Preview

Cultural Differences Between 'Hapa And Legal Alien'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
334 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Cultural Differences Between 'Hapa And Legal Alien'
Cultural Differences

“What are you? People say this to me as a pick up line in a bar or a question to prove their own assumptions about my race.” (Lee, 41).’ This quote shows how having different culture affected the way people lived as it is shown in the story “Hapa” as well as the poem “Legal Alien”. People with different cultural backgrounds have been judged based on their appearances. The authors from “Hapa” and “Legal Alien” both explained how they must tolerate other people by the way they treated them. Cultural differences can change a person’s life in a negative way by being stereotyped, and by being mistreated because of an unalike background.

Many people with different culture has been stereotyped based on the image that they

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    As a result of her parent’s decision, Tanya Barrientos(2011) explains in a somber tone how she rejected her cultural identity because she wanted to fit in with her new fellow Americans. She paints a portrait of how Americans during that time were not culturally tolerant, and expected those who entered America to leave their culture at the border. Thus, she felt that being a “Mexican” had a negative connotation. She states, “To me, speaking Spanish translated into being poor. It meant waiting tables and cleaning hotel rooms” (p. 57). Thus, she took pride in not being able to speak her native tongue; and, furthermore, she took pride in her American peers saying that she did not seem Mexican. The authors states that comments such as those “made me feel superior. It made me feel American. It made me feel white” (p. 58).…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    By telling a story of Lee’s mother, the author demonstrated that the native people looked down upon foreign people who had difficulties to live in a new circumstance and could not speak English well to express what they wanted and thought. With the discrimination from the native people, Lee’s family struggled a lot in this community. The audience is the people who did not show respect to the foreigners and did not help them overcome the difficulties.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As I see it, Americo Paredes’s poem “The Mexico-Texan” and Pat Mora’s poem “Legal Alien” are really connected since both authors, in their poems, express the same idea of how is to live in the border and being Mexican American. In Mora´s poem we can detect a feeling of desperation and frustration when she writes “an American to Mexicans, a Mexican to Americans.”Paredes’s poem also emphasizes this idea of not knowing where you really belong when he says “he no gotta country , he no gotta flag”…

    • 87 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “Borderlands means you”, Anzaldua expresses how dominant culture forces one to assimilate to societal norms, but in doing so one must shed aspects of their culture or identity. Anzaldua’s poem discusses the internal conflict one faces to represent all cultures of their multiracial background as it competes with dominant culture's expectations. Anzaldua illustrates this by saying, “The mill with the razor white teeth wants to shed off your olive-red skin, crush out the kernel your heart”(37-38). She uses the mill metaphor to compare a kernel in a mill to the process an individual faces when one is pressured to conform. The “kernel” , “your heart” or “olive-red skin” can be seen as your identity being central to…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Analysis of Barefoot Heart

    • 1879 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The term immigrant is defined as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence” (“Immigrant”). In her autobiography, Barefoot Heart, Elva Trevino Hart speaks of her immigrant ways and how she fought to become the Mexican-American writer she is today. She speaks about the working of land, the migrant camps, plus the existence she had to deal with in both the Mexican and American worlds. Hart tells the story of her family and the trials they went through along with her physical detachment and sense of alienation at home and in the American (Anglo) society. The loneliness and deprivation was the desire that drove Hart to defy the odds and acquire the unattainable sense of belonging into American society.…

    • 1879 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    One short story that shows how culture affects a person’s views is the short story, “By Any Other Name,” by Santha Rama Rau. One quote from the story is, “We had our test today, and she made me and the other Indians sit at the back of the room, with a desk between each one” (Rau 39). This quote shows how the main character, Santha,…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Citizen, by Claudia Rankine, is a compilation of poems and writings explaining the problems with society's complacency towards racism. Rankine also points out instances where underlying racism hurts more than flat out racist remarks. The novel is riddled with images symbolizing the discrimination towards African Americans, which contribute to the overall theme of racism becoming naturalized. Citizen works to debunk these natural assumptions and feelings of the common stereotypes of African Americans. Rankine does so most convincingly by using the theme of “being thrown against a sharp white background” (pages 52-53), an idea first introduced by Zora Neale Hurston in How It Feels To Be Colored Me. This overall theme connects the book completely.…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many cultural differences between Japan and America. Americans tend to be direct and to the point in their work. They often state their opinion on business matters, when in Japan it is considered impolite. Americans deal with a lot of facts, so when presenting in America that is what we are looking for to make business decisions. It is also…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Los Vendidos

