The background of both narrators of “Mericans” and “In response to Executive Order 9066” comes from a Japanese or a Mexican-decent who are realizing cultural differences from their American life. However, the mistreating of a girl by her best friend compared to a girl who finds significant change between her two worlds that is tested by every cultures costumes of being victims of racial discrimination. The short story “Mericans” and the poem “In response to Executive Order 9066” can be a universal conflict between diverse heritage and cultural backgrounds that are determined by how America sees society.
The poem “In Response to Executive Order 9066” by Dwight Okita has a central theme of discrimination towards Japanese-Americans which is written in a first person point of view of a young girl who experiences a cultural differences between where she came from and the culture she grew up in. Also, the author uses a hyperbole in line 6 of the poem, saying “We’re best friends” allowing the author to emphasize that they
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The author creates a mood of being irritating by her “…awful grandmother…” and brothers “…Alfredito and Enrique…” who are occupied playing outside as “… a B-Fifty-two bomber…” [paragraph 5] and her grandmother with a “… long, long list of relatives … names of the dead and the living into one long prayer…” [paragraph 10]. Including, the imagery provided in the short story described the character’s actions by watching her grandmother pray while she counts her grandmother’s mustache hairs. Later, an unknown lady and man start talking to her brother asking if she could take a picture, than judging by their looks, they assume they do not speak English but only
Writers such as Dwight Okita and Sandra Cisneros were greatly influenced by the American culture. "Response to Executive Order 9066" by Dwight Okita, and "Mericans" by Sandra Cisneros both authors establish the topic of American identity. In Okita's poem, American identity has more to do with how you experience culture than with where your family came from. Both Okita's poem and Cisneros's short story show that cultural heritage and physical appearances do not determine what it means to be American.
The author of "Response to Executive Order 9066" builds characterization through two groups of people during world war 2. The literary analysis of the story is that Japanese-Americans are not enemies to the united states , and that they are citizens just like everyone else. The excerpt shows how the author is indifferent from the rest of society and that she is the same as any American teenage girl because , she shares the same language , interest , and hobbies as other girls. The authors tone in the "Response to Executive Order 9066" is confused because she as an individual has done nothing wrong to have these type of actions evoked on her.
In “Illegal Alien” Pat Mora writes about the problem of the difficulty people have communicating when they are of different backgrounds. For years now people have been judged by their skin color, their race, or where the originally come from. In “Illegal Alien” Pat Mora gives us a good example of this as the character in her poem goes through this trial of being from both the Mexican and the American cultures. Pat Mora indicates her difficulties that she is going through being born into two different cultures.
In a poem written about the calling of Japanese-Americans to internment camps during WWII, author Dwight Okita writes from the perspective of a young girl who sees herself as an American but is surrounded by those who cast her out. She does everything to prove that she belongs and justifies that by convincing the audience of her American qualities. “If it helps any, I will tell you I have always felt funny using chopsticks and my favorite food is hot dogs. My best friend is a white girl named Denise.” Okita’s use of this 14 year old girl adds power behind his words because the perspective of a child can humble a reader and bring them to a point of deeper understanding. In the poem, the girl is so young and understands nothing about what lies ahead, but she knows well enough to present herself as an American, as one who truly belongs. The pressure on immigrants to belong in the United states is imminent in this piece, and the fact that the young girl has picked up on this expectation is almost disturbing. The stigma around those who are different is also included in Okita’s
In ''Response to Executive Order 9066'' by Dwight Okita tells the story of a little girl during the war and how she was treated because of her heritage and race. Being accused of being an informant for the enemy because of her families ancestry. In this short story it really shows how your families ancestry does not determine your American identity because their heritage can not prove they work for the American
The girl in Executive order 9066 is discriminated against by her friend because she is of Japanese decent. The children in "Mericans" are discriminated against by their grandmother because she thinks the American ways are barbaric. They both are about the way that people judge others without even trying to get to know them or see what its like for them. Most people go by what others say. So if someone says that Japanese people are all enemies then that is what everyone will
On February 19th, 1942, president Teddy Roosevelt signed executive orders to have all Japanese Americans on the west coast be removed detained and excluded. Without a question answered, the Japanese Americans were interned by the U.S government's orders. America was at war with the Japanese, so they took extra precautions to make sure America was at its safest. Although this was only out of protection, the U.S government did not do the right thing by interning the Japanese Americans. The government didn’t understand how to handle a precaution like this, the people made false accusations about the Japanese, and since they had Japanese ancestors and they were already at war with the Japanese, not many people had much trust in them, if not any.
