Analysis Of Held At A Distance, By Rebecca G. Haie

Established cultural identities facilitate the acquisition of a clear mentality and higher self-confidence. Unfortunately, a change in one’s Established cultural identities facilitate the acquisition of a clear mentality and higher self-confidence. Unfortunately, a change in one’s surroundings during childhood and adolescence and therefore obtaining more than one cultural identity can inhibit this aforementioned process and conversely make one’s quest of self-discovery more difficult. Likewise, in Rebecca G. Haile’s captivating novel, Held at a Distance, she eloquently describes her bittersweet past and her courageous journey back to her once beloved country, not only to immerse herself in her Ethiopian culture, but also to resolve her negative
As a result, Haile’s values and ambitions adapted to American expectations of being successful, with her graduating from an American high school, earning a scholarship to attend Williams College, advancing her education even further by successfully completing law school at Harvard, and afterwards “working at a large law firm in Washington and New York” (Haile, 15) Correspondingly, as her values became increasingly modified to become successful in a competitive American society, Haile gradually became less immersed in her Ethiopian culture, inducing inner turmoil. While Haile no longer felt completely Ethiopian, she also did feel entirely American, which was also one of her reasons for her journey back to Ethiopia. Consequently, her sudden exile established an insurmountable barrier of cultural ambiguity she could not overcome, even after completing her journey back to Ethiopia. Similarly, Haile also violated a second component of adolescent identity formation since she lacked sufficient time and dedication to routinely engage in religious
during adolescence, nearly identical to what Haile experienced. First and second generation Ethiopian immigrants were used in the experiment in order to reinforce the study’s validity and relevance among the steadily increasing Ethiopian population in the Washington, D.C. area. The study is well aware of the multitude of difficulties immigrants encounter once they are situated in a completely different environment, asserting “young immigrants may have to cope with the anxieties associated with concerns about preserving, relinquishing, or transforming their defining cultural traits while attempting to fit into mainstream society.” (Chacko) Nevertheless, the study obtains a striking resemblance to Haile’s predicament except that participants in the study had less difficulty assimilating into the American culture and accepting their multiple cultural identities. However, this is likely because some of the participants had a sufficient amount of time to repeatedly engage in their Ethiopian culture prior to their immigration which is supported by the article’s explicit observation that most of the first and second generation participants in the experiment acquired parents who took proactive measures in reinforcing their Ethiopian culture among their children. Regardless of what specific actions were taken to maintain the participants’