Comparing Kingsolver's Homeland And Half

The details on how my family arrived in America have been passed down by various members of my family. The accuracy and detail of these memories have diminished with every retelling. Some of my family arrived in America so long ago that all that remains of their experiences are rumors and stretched truths. As a story gets retold over and over it loses much of its accuracy. While much of my family history relies on this kind of storytelling, there are some in my family who were alive and experienced the challenges faced by immigrants. Though born in the United States, my maternal grandfather, Sebastian Passantino, was very familiar with the hardships of being an immigrant.

This all kind of hit me when I was at my cousin's wedding and my whole family came in from all over. Many of them I had only meet when I was a very young child and I did not remember them so it was like meeting everyone for the first time. After the wedding my family all sat together and ate our dinner and someone brought up my grandma and how she would've just loved this wedding and all the details that my cousins have done. That started the whole conversation and everyone just kept talking about things they remember and stories they had with my grandparents and a lot

Every individual has traditions passed down from their ancestors. This is important because it influences how families share their historical background to preserve certain values to teach succeeding generation. N. Scott Momaday has Native American roots inspiring him to write about his indigenous history and Maxine Hong Kingston, a first-generation Chinese American who was inspired by the struggles of her emigrant family. Kingston and Momaday manipulate language by using, metaphors, similes, and a unique style of writing to reflect on oral traditions. The purpose of Kingston’s passage is to reflect upon her ancestor’s mistake to establish her values as an American

Joan Smetana is an eighty-four year old, four foot ten, Catholic-German woman. She is sister to Mary-Ann Koenig wife to the late-Robert Smetana, and mother to Therese and Mary. She has five grandchildren, one of them in me. I love my grandmother, or as I call her: “Nana.” She is one of those woman that everyone loves, whether you know her or not; however, those who are closest to her, her family, tend to love her more from a distance, but love her none the less. She is literally the center of her family, as her house is in between the homes of her two daughters, otherwise known as my backyard and two streets over from my Aunt Mary. Eighteen years of growing up, knowing she was watching out her window for any sign of trouble and having

Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel, Ceremony, reveals how the crossing of cultures was feared, ridiculed, and shunned in various Native American tribes. The fear of change is a common and overwhelming fear everyone faces at some point in their life. The fear of the unknown, the fear of letting go, and the fear of forgetting all play a part in why people struggle with change. In Ceremony the crossing of cultures creates “half-breeds,” usually bringing disgrace to their family’s name. In Jodi Lundgren’s discourse, “Being a Half-breed”, is about how a girl who struggles with understanding what cultural group she fits into since she is a “half-breed.” Elizabeth Evasdaughter’s essay, “Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony”: Healing Ethnic Hatred by

There have been countless influential people in my life that I’ve come across. One who was a meticulous inspiration continues to be my grandfather. My grandmother had remarried to the one I call “grandpa” when I was at the age of five, and they both took to each other’s grandchildren as their own. With my mother and me only living a mile down the road from their farmhouse out in the country, I’d spent heaps amount of time there as a child. Indeed, I had been without a father but my grandfather stepped up to the plate and had taken me under his wing and willingly played the personification of a father figure.

It was a wonderful eye-opening experience to interview Carmen Anton, a Spanish immigrant for this project. I learned so many things about how she arrived in American as a small child with only her sister by her side and her strive to become American. The emotional struggles of Carmen and her sister, Elena, were real and I didn’t realize it was that emotionally draining to come to a new country. Her experience showed me how hard it is to fit into a new society knowing absolutely nothing about the world she was dropped into. The fact that she flew here with her younger sister and then live for three months without her parents to guide her in this unfamiliar setting, shows me how strong and brave Carmen was at the young age of eight. When she first came, she assumed it would be like

