In Dinaw Mengestu's essay "Home at Last", the author describes his transition from Ethiopia to America and describes how the transition was easier for him, as child of 2 than it was for his parents who were far more familiar and entrenched with Ethiopia than he was.
In the book, Mengestu describes his challenges with trying to transition to America and trying to find a place where he really belongs. In Peoria, Illinois where his family moves after leaving Ethiopia, the author feels out of place since he was surrounded by white school, community institutions and churches. Moving to Washington DC where many Ethiopian immigrants lived, he still felt out of place and it was only when his parents moved to Brooklyn, in a neighborhood called Kensington, that Mengestu was finally able to gradually settle down. We see his gradual change as he adapts to life in Brooklyn. Before in Peoria, it was mostly White, but now he sees a composite of cultures. In Peoria he felt one out of many who seemed the same, while in Brooklyn he sees many immigrants who have had to, and do, settle down to a different home land. Mengesgtu tells us this when he says "If there was one thing I admired most about [Brooklyn immigrants], it was that they had succeeded, at least partly, in recreating in Brooklyn some of what they had lost when they left their countries of origin" (16). This refers to their success in acclimatizing regardless of foreign country and nostalgia for place they had left behind.
Through the personal stories of his hair, love life, and behavior, Liu is able to show the effects of his assimilation. The second section deals with Liu’s struggles to conform to white stereotypes as an Asian American. With his personal anecdotes, he establishes himself as a more credible source to speak on the subject of assimilation. The second section uses narration to provide evidence about Liu’s definition of assimilation.
In “All American” by David Hernandez he talks about how confusing it is to be here, how odd it is to be of a different skin tone than other people and how he felt in those other places he
On the eve of the narrator and his family 's departure for the United States after twelve years of residence in Paris, the narrator is being chided by his wife and visiting sister about his nightmares. He is worried about his return to the racist United States after such a long absence and what effect it will have on his multiracial family and his career.
In 1998, Eric Liu wrote a book about his struggle with acculturation titled “The Accidental Asian”. A chapter within the book called “Notes of a Native Speaker” depicts an essay written by Liu which fully describes his struggles with race and how he overcame them. Eric Liu is an American born Taiwanese Asian. His parents immigrated to the United States before he was born and in so, gave him a mixed cultural background. He started becoming a writer after attending Yale University and graduating from Harvard Law School. In his “Notes of a Native Speaker” author Eric Liu argues that as he was “becoming white” he was achieving, learning the ways of the upper
Growing up in Ghana, I had heard a lot of things about the U.S. This was a country I had always wanted to visit; my prayer was answered when I got the opportunity to travel there. Arriving in a new environment came with many experiences. Adjusting with food, language and the weather was not easy. With the passage of time, however I have been able to0 adjust and fit it. This write-up therefore is to elaborate on my experiences since coming to U.S.
The first day in the United States is one of the best day and most thrilling days in my life. My father and my older sister move to Malaysia to get a job and support our family due to financial difficulty and lack of job opportunity in Burma. After a few years, my father and my sister were able to enter as immigrant and they were sent to the United States as immigrants through United Nation. After being apart with my father and my sister for more than a decade, my parents decide to move completely to America where more opportunities are available for a brighter future. My family faces many obstacles during the process of migrating to America. Despite all the struggle that are on our way, my family finally arrives in the United States and face major changes in life.
You rarely hear of a situation in which an immigrant is welcomed into a new country and makes an easy and happy life there. The American Dream most people look for is very difficult to reach. There are many things you have to go through and many stages of life you will be held back on but there are some people who change the views of this and push through. Garnette Cadogan was a walker, but little did he know his walking would change the way people saw him and the same goes for Older, he didn’t know his letter to his wife would relate so closely to the way other people lived. In “Black and Blue”, Cadogan discusses his life as an immigrant. When Cadogan moved to the United States, he realized that being a different color made the people around you automatically fear you. While attending college in the US Cadogan completely changed the way he acted around the police and other people. In “This Far: Notes on Love and Revolution” author, Daniel Older writes a letter to his wife explaining why she should not fear moving to a new place and bringing a child of color into the world. In both “Black and Blue” and “This Far: Notes on Love and Revolution” the authors Older and Cadogan tell us about their fears of moving to a new place. Not just because of their race, but because of how limited their growth could be due to moving to a new country.
In the story “Four Stations in His Circle”, Austin Clarke reveals the negative influences that immigration can have on people through characterization of the main character, symbols such as the house that Jefferson dreams to buy and the time and place where the story takes place. The author demonstrates how immigration can transform someone to the point that they abandon their old culture, family and friends and remain only with their loneliness and selfishness.