In Dwight Okita's, "Response to Executive Order 9066", he has input from his own experience of mistreatment based on his ethnicity. I know that the attack on Pearl Harbor just occurred, but this was targeting Okita, just because he was from Asian descent. An example of this is, "You're trying to start a war', she said, ' Giving secrets away to the enemy, why can't you keep your mouth shut?"(Okita). This shows that just because of the fear stuck in the heart of Americans, we fear what we do not know. This also shows that because of his ethnicity, people are early to judge. This is a prime example of judging someones ethnicity, and not what they claim themselves as, in this case Japanese-AMERICAN.
Julia Alvarez displays a beautifully written piece of literature in “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”, describing a family's experience during the revolution in the Dominican Republic and how these drastic changes to their lives impacted them individually. In this piece of literature Julia actively portrays Dominican teenagers adjusting to American life and desperately trying to discover themselves as they’re struggling to comply with their parents strict rules and Americans heinous ridicule and judgement. Alvarez is often congratulated for accurately portraying the cultural shift majority of foreigners are impacted by, and especially those who’ve shared similar experiences with the Garcia family such as being pushed away from their homes and sense of security, family, and everything they’ve known since they were kids solely by the cruel revolution going on there during that time. In the beginning of the book, Alvarez begins with Yolanda finally returning back home to the Dominican Republic for
Back in the 1940s, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were faced with racism and hate each and every day. Simply because Japanese Americans looked like the perpetrators involved with the bombing, they were considered to be the enemy. An irrational fear of all people of Japanese descent was quick to settle within Americans. Fear, with the help of outrageous propaganda, soon turned into blatant racism. A cocktail blend of fear, propaganda, hate, and a dash of hypocrisy intoxicated the minds of many Americans, including government authorities like the President, who indirectly ordered the internment of thousands of Japanese Americans. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 states, “the successful prosecution of the
James D. Houston showed the pains and suffering of every Japaneses American who were sent into the work camps of the United States. But he doesn’t do this alone he uses the help of his co-writer Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. Together they write an accurate depiction of the life of a Japanese girl who at the age of 8 was put into one of these Japanese works camps. After being sent to this camp, her family is destroyed leaving a lasting impact on her life. The emotion of this book as well as the information brought into this book all ties back to Jeanne’s goal as wanting to show ethnic diversity in the United States.
Every immigrant has a personal story, pains and joys, fears and victories, and Junot Díaz portrays much of his own story of immigrant life in “Drown”, a collection of 10 short stories. In each of his stories Diaz uses a first-person narrator who is observing others to speak on issues in the Hispanic community. Each story is related, but is a separate picture, each with its own title. The novel does not follow a traditional story arc but rather each story captures a moment in time. Diaz tells of the barrios of the Dominican Republic and the struggling urban communities of New Jersey.
In Okita's poem the main character talks about the injustice she experienced after the wake of Executive Order 9066. Also the poem gives example of how this order changed the public image of Japanese Americans. One of the major examples is that with the issue of executive order 9066 there was little trust for the Japanese Americans. Because of this many Americans felt scared, and worried from fear of sabotage spying by the Japanese Americans, and just to trust them with handling your food. Because of these reasons many prejudices were forced upon the main character who had to fight through her own waves of discrimination at school by showing her American identity to her classmates before being sent off to the internment camps.
Collectively, these literary images go to describe a young ethnic man, probably of Latin descent, who lives with his mother in a poverty stricken area. The careful recitation of instruction given to the younger man seems to demonstrate an intricate knowledge the narrators has accrued from both predecessors and experience. Singularly, this part of the story is very powerful in that it shows a young man having to hide who he is and where he comes from in an effort to seem appealing to women, and speaks volumes about the deception that both genders go through all in name of the chase.
The author was a prized student anxious and eager to learn. He used to isolate himself from his family and hide in his closet to read books. Too eager he started to lose his heritage. “Proudly I announced- to my family’s startled silence-that the teacher said I was losing all traced of my Spanish accent.” His family began to tease him calling him four eyes and asking what he sees in those books