Views on Assimilation in 'The Help'

For more than 300 years, immigrants from every corner of the globe have settled in America, creating the most diverse and heterogeneous nation on Earth. Though immigrants have given much to the country, their process of changing from their homeland to the new land has never been easy. To immigrate does not only mean to come and live in a country after leaving your own country, but it also means to deal with many new and unfamiliar situations, social backgrounds, cultures, and mainly with the acquisition and master of a new language. This often causes mixed emotions, frustration, awkward feelings, and other conflicts. In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, the author

With all the negative thoughts and feelings about his family, Rodriguez never took the time to repair his relationship with him and his family, because books were very important to him than his family. As Rodriguez begin to separate from his family and culture, his Spanish accent also begin to disappear, which he felt very excited. In the beginning of his article he talked about the first day, he enters the class and could “barely able to speak English” (239). Rodriguez felt that he did not fit in with the rest

Another reason is that children learn a language by imitating the sounds they hear (mimicry) without an accent. This enables children to obtain a correct diction. Here a child has a positive experience and is able to assimilate with ease. On the other hand, an elderly person will find the learning process a challenge and to a certain extent the situation might even be so burdensome that one loses interest in learning. In Amy Tan?s speech My Mother?s English, she explains the difficulties her mother faced because she (Tan?s mother) was unable to clearly express herself. She (Tan) also felt the effects of this as a child. Not only did Tan?s mother find speaking English a barrier in the process of assimilation, but Tan herself felt her mother limited her perception (Tan 45). Since Tan?s mother was unable to speak English properly people would not give her good service and would not treat her seriously even to the extant that people ?pretended not to understand her or even acted as if they did not hear her,?(Tan 45). This is just one example of many that shows how some people have had negative experiences assimilating into American society.

Correspondingly, Vargas has not only immersed himself into his new culture, but learned to love it as well. He “built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country” (Vargas). Even though he is living the American dream, he is also “living a different kind of reality… in fear of being found out (Vargas).” Because of his status, it is hard to live a “normal” life. Even with all he has done to “earn” citizenship, he is still unrecognized as

The particular focus of Rodriguez’s story is that in order to feel like he belonged to the “public society” he had to restrict his individuality. Throughout his story, Rodriguez discussed such topics as assimilation and heritage. He goes into depth about the pros and the cons of being forced to assimilate to the American culture. Growing up Hispanic in America was a struggle for Rodriguez. This was due to the fact that he was a Spanish-speaking boy living in an English-speaking society, and he felt like he was different than the other children. Rodriguez writes, “I was fated to be the ‘problem student’ in class” (Rodriguez 62). This is referring to Rodriguez’s improper knowledge of English. It made him stand out as the kid that was behind. He wanted to find the balance between the public and private face. He believed both were important to develop. As I read this story it changed the way I looked at people who speak different languages, and how it must be hard to fit in with society if you are not all fluent in English.

This situation is relative to real life instances of immigration, as those moving to America with the hopes of improving their own lives and the lives of their family members are, in some cases, unfamiliar with the English language. Therefore, they must somehow learn the ways of the new people surrounding them in order to be accepted in this environment and also be able to communicate with others so they can attempt to obtain jobs to support themselves and family. Understanding the same language clearly plays an important role in assimilating to new surroundings.

Navigating between cultures requires a person to blend in. Blending in is an access to get more opportunities and brighter careers. Munoz described his stepfather’s experience with the Anglicization of his name. Though unwilling to change his name from Antonio to Tony,

The culture of every ethnic group is beautiful in its own way and worth cherishing. Today, America is known as the great melting pot not for the number of immigrants it has but rather because of the wonderful cultures and traditions the immigrants brought with them. Immigrants do not need to forgo their mother tongue, significant celebrations or customs to become American. However to be socially accepted, they will need to learn English, take part in celebrating national holidays and fulfill their patriotic duties Americans like every other U.S citizens.

Acculturation can determine whether a first generation Salvadoran American student’s pursues higher education. As new immigrants immersed in the American culture, they have to adapt or comprehend the culture acceptable “behavior, values, language, and customs” in order to educational succeed (McCallister 2015). Moreover, California is a diverse state that first generation students come across a dilemma of longer period of time to dominate the native language. For instance, Lucy grew up in Central California, in a small Hispanic enclave. As a result, Lucy was exposed to Spanish conversations at home and in the community, except in the school. School provided Lucy the opportunity to apply the immersion technique:

However, in contrast to Espada’s claim about bilingualism, Rodriguez argues that, although uncomfortable and difficult, people need to learn the public language in order to effectively assimilate into society and have a public identity. He claims that he did not feel “American” until he was finally comfortable with English, when he says, “At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had technically been true since my birth: I was an American citizen” (121). Rodriguez is saying that before you can truly be a citizen, in all its definition, you must first be able to communicate in the language of the society. He also claims that the prominent language gives you a public identity in addition to your private language and identity

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

Having to live a life of two languages leads to an insecure identity. Rodriguez argues that learning both languages and using them rather than avoiding one, leads to a better sense of identity and freedom. Thus, his intended audience are people who are of higher education, scholars, and educators. Both himself, and the audience have shared values which entail: “independent thinking, self-knowledge”, education, “commitment to the affairs of the world”, and scholarship and intellect. Rodriguez convinces the audience to seriously consider his claim through effective appeals to ethos and pathos. Ethos is developed in the area of authority by personal anecdotes and in the area of credibility by shared values. Pathos is effectively evoked via experiences he had that make the audience more likely to pause and consider his claim.

The more days went by, the more they became Americans through and through. Assimilation was never by design, choice or any predetermined action. It was shaped through day-to-day conflicts and through interaction with other ethnic groups. Having a good advantage in English as their first language, they were able to participate in various activities that later shaped their destiny. Their children were able to attend schools. A number of various professionals were found in various economic sectors of the country. There were numerous policemen and women, preachers and teachers- a sign that clearly indicated that they were coming of age and that they were slowly overcoming the challenges that had bent them downwards. Soon they started making it into elective post. This was partly because of their improved economic status and partly due to their personality. Barrett noted that these people were activist and had embarked on various activities that benefited the community.

Rodriguez took on tremendous amount of responsibility for these changes. He took more responsibility than he probably should have; due to circumstances beyond his control he reached the stage he was in. Rodriguez portrayed this feeling when he mentioned, “I felt that I had shattered the intimate bond that had once held the family close. This original sin against my family told whenever anyone addressed me in Spanish and I responded confounded.” (231) His family members and his Americanization had taken that bond away. He felt that losing his ability to speak Spanish removed his ability to communicate with his family on an intimate level. Spanish used to be a secret bond between them and what tied them together.

After the Anglo-Americans secured their territory there was a large influx of immigrants. These immigrants were thought of wanting to become a part of the ‘American Dream’. Schmidt talks about how the immigrants want their children to be assimilated into American culture yet they would want their children to keep their own culture. This is where the school institutions come in and assimilate the children into the American culture. However, this kind of act of having them keep their own cultures is what assimilationists fear. There are some areas where a person would not need to know English. These areas would be their own ethnographic enclave. If this would persist the assimilationists would fear that the U.S. would start to look like separate countries instead of one unified nation. Schmidt also talks about how if the assimilationist views were to be imposed on the whole United States there are a few factors that could contribute to the undoing of a harmonious democracy and those are: