Personal Narrative: Learning To Embrace My Identity

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

It is not uncommon to hear one recount their latest family reunion or trip with their cousins, but being a first generation immigrant, I sacrificed the luxury of taking my relatives for granted for the security of building a life in America. My parents, my brother, and I are the only ones in my family who live in the United States, thus a trip to India to visit my extended family after 4 years was an exciting yet overwhelming experience. Throughout the trip, I felt like a stranger in the country where I was born as so many things were unfamiliar, but there were a few places that reminded me of my childhood.

A person has always been able to choose to what extent their cultural experiences affect their perspective. Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds,” Bharati Mukherjee’s, “Two Ways to Belong in America,” and Robert Lake’s, “An Indian Father’s Plea,” all show how the main characters have chosen to let their experiences have an effect on their cultural identity. A person’s cultural experiences shape perception based on their own identifications and they may chose to assimilate to different cultures.

Where one grows up affects their lifestyle and character; one’s surroundings shape his or her outlook on the world. Many people always say when growing up in the city one will be used to a diverse, hasty going, and exhilarating life; while growing up in the country one will be used to a deliberate, steadier, and bucolic life. Although moving to Mississippi was a dramatic alteration, I can explicitly acknowledges the menaces–death, robberies, and fights–encountered growing up in the city. Therefore, moving to the south may have been a better alternative involving my physical well-being, regardless of the many emotional struggles. Moving down south to Mississippi from Illinois showed me the struggles of coping with racism and prejudice people,

As an uncultured, whitewashed, charter school Indian, going into high school trying to find an extracurricular activity for me was a bit of a challenge. I was very unexposed to my culture, and had friends who showed me something I could be apart of. When I saw what it was, I turned the other way as fast as I could. We walked into the Canton cafeteria on a Tuesday after school, and I can truly say I’ve never seen so many Indians gathered in one place—on time—for the same cause. It honestly felt like being back in the motherland, and never do I want to go back there. I look ahead with the only two Indian friends I had standing at my sides and as I stand in awe, they go about greeting everyone and catching up. I’ve never felt so out of place, which was was weird considering everyone usually knew who I was, but I had no idea who any of these people were.

In sixteen years of life, I have received an opportunity to experience different cultures, learning styles, and languages. To start of, I am an American since I was born here, but the reality is that I was raised in India. My parents’ main motivation for moving back to India was because they wanted us to embrace our traditions, and most importantly, value our family relationships. We relocated back to the US at the start of 9th grade. This transition was a huge factor for transforming me as a person. I am cognizant of the two systems, cherish both, and realize that these multicultural experiences have encouraged me to grow and mature beyond my years. Relocating from a place is not as easy as one can imagine. When compared to the US, India

I grew up in a family where my father was a doctor and my mother a homemaker, both immigrants from Pakistan hoping to achieve the American dream. Growing up in a white-dominant community and attending a high school with predominantly, white students and teachers, I was restricted in my growth and freedom. I was treated differently by my friends, peers and faculty members as I tried to acclimate to the American culture. My low social status, identity as a student in my high school was due to my race and gender. My race, defined by my phenotypic traits, compelled my peers and teachers to treat me differently, because of association with an inferior race. Despite being born in America, my foreign looks and association with another country, led me to be captured by the chains of racial profiling. My family, my low-social status in a White-dominated institution and my membership in primary groups were all pivotal aspects that have allowed me to attend UC Davis, where I plan to combat the low expectations of my Pakistani race.

I was born and raised in Chicago, but am a daughter of immigrants. My father chased his dream and is the proud owner and operator of an Indian restaurant, while my mother sacrificed her dream career and disregards her educational degree to work as a bank teller to help raise me my brother and me. Though my parents are happy, I wonder how things would turn out if they were raised here. All our conflicts and differences in opinions and values are because I was raised here. Growing up in the Oswego school district, a majority white population, I often was told who I was and who I wasn’t and withheld from who I wanted to be. I ran away from my roots. The bullying and harassment I faced, led to the numerous insecurities I hold. No matter what happened

