Dilemma of Immigrants in America Essay

In her essay “My Two Lives,” Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian American, explains the balance between the identities of the two countries inside her heart, as well as her psychological struggle between her bicultural identities. She describes herself as an Indian-American because she moved with her family from India to the United States when she was very young. However, confused with her identity through her growth, she feels that she doesn’t belong to either of the two countries because of its completely different cultures. When she is at home, she deals with her parents in an Indian way, which is strange compared to the American way that she come across outside. She says that she has a distinctive identity in spite of her Indian appearance

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

America as we know it today has been shaped by immigrants. It can be argued that America shapes immigrants as well. It is a nation that people, nationalist or foreign-born, desire to assimilate partially or fully into. According to a New York University professor, “Immigration, however, played a key role not only in making America’s development possible but also in shaping the basic nature of the society” (Diner, p. 2). It is a nation built on this idea of the “American dream” which varies depending on the person. However, it is something that holds steadily in an immigrant’s mind that is possible to achieve. America’s past, present and certainly future will be formed by immigrants, and once they get here America will coincidentally form their being as well.

Immigrants’ refusal to appreciate a fused culture promotes division. Mukherjee questions the idea of immigrants losing their culture for American ideals: “Parents express rage or despair at their U.S.-born children's forgetting of, or indifference to, some aspects of Indian culture,” to that Mukherjee asks, “Is it so terrible that our children are discovering or are inventing homelands for themselves?” (Mukherjee, 1997, para. 28). Many immigrants experience anger when their children no longer hold the ideals of their home country. This tension produced within the household hinders the unity within a resident country’s culture and encourages division within families. Using herself as an example, Mukherjee provides another instance of anger directed at her from her own subculture: “They direct their rage at me because, by becoming a U.S.

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.

The idea of the naming system in the Ju/’hoansi was very interesting to be because there were a few parallels that could be drawn between what is seen in the United States and there. Although our naming practices are not as complex, when you meet someone with the same name as you or someone you love there is an indescribable bond that can be formed. This connection although not as intense as in the Ju/’hoansi seeing each other as related is something that many people hold to a high importance. In the section of Dettwyler, it was humbling to see that the author takes the times to create relationships with her participants instead of treating them as if they were just the place she was getting data from.

In the novel Jasmine, Bharati Mukherjee talks about the hardships that Jasmine faced throughout her life. First, Jasmine had to witness her husband's death. Second, she had to find a way into America. Lastly, she was raped and abused by Half Face.

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.

Jasmine was obviously an independent girl who rejected the societal way of thinking and demanded that she control her life. But, Jasmine

However, she later changes her identity again once in America. Once she encounters a near-rape experience from a mutilated man which results in her kills him. Jasmine is now striped of her old identity by cutting her own tongue. The removal of her tongue coincide the silencing of Jasmine’s voice and completely removal of Jyoti’s identity. Killing a man is not something that suits Jyoti’s character as she is supposed to be submit to men. According to her culture, Jyoti needs to be pure in order to gain a man; once with a man then her life is fulfilled. However, once she killed the man, Jyoti can no longer submit and is also killed. Jasmine’s identity is essentially silenced, signified by the tongue cutting. Jasmine’s English abilities, her tone, and her passion is what brought her to Prakash. Yet once she experienced the dismay, she views herself no longer worthy of being Prakash’s, so Jasmine is silenced by cutting her own tongue. This can be view as the overall silencing of her own culture as after this event she does not speak of her culture until meeting Taylor. She tries to become a part of American by completely abandoning her own culture and tries to fill it later on with the American culture. This attempt is common within 1st generation of Asian Americans who try to immediately be a part of the American culture.

Jasmine, a punjab sacrificing her life living through different identity going back and forth with her life in Punjab and the US. With her struggles of accepting a life in the US, she went through many sacrifice to accept her new life. She had different names in the US because each name was a significance to her life experience She was brought to florida from Punjab illegally. The author Bharati M wanted to write a book to express themes as isolation, sexism, discrimination, the mistreatment of Indian women, and exploring identities. In Jasmine, Bharati Mukherjee establishes that gender plays a role in the determination of status in Hindu culture.she also utilizes Jasmine’s changing of names to represent the physical dominance of the culture,

Jasmine journeys through different continents, as also through hunger, ill-treatment, violence, rape and murder but she is not frightened at any times since her mission, her death-wish can be fulfilled only in the desired but alien new land. She is willing to make all compromises and adjustments; hence there are no deeply stirring situations. She hops from place and person to

His individuality and strong presence was what attracted her to him. When recounting how Praksash wanted her to call him by his first name, Jyoti said, “In Hasnapur wives used only pronouns to address their husbands. The first months, eager and obedient as I was, I still had a hard time calling him Prakash” (77). The conflict she has trying to call him by his name shows the difference between how she lived in Hasnapur before Prakash and how she is after she marrieshim. Prakash also insists on calling Jyoti, Jasmine. Prakash plays an important role in Jasmine's life because he is the first person who helped Jasmine become more conscious of the modern world and the opportunities it holds. Prakash is a modern man as it is revealed, “My husband, Prakash Vijh, was a modern man, a city man” (76). He is determined to live in a modern way that is the reason why he does “trash some traditions” (76). He expects Jyoti to change her ways, “He wanted to break down the Jyoti I’d been in Hasnapur and make me a new kind of city woman. To break off the past, he gave me a new name: Jasmine…Jyoti, Jasmine: I shuttled between identities” (77). The narrator’s gradual change in how she referrers to herself from Jyoti to Jasmine shows how she is viewed by others and how she accepts this new identity. Later on, Jyoti reveals,

Jasmine is a fifteen year old female princess from a place called Agrabah which is located in a desert in the Middle East. She is a princess by decent as she is the daughter of the Sultan. In the movie she must choose a suitor in three day before her birthday as it is the day she and her suitor will become the Sultan and the Sultan’s wife.

    The complex journey of immigration and the hardships immigrants undergo are common themes in Bharati Mukherjee's writings. The author, an immigrant herself, tries to show the darker side of immigration, especially for Hindu women, that is not often portrayed in other immigrant narratives. In the novel, Jasmine Mukhedee uses three types of immigrants to show how different the hardships of adhering to life in an adopted country can be. Her main immigrant characters fall mainly into three categories: the refugee, the hyphenated immigrant, and the chameleon. The refugee immigrant type is seen in Jasmine's father, Pitaji and in the Proffessodi and his wife, Nirmala. The character Du is