As Vance writes his book he provides an honest testimony of his life. He writes about difficult parts of his life that were no doubt hard to relive let alone write. Vance is an honest analysis of his own life and the lives of hillbillies because he retells painful truths from his past. He is honest because he writes scenes that not only paint his closest loved ones as less than appealing at times, but he also paints himself that way. He includes scenes about his much loved, respected, and revered for grandparents that shows that they weren’t perfect. “I'd like to tell you my grandparents thrived in their new environment, how they raised a successful family, and how they retired comfortably middle-class. But that is a partial truth. The full truth is that my grandparents struggled in their new life, and they continued to do so for decades.” (30) This is not the first or last time that Vance gives an honest assessment of himself and those around him, telling the painful truths about their shortcomings. He tells scenes that most people wouldn’t want to remember or have other people associate with their family. He talks about the parts that he admires like the hillbillies fierce loyalty, and he talks about the things that he wishes he could change, like their learned helplessness. It is J.D. Vance's honesty about the good and bad parts of his culture that help

The themes of the book “Memiors of Gluckel of Hameln” showed how family was important to the common Jew in Eastern Europe. Gluckel told her children about their relatives, from their grandparents to their great aunt’s second cousin, because in Jewish society it was especially important to know and respect one’s elders and ancestors. Gluckel wanted to be sure that her children knew “from what sort of people you have sprung, lest today or tomorrow your beloved children and grandchildren come and know naught of their family” (Hameln [32].) To make sure that her descendants would not be ashamed of their ancestors, she spent much of her time looking for respectable matches for her children. In the situation of Gluckel’s own family, she spoke fondly about her parent’s partnership: prior to the marriage, Gluckel’s mother’s family was destitute since Gluckel’s grandfather died from the plague. Gluckel’s father brought in The whole mother’s family and treated Gluckel’s grandmother like his own, showing the importance of respecting elderly family. “Immediately upon his marriage with my mother, my father brought my grandmother into his house and placed her at the head of the table. He provided for her for the rest of her life…and honoured her as though she were his own mother” (Hameln [19].)

“The Way of a Cherokee” by Foxxy is about her memories and experiences growing up as a young child with her sister, Sierra, and grandpa. She is a Native American that has lived in a world that is different from the world her grandpa grew up in. In addition, she learned to love and appreciate nature just like her grandpa did. I can relate to her relationship with her grandpa because I have created many memories with my grandpa. My grandpa told me stories about his childhood. In Foxxy’s essay she explores the relationship between identity and cultural history through physical location, family relationships, and language differences.

For this project, we both interviewed two of our relatives who all share the same ethnicity, but experienced life in different ways. Isabel’s mother and grandmother were born and raised in Mexico, while Jennifer’s mother and grandmother were born in the Midwest, but lived most of their lives in California. During the interviews, we found differences as well as similar points in their transitions and ideas of adulthood.

My grandma had survived a hard life, and yet managed to raise four responsible, well-educated, and successful children. All this she did while working as a respected psychiatric nurse and a state mental health board member. Although she had had and was still overcoming trials in life, I always knew she would be there and cared about me and my life. As my brother and I grew older and were unable to visit my grandparents as often as we

History isn’t always the glamorous and fast paced events like war, but sometimes it's just explaining things the average Joe might experience during his time on the Earth. This paper will not have any war or conflicts that are life or death for the delicate system of a community, but it's history nonetheless. The History of my family and how it connects to bring us decades later to where we are today.

My baba was born in a time when the only way you could have food on your plate for dinner was if you hunted it yourself. She would explain to me that “living in a communist country was one of the worst things I have ever seen or been through. Not only was my country communist, we were going through a famine. There was no way to get food because the government starved us. If I wanted to eat that day I would have to kill a bird or whatever else was around that day.” My grandma is a very strong woman. She grew up with 3 brothers and 1 sister, who were all older. She always wanted to be like her siblings. Because her siblings were all older, my grandmother was a very fast learner. They taught her what they were during in school so by the time she got to that grade level she already knew the information. My grandma

My mother had woken me up bright and early that day. She helped me with my outfit, my hair, my make-up, even made me a good breakfast. Grandmother joined us at the table and sipped her black coffee, giving me a few tips to ‘deal with the men’ at work. Mother shook her head and smiled,told her that i would be fine. Grandmother argued that was how she had gotten grandfather, which was surprising, she didn't like to talk about