Colonialism In An American Brat

Most kids in early colonial times never had the chance to see the inside of a schoolhouse. Instead, colonial children usually learned about the adult world by doing things the way their parents did. But, just because they didn't go to school, their lives were not easy. Children were expected to help with a share of the family's work. Boys helped their fathers and girls did chores at home. By a time a girl was four she could knit stockings! Even with all the work they did, colonial children still found time to have fun. They cared for their pets, played with dolls, shot marbles, pitched pennies, and went fishing. They also played tag, stickball, and blind man’s buff. By the time they had reached age 14, most children were already considered

The personal narrative “Born in Amrika” (2003) by Mona M. Maisami speculates that children of Iranian originated parents struggle between culturally identifying themselves as American or Iranian. Maisami develops her main idea by narrating through the point of view of a young girl born in America interacting with her Iranian born cousin Nina. Throughout the story, Nina and her cousin encounter various differing cultural phenomena such as dress and meal rituals before realizing they can adapt to both cultures at the same time. This short story highlights these two different lifestyles in order to emphasize the way American citizens with overseas connections question their character because of their newly adopted home. In hopes to reach out to

In “Hell-Heaven”, narrated by a young girl named Usha, an immigrant Bengali family and their often-guest Pranab are recent immigrants. At first Pranab is culture shocked by his time in America, and only stays after meeting Usha and her mother Boudi. Boudi is happy for a time, but soon both her daughter Usha and Pranab become Americanized, leaving Boudi alone. Unable to adapt to American culture, Boudi becomes depressed, lonely and nearly commits suicide. Like the grandparents in Children as Enemies, Boudi becomes alienated by her own friends and family, who seek a more American way of life. In “American History”, the daughter Skinny Bones wants to become a teacher, and has a crush on an American boy. Unlike her parents, who dream of moving back home, she has no interest in Puerto Rico and the only time she was there she felt “lost in a crowd of strangers claiming to be [her] aunts, uncles and cousins.” While her parents, who were born in Puerto Rico still hold Puerto Rico as their home, Skinny Bones felt disconnected there, like how the grandchildren felt disconnected from their Chinese

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth is comprised of eight short stories about different Indian families’ struggles in America, many of them going through the immigrant experience. The conflicts are with friends and family, and also with themselves, as each of them attempt to find their own identity along with fitting in with the rest of society. One of the causes of these struggles that because the families in the stories are mixed in terms of generation. Many of the adults in the stories were first generation immigrants from India, while many of the children were raised in the United States, which is the second generation. This led to blending of culture and at the same time, clashes between the immigrant mentality of living and the American mentality of living. In Unaccustomed Earth, Lahiri demonstrates to the reader the important influence of environment, specifically culture and how it impacts parental teachings, on the personality and development of an individuals’ identity, and how the actions and development of characters can affect one’s family and friends; the impact of environment and culture is shown especially by the characters and stories “Hell-Heaven” and “Hema and Kaushik”.

This book depicts the national and cultural status of the immigrant mother, who is able to preserve the traditions of her Indian heritage that connect her to her homeland. Ensuring a successful future for her American-born children is coordinated with the privilege of being an American citizen. Ashima yearns for her homeland and her family that she left behind when

American settler colonialism is no different than the colonialism in South Africa, Australia and Algeria because the similarities between them: indigenous populations were depleted, indigenous resistances arose, and colonizing culture religion becomes the dominant culture. Indigenous population was depleted in two way: through human involvement and also by biological diseases. Biological diseases killed the vast majority of Indians in the 16 century.

Throughout american history, examples of the United States’ domination of the political, economic, and social aspects of other countries can be seen. This domination, also known as imperialism, was primarily caused by a growing sense of nationalism, the influence of supply and demand, and a desire to maintain global military power. Imperialism is categorized into three different groups: colony, protectorate, sphere of influence. TRANSITION SENTENCE

She explains her thesis by stating “Others who write stories of migration often talk of arrival at a new place as a loss of communal memory and the erosion of an original culture. I want to talk of arrival as a gain,” (360). The key points of the text include Mukherjee describing her transition between Calcutta and the United States, and what it means to be and American and how culture influences that aspect. The information in the text is significant; the people of America are a part of a melting pot, sometimes it is hard for them to find the distinction between American culture and their own. The information in Mukherjee’s story is clear and specific, unbiased, and is relevant to the purpose of the story. I believe Mukherjee has achieved her purpose of informing her audience about cultural differences; she presents certain strengths and weaknesses within the text.

Throughout history as well as in modern times, revolution, imperialism and colonialism have played part in the rise and fall of governance and power structures in the world. Wars have occurred to gain power over a government or society. Colonialism benefits the motherland by sending citizens into a new territory and securing raw materials for the economic benefit of the mother country. King James l, in 1604 granted The Virginia Company, a group on entrepreneurs, a land grant in the Chesapeake Bay of North America to establish a colony. Captain John Smith headed up the colony and the expedition was launched in hopes of finding a trade route to the Orient, as well hoping to find gold. The Virginia Company selected the Chesapeake area because it was uninhabited by Native Americans.

struggles with self identity after moving from Iran to America for asylum. In addition to fleeing Iran due to the political climate and his family’s involvement with the Shah, Behrani is presented to the reader as the quintessential immigrant and refugee. He and his family move to San Francisco, California in order to start a new life. With very little money compared to what they were accustomed to, Behrani and his family reside in a relatively wealthy area.

Firoozeh’s family moved to America because the company her father worked at had given him to a two-year assignment to a location in Whittier, California. The family arrived with virtually no knowledge of the country, culture, or language. Firoozeh’s mother, even though she was not a stupid person, had not been fully educated as a result of Iranian cultural differences, and she was not fully able to help Firoozeh settle in, or to properly communicate at school.

While Usha had one experience living in America, her mother, Aparna, had a very different one than her daughter. From Usha's perspective, Aparna is viewed as a traditional Bengali mother. She cooked, she cleaned and cared for her family. She was a house wife, chosen to marry a man she didn't love and raise a child as evidence of the arrangement. She was unsettled by the

Mrs.Momtaz says there was no problem with moving to America. She was sad to leave her family, but other than that she was fine. When she moved to the America it was hard to settle in, but she got used to it. It was easy financially though because her husband’s high paying job. She already knew basic English but to speak fluently was a challenge. Her husband knew it thought and taught her it.

For thousands of years, waves of immigrants continue joining the developed countries in the world, bringing with them the unique cultures, languages, and ideas. Over time, those unique values might be faded away with each generation because of the new culture exposition. The second-generation immigrants experience a cultural conflict between that of their parents and that of host society. Most of them are unable to preserve and empower their origin cultures. Many differences between the first-generation and the second-generation immigrants arise. Through the analysis of the mother in “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” and the Das family in “Interpreter of Maladies”, I would like to demonstrate the differences between the first-generation immigrants, who travel from other countries, and the second-generation immigrants, who were born and raised on the immigrated land. These differences include the purpose of being in the foreign land, the connections to their homelands, society’s view, and the culture differences.

In the short story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” by Jhumpa Lahiri, Lilia, her parents, and Mr. Pirzada react differently to Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 because of the different cultures in which they grew up. Lilia is a ten-year-old girl growing up in Boston, Massachusetts. The civil war affects her vicariously when she sees her parents and Mr. Pirzada upset. Lilia’s parents are from India and moved to Boston before Lilia was born. They show concern when watching the news of their homeland in peril. Mr. Pirzada is from Pakistan and moves to Boston for one year on a research grant while his wife and seven daughters still live in East Pakistan. The civil war affects him the most because it is his personal property and his direct loved ones that are in the midst of it all.