In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) a teenage boy named Junior, explains his struggle of breaking the cycle of his indigenous people and moving between an Indian American reservation (the ‘rez’) and a mainstream school in a town called Reardon. The protagonist explains, through first-person accounts, his life on the reservation and his experiences as he attempts to break the cycle of alcoholism and poverty that is imposed on him merely because he is an Indigenous American. One theme that remains constant throughout the novel is that of lack of hope that the Indians have for their futures, they see no need for dreams or hopes as, for them, there is no way that they can achieve any more than any of their ancestors. Another theme that is present through Part-Time Indian is poverty and the cycle of negative events that lead to it continuing. This leads to the Indigenous Americans having no hope. An extremely broad theme that is present in this novel is identity. Junior explains very simply how being Native American leads to his peoples’ inevitable poverty. There are many aspects in Part-Time Indian where some actions and habits are considered normal.

Many people are proud of their cultural legacies and ties to their heritage. This can be pride in their country of origin or pride in their cultural history in America. In “The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It?” Alice Walker explains that the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s continues to impact African Americans because it gave them the confidence to stand up for their rights and claims, “If the civil rights movement is ‘dead’ and if it gave us nothing else, it gave us each other forever.” Every group seen as a minority has a detailed history in this country that impacts each member of the group personally. Along with a general cultural history, many people’s identities are affected by their own family’s history in America. Family traditions and heritage shape children and form each child into the person they will be. Families share the stories of ancestors, old or new, coming to America for a new life. For some, traditions are kept and passed from generation to generation, while others naturally assimilate like Asian American author Eric Liu explains in “Notes of a Native Speaker.” He plainly states, “I don’t mean that my parents told me to act like an American… they didn’t tell me to do anything except to be a good boy.” Whether or not a person chooses to assimilate to American culture, many experience a

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.

This article analyses the issue of race, ethnicity and immigration in the United States. Primarily focusing on the first and second generation of West Indians in the United States. The article takes on board the factors which may be influencing the immigrants experience and perspectives of their identity. These factors include topics such as assimilation, acculturation, social mobility and interaction. Waters conducts a qualitative study on the West Indian immigrants and their teenage children within New York. The study involved 83 interviews at various inner city schools. Research concludes that the West Indians are capable of balancing out their identities as West Indian and American. Water raises awareness that immigrants are constantly

Adolescents experience a multitude of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social, and mental changes during a short span of years in their developmental journey to adulthood, and this transition period is full of many developmental changes and milestones. Some typical changes and milestones in an adolescent’s life include puberty, learning to drive, dating, developing new social relationships and social roles, cognitive changes, becoming sexually active, obtaining employment, and graduating high school. In addition to all of these changes in this tumultuous time of life, adolescents are identifying, developing, and coming to terms with their own sense of self, and learning about their identity becomes a priority. Teens and young adults must also address certain challenges that may arise in their lives such as bullying, drug and alcohol use, violence, sexual abuse, eating disorders, depression or other mood/mental health issues, and issues concerning sexuality, and gender identity. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is an engaging story that deals with many of the challenges that all adolescents face, and this novel also addresses challenges that are unique to those teens who may be grappling with issues that face minority cultures and communities as well.

Being a first-generation immigrant, my childhood was shaped by the constant struggle to fit in. Instead of learning from my parents, we grew alongside one another in awareness and understanding of what the American identity truly is. As the language barrier was a greater impediment to my parents than myself, I learned to speak for my parents, and I matured rather quickly. As a young child, I was bothered by the fact that I was different from my peers. However, it is this difference that has led me to discover three families outside my home: Benet Academy, Best Buy, and Edward Hospital. These families have accepted my differences with compassion, which in turn has positively influenced the way I think of others. Each of these families have contributed

Indian-Americans ranging from ages 16-24 that are first generation Americans undergo the stages of minority identity development. They are commonly placed in environments which force them to question their own identity. As they communicate with peers, they question themselves and their personal beliefs and customs. Occasionally, they view the majority culture as better than their own and may develop negative feelings of their Indian household upbringing. One may feel the need to internalize the values of the dominant culture of the community and change to fit the status quo. This is especially difficult for Indian-Americans because so many things that they are taught within the home are not normal for the majority culture therefore presenting a major division and causing an uproar in the home. Parents tend to view “normal” majority culture attributes as