Analysis Of Hester Street And Babbitt Essay

The teenager feels as a stranger in his own land to the point that he identifies himself as an immigrant. However, traveling to the other world of white Americans life, looking for a better education and searching for hope makes him feel stranger in both worlds: “Traveling between Reardan and WellPeint, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger. I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other. It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job. And it didn't pay well” (Alexie).

What defines you? Is it the many tiny, wriggling spiders that could potentially be inside your body, the experiences you might have had in Istanbul, your list of hobbies which may or may not include crochet, or is it something a bit more trivial, such as where you come from? Who are you? Take a moment to reflect on yourself. In an essay concerning the argument of identity, Richard Rodriguez forces his readers to analyze themselves, particularly during the high climb of immigration in America today, because with the rising amount of cultures and ethnicities finding a home in this country, there really is no “black and white” answer. The question of identity is the key idea in Rodriguez’s Blaxicans, further expanded upon by careful word choice,

The Goldbergs deemphasize the vulnerability of immigrants as not fully American or Jewish and their strife not to be nothing. On the other hand, Amos ‘n’ Andy presents racial stereotypes in America through slapstick comedy, which oddly enough reminded me of another immigrant book I read, Achiche’s Americanah. While Amos ‘n’ Andy deals with African Americans, Americanah is written from the perspective of a Nigerian immigrant, but Achiche’s commentary from an outsider’s perspective helps clarify race issues in America and why stereotypes presented in Amos ‘n’ Andy are so demeaning. Achiche confronts American tribalisms of race, ideology, and region through the blog of her character, Ifemelu, who poignantly states, “I didn’t know I was black until I came to the USA.” Throughout the novel, race becomes a prejudicial barrier or a taboo topic that well-intentioned people attempt to erase. In Amos ‘n’ Andy, race is presented in a negative manner because the white writers use stereotypes to engage a white audience in a topic they prefer to

Even though Danticat does not present her father throughout her memoir, her diction of depicting her father's imagery is powerful enough to convey a culture and life of an immigrant that other immigrants can relate to. Yet, society still imposes negativity and alienation towards the immigrants' community simply because they do not understand other supreme cultures in a different country. Danticat yearns to connect that facet with her father's experiences of living and working in the U.S. in order to formulate the notion of working hard and striving for a better life, despite the hardship that society places upon him. With the understanding of what Danticat wants to impart in her memoir, the portrayal of immigrants that is often presented via social medias and news is still inadequate to elevate the significance of the culture of immigrants and lower-class people. Despite the challenges that immigrants have to face in order to enter a better country, there is still hope for them to progress towards a better

In the boiling pot of America most people have been asked “what are you?” when referring to one’s race or nationality. In the short story “Borders” by Thomas King he explores one of the many difficulties of living in a world that was stripped from his race. In a country that is as diverse as North America, culture and self-identity are hard to maintain. King’s short story “Borders” deals with a conflict that I have come to know well of. The mother in “Borders” is just in preserving her race and the background of her people. The mother manages to maintain her identity that many people lose from environmental pressure.

Through interviewing my roommate Linda Wang, I have gotten the opportunity of hearing a first-hand account of what it is like being a young immigrant living in the United States. At the age of eight, Linda, along with her father, mother, and aunt, emigrated to America. Linda’s family currently resides in Bayside, Queens and she is a student-athlete on the St. John’s women’s golf team. Linda was kind enough to share her immigration story with me so that I may use it as a manifestation of what life as an immigrant, and the immigration process itself, entails.

Many second generation minorities from immigrant parents are driven subconsciously to conform to new culture and social norms. For foreign born parents and native born children integrating the two cultures they inhabit brings about different obstacles and experiences. In Jhumpa’s “The Namesake” the protagonist Gogol is a native born American with foreign born parents. The difference with birth location plays an important role in assimilating to a new society in a new geography. The difficulty for parents is the fact that they’ve spent a decent amount of time accustomed to a new geography, language, culture and society which makes it difficult to feel comfortable when all of that changes. For Gogol the difficulty only lies with the cultural norms imposed by his parent’s and the culture and social norms that are constantly presented in the new society.

