear deodorant and change her
hairstyle because the other children pick on her. Before moving to America, this
is something she would have never considered changing, but once she became aware
of her uniqueness, she decided that it was something she needed to change. Her
desire to fit in with the dominant culture could be because she is a young woman
who values the opinion of her peers. Onyii also decides to go by her middle
name, Debbie, because it is more acceptable in the dominant culture than her
ethnic first name of Onyii. Once she graduated high school, she decided to go by
her first name again. Since the Ihedigbo family are immigrants who voluntarily
came to the country, they acculturated to the dominant culture over time. The
children seem to assimilate into the culture because they have fewer ties to
their Nigeria roots, unlike their parents who are more resistant to the American
ways of life.
Louise Eldrich’s short story “American Horse”
takes an alternate viewpoint to assimilation and shows how minorities are
resistant to the dominant culture. In the story, police officers are trying to
take a young American Indian boy named Buddy, away from his mother. Buddy and
his mother, Albertine, are hiding at his uncle’s house but despite the fight
that his family puts up, the police still find him and take Buddy away from his
family. The American Indians are minorities and tell the minority narrative as
opposed to the immigrant narrative because the dominant culture forced them out
of their land. In this story, the police are looking for Buddy, and he is hiding
in a shed because he is so terrified of what is yet to come. He has nightmares
of horrible, mechanical arm with barbed hooks attacking him. Buddy even says, “
there was something coming and he knew it.” This kind of foreboding notion shows
that he senses the upcoming invasion by the police, like what happened to the
American Indians in the past, thus representing the American Nightmare.
(Objective 3). The
family in this story is also hostile toward the police, as the American Indians
are of the dominant culture, but one of the police officers is an American
Indian named Harmony, who tries to reason with the family. Harmony says “Ma
Frere (My brother), listen, those two white people in the care came to get
[Buddy] for the welfare.” As much as Harmony tries to reason with Uncle
Lawrence, he does not accept the fact that he is on the wrong side of the law.
One of the strongest way that the American Indians resist assimilation in the
story is by shunning one of their kind that chooses to assimilate instead of
acculturating. The other way that they resist assimilation is by physically
fighting the police in the story as Albertine does. In this story, we can see a
direct correlation to the dominant culture invading the American Indians’ land
and the police invading Uncle Lawrence’s house and taking Buddy away. The
American Indians resist assimilation to the dominant culture in this story, by
almost forming their own new culture. They do acculturate to their surroundings,
but they do not assimilate. For example, Uncle Lawrence is a marked character
that is labeled as an outsider. He wears strange clothing, such as a white
corset, a black satin smoking jacket, and has a false eye and dentures. He is
also eclectic and hordes junk in and around his house, such as TVs and old
appliances. The extended family is also important in the minority lifestyle.
Uncle Lawrence took Albertine and Buddy into his house because they were on the
run. There is no nuclear family so they must rely on the extended family.
Lawrence even calls Harmony, “Ma Cousin” indicating that they are related as
well. The American Horse family chooses to resist assimilation into the dominant
culture instead of embracing it, and it does not get them very far in life.
Though they acculturate to their surroundings, they still do not trust the
dominant culture and prefer to live in their secluded areas (Objective 3C).
In Sui Sin Far’s “In the Land of the Free,” a
Chinese couple has a negative outlook toward America society and refuses to
assimilate into the culture because the dominant culture treats them poorly. In
the story, the husband, Hom Hing, came to America first to work while the wife,
Lae Choo, stayed in China to give birth to their child. Once Lae Choo and her
son arrive in America, the young boy is immediately taken away by officials
because he does not have a
“certificate
entitling him admissions to the country.” They were not informed of the proper
customs process for children born outside of the country. Instead of getting
back on the ship and returning to China, they allow the child to be taken by the
law because it is the way of America – at that point, they converted to
Americans and put their trust in the government, which was a terrible mistake.
Though they do not actually “assimilate,” putting their confidence in the
government and allowing their child to be taken is a form of assimilation to the
American way. Within a few days, they learned of their mistake since the boy was
not returned and felt their betrayal by America. They refuse to adapt to America
after that and bring their Old World traditions with them. In their home, Lae
Choo maintains Chinese cuisine by cooking steamed rice with chicken and bamboo
shoots. She is resistant to adapt to the ways of the “white man” because she
feels betrayed by the country since they have not returned her son. When the
lawyer attempts to help get the Chinese couples’ son back, Lae Choo calls him a
“common white man” and he is portrayed as a greedy, evil lawyer. He exploits
them for their money and sentimental jewelry. Finally, when Lae Choo goes to
pick up her son from the mission nursery school, her son does not recognize her
– he has fully assimilated into the dominant culture by no choice of his own.
The missionary woman tells Lae Choo that he was “difficult to manage at first”
but later on, he changed because “children so soon forget.” This shows how
simple it is for the second generation immigrant to assimilate as opposed to the
first generation because they do not have the same hostility toward the country
and their values (Objective 2D). In this case, the young boy referred to as
Little One, did not understand he was assimilating, and it was unfortunate in
his case. He did resist the missionary women and call out for his mother, and he
did put up a fight at first, but at the end of it all, it was inevitable. The
Chinese couple in this story resisted assimilation in this scenario because the
country that they immigrated to wronged them by taking their son away.
While many immigrants come to America to seek the
American Dream and assimilate to the American lifestyle, there are some ethnic
groups, including minorities, that resist the dominant culture and instead
revert to their native roots in the Old World and these ideas are clearly
expressed in their narratives (Objective 3C). Many immigrants assimilate to the
dominant culture because they choose to move to America and adapt to the
lifestyle. They want to leave their homes and traditions behind because they
seek the American Dream, and that involves the dominant culture’s ways of life.
The minorities in America, including the African Americans, and American
Indians, have a negative history with America and do not think highly of the
American Dream, ergo they do not want to assimilate to the dominant culture’s
ways of life at all. They have acculturated to their surroundings to get through
life but keep their traditions and roots so they can keep their culture alive at
heart. There are some cultures that are
not minorities that still tell the
minority narrative and that is because they have also had a negative
experience with America, such as the Chinese couple in “In the Land of the
Free,” in which they suffer the American Nightmare.