Author, Pablo Medina, in his reflective memoir, “Arrival: 1960” illustrates his transition from Cuba to New York as a young boy. Medina describes how his first impressions differed from what he thought he would encounter. He faced new challenges, involving his race, that never occurred back in Cuba. By reflecting on this experience in a first person point of view, Medina depicts the disappointment that he and other immigrants face while adapting to their new world.
Transitioning from the Democratic Republic Of Congo to the United States was a challenge that my family and I had to overcome. The main reason why we moved was because my father wanted a better life for my siblings and me. My father did not make enough money to pay for our education, food, housing, and other things. With the little money that he did make, he would give some to my mom so she could buy clothes and sell them in order to put food on the table. More often than not my mom was unable to sell anything so, we would go to my uncle's house to see if he could provide us with at least rice to eat with sugar. In my family's eyes, at least, the rice was better than not eating at all. One day, my father's friend called him and told him that there was a lottery game people were playing and if you won, you would be given the chance to go to the United States. My dad was the only one from my family who was allowed to play and after eight months had passed we were informed that we won! We were all so happy and ready to start a new life in America! The new excitement about moving to a better
Immigration makes up of the United States. The life of an immigrant faces many struggles. Coming to the United States is a very difficult time for immigrant, especially when English is not their first language. In Oscar Handlin’s essay, Uprooted and Trapped: The One-Way Route to Modernity and Mark Wyman’s Coming and Going: Round Trip to America, both these essays describes the life of immigrants living in America and how they are able to make a decent amount of money to support their families. Handlin’s essay Uprooted and Trapped: The One - Way Route to Modernity explains how unskilled immigrants came to adapt to the American life working in factories to make a living. In the essay, Coming and Going: Round Trip to America, this essay describes the reality of many immigrants migrating to the United States in the midst of the Industrial Revolution. Many were living and adjusting to being transnational families. Both these essays show how the influx of immigration and industrialization contributed to the making of the United States. With the support from documents 3 and 7, Thomas O’ Donnell, Immigrant Thomas O’Donnell Laments the Worker’s Plight, 1883 and A Slovenian Boy Remembers Tales of the Golden Country, 1909, these documents will explain the life of an immigrant worker in the United States. Although, the United States was portrayed as the country for a better life and a new beginning, in reality, the United
Dinaw Mengestu talks about his life long trouble with his society and fitting in with the people of his community. Born in Ethiopia and raised in the States confused him and made him feel like he doesn’t belong anywhere. He doesn’t feel like he was ever part of the Ethiopian society and is not accepted in the United States, as an American. I understand his situation, not because I went through what he has but I’ve lived around people that have. During high school I had a Persian friend who’s parents have immigrated to Bahrain, and he felt like he didn’t belong in the country he also didn’t feel like he was a Persian at all, because he has never been there. It was difficult on him to make friends, and people made him feel like an outsider. But like Mengestu my friend slowly adapted to his surrounding and didn’t identify
The life story of Josef Mengele is one that is filled many twists and turns that play out like a suspense story with an ending that does not seem to fit what one would expect. The authors of the book Mengele: The Complete Story, Gerald L. Posner and John Ware, wrote this book largely with information taken from diaries and letters of Mengele’s, and interviews with those who knew him. It is a look into the life and times of a man whose nickname was “The Angel of Death.'; Josef’s life and post-mortem fate could be divided into three different chapters. His pre-war life and life during World War II was one of privilege and freedom to satisfy his perverse desire to perform bizarre and mostly useless medical
“I was happy immigrating to America was like getting a pass to Heaven to all Ethiopians - When I was a child I didn’t know how America was, I only heard that it was one of the best countries in the world.” he continues, “I didn’t know exactly how it looked or how it was affected post world war 2, I just new I could get a job and start my life there after marrying my wife - Nigist Bitew.” In Ethiopia there wasn’t TV’s that showed how America looked like back in the 1980s, many of the TV’s only displayed news that occurred in the country of Ethiopia. When Mengistu was asked how immigrating to America was he answered without hesitation, “For me immigrating to America was easy, I did an interview, and a test along with medical tests - I was lucky to get the settlement in my journey in Kenya.” When asked what Mengistu missed he paused to think, “ - I don't remember much, but I do miss my mother and the country in general - that's all I can say.” he added, “I couldn’t do anything leaving my family behind. I had to continue for a better life for myself, and one day be able to support my family I left
Dinaw Mengestu travels to America at a very young age, and as we travel through his life he shows us that a person can assimilate with surrounding cultures and be in touch with his Ethiopian culture. He uses personification to show what his life felt like being in a new country. Dinaw begins to think that he has lost everything coming to America as he was ¨Stripped bare¨ and lived in ¨small towns and urban suburbs.¨ (Mengestu 213). Mengestu lives in Kensington, Brooklyn with many different cultures around him. He thought that he had nothing and was stripped from everything he once had in Ethiopia . It puts the reader into perspective in what he felt like he was going through at the moment. Living in a small town outside of Brooklyn he discovers