As John F. Kennedy famously stated, the United States of America exists as “a nation of immigrants.” Besides those from Native American descent, every occupant of America can attribute their lineage to ancestors who emigrated from another country and adopted America as their new home. Coming to a new nation brings with it a series of difficulties, one of which is the struggle to find balance between assimilation and the preservation of one’s ethnic identity. Such a struggle is very present in the romantic film Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin Silver, detailing the lives of Jake and Gitl, two Jewish immigrants living in New York during the early 20th century. Jake and Gitl each maintain different attitudes toward assimilation, yet

Home to many, America has become known as the “melting pot” due to its diversity of ethnic cultures such as Asian, Mexican, and Latino. Its diversity has attracted many immigrants over the years, resulting in now a handful of its population being immigrant. Immigrants have contributed largely to the United States by opening businesses, expanding businesses, creating a demand for products, and even lending a hand of labor in our factories. Although the cultures of American and Immigrants differ in their food, language, and everyday traditions, each culture include hard-working individuals who’s willing to make a living just as the characters in “Being Country” and “Everyday Use”. While in “Being Country” by Bobbie Ann Mason and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker they include hard-working women, the

Throughout the Industrial Age, the American economy has relied on immigrant labor from Europe and Asia. The lure of cities and wealth drew droves of immigrants to factory work, where they quickly realized their dreams weren’t that easy to achieve. Adding to the struggle of eking out a living, the native-born Americans pressured them to adjust to the status quo. Businesses were discriminatory in their hiring practices, restaurants and theaters would refuse to serve them, and even the factories that immigrants ended up working in paid them less than their native-born counterparts. “Conform or be cast out” was the theme, as the song “Subdivisions” says. This song exemplifies the immigrants’ struggle to adapt to the social and economic realities

Two hundred forty-one years. In that small amount of time America forged its self into a vast landscape of different cultures. A combination of numerous cultures mongrelized together to form “We the people” in America today. Due to all the mixing in the pot, an uncertainty about the countries identity arose. For all the beauty that the melting pot brought, it also created a darker side, as aspects of each cultures fought for superiority in the nation. This fight emerges throughout American history and as a new era of deporis rises, the issues are becoming more relevant. In American Dreamer by Bharati Mukherjee, she shares her own experiences as an immigrant and the fight she partook in to have her own American identity seen. Mukherjee’s fight mirrors hundreds of naturalized American citizens who are trying to realize their identity, however it also shines light on native-born Americas struggling as well. The need for a unified American identity produces a nationwide identity crisis.

If we look at specific passages from the novel, it is easy to see the author's contention as described above.  While he does temporarily decide to fight the limiting influences of a material society that ostracizes individuality opposed to its established norms, Babbitt does revert back to his unquestioning superficial self once he recognizes that having original thoughts and acting on them is isolating, unprofitable and even dangerous.  Babbitt is supposed to represent the ordinary human being, the average businessman and upwardly mobile middle-class America.  However, Babbitt seems more artifice than genuine human being.  Like the ads that sell Americans products, Babbitt has forged an identity that was imposed on him by the dominant forces of democratic capitalism, "Just as he was an Elk, a Booster, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, just as the priests of the Presbyterian Church determined his every religious belief, and the senators who controlled the Republican Part decided in little smoky rooms in Washington what he should think about disarmament, tariffs, and Germany, so did the large national advertisers fix the surface of his life, fix what he believed to be his individuality.  These standard advertised wares...at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom" (Lewis  95).

Some people enter the United States in search of a new home full of opportunity, Marius Yager on the other hand, embarked on his journey to the U.S. only to experience the foreign country and its differences. He was an exchange student from Germany residing at the Kogler home, my close friends and neighbors, for an entire school year. His time in the states was a disaster. With his dad being diagnosed with cancer, the conflicts with his foster family, and a horrid mishap that angered his family back home, Marius was dismal throughout the majority of his stay. However, he managed to stay eager about taking in the foreign culture.

Being a child of parents who are immigrants, tends to be troublesome when finding your cultural identity. Huwang agrees by saying, “ I identify with Americans, but Americans do not identify with me. I’ve never known what it’s like to belong to a community…” This statement captures my day to day internal struggle of who I am, an Indian or an American? Raised in an Indian household in an American environment I am torn between deciding which represents me as a whole. My family dictates that

Everyday I am on a constant race to discover who I am as an individual. I am fighting this battle whether I choose to acknowledge it or not. Donald Hernandez has written in his book Children of Immigrants: Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance; he talks about major key points, but the most important one state “Third, because life chances differ greatly according to race and ethnicity in the United States, and because of the race and ethnic composition of immigrants to this country has shifted markedly during recent decades,” (3). That is true trying to be one thing is very hard in USA society has an effect of how you may become as the individual. If I were in another country they would just see as an American and nothing else, but the place that I was born and raised they see me as what my parents are Nigerians. I am not American because my parents are from Nigeria; this has been a very constant thing, because of several definitions of what it