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The majority of people have experienced the feeling of being named or put into a category that they do not belong. These assumptions and accusations are made by people just because of a person’s appearance physically, or where one may live. This is a problem that society has not addressed or given enough attention to being solved. In the play “Los Vendidos,” written by Luis Valdez in 1967, Luis attempts to send a message to our society that stereotyping has gone out of line and has made individuals feel dehumanized in most cases. In the short play “Los Vendidos,” Luis Valdez does a great job specifying details with the costumes and gestures the characters use in the play to give us a better understanding of the message he is trying to send. This short play is constructed in an exaggerated and humorous tone to make the play more satire and obvious. This play specifies stereotyping toward Mexicans and the negative effects that are far-fetched and that they hurt the victims as well as the oppressors.…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    These physical attributes can mean people; particular school kids categorize migrants and offer a very constant reminder to the migrants of the differences they possess. In the anthology Growing up Asian in Australia Aditi Gouvrnel shares with the reader in her story “Wei-Lei and Me” of her experiences of migration in the school playground. Through this story the reader sees just how some of the simple differences in life, like where Gouvrnel is from can cause a person to feel like an outsider and making it very difficult to feel as if she belongs to any group at all. Insult after insult kids in the playground and at Gouvernel’s school would tease her, one insult she recalls, was based upon her dark skin colour, that it “even looks…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    How can an African American and a Hispanic girls be treated different when they are the same type of person? I chose the theme of race and ethnicity when I selected the poems “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl” by Patricia Smith and “Child of the Americas” by Aurora Levin Morales. I am a Hispanic person with an African ancestry. I speak fluent Spanish and English and have experience life from both sides of the continent. The poems show how African American and Hispanics American girls lives were affected based on their race and ethnicity. The life of the African American girl life was affected because of her race and racism; while the life of the Hispanic American girl life was (not) affected because of her ethnicity. While both the African American and Hispanic American girls were born on American soil, racism affected the African American girl’s way she lived her life while ethnicity (heritage) played a major role in Hispanic American girl’s life.…

    • 3798 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    “One of Bird's most serious charges against Alexie is that in Reservation Blues he ‘'prey[s]' upon’ his community and culture in perpetuating damaging stereotypes, including that of the drunken Indian. As she puts it, ‘Stereotyping native people does not supply a native readership with soluble ways of undermining stereotypes, but becomes a part of the problem, and returns an image of a generic 'Indian' back to the original producers of that image’ (49)” (Evans).…

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Identity is something we learn over time. There are many different ways we can discover who we are. The way we were raised, who we surround ourselves with, or what we choose to influence and inspire us. We can uncover truths about ourself, or somehow feel lost and unfamiliar with who we are. In the stories, “Why My Mother Can’t Speak English” and “Growing Up Native”, they both deal with topics in the realm of identity. “Why My Mother Can’t Speak English”, written by Garry Engkent, and “Growing Up Native”, written by Carol Geddes reveal different factors that have a detrimental impact on identity. Discrimination in a society can cause people to be deprived of who they are and feel helpless. An imbalance of power in society can cause hardships…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wole Soyinka demonstrates the differences between two individuals, the speaker and the landlady of the apartment which he is trying to rent. Humanity has the awareness to recognize these differences and Soyinka uses the racism of the landlady to show her ignorance of the situation. We realize the differences between male and female, old and young, black and white, but never focus too strongly on them to cause conflict.…

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Myth of a Latin Woman

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cofer initiates her essay narrating an incident that occurred on a bus trip to London where a random young man started to sing “Maria” from West Side Story. Although she acted cool and calm, she was very displeased with the young man’s performance. Cofer realized a fact in every Latina woman’s life; that is, “you can leave the island, master the English language, and travel as far as you can, but if you are a Latina the island travels with you” (366). Far from being a positive thing; in most cases, it’s the opposite because society will look at Latina women in ways they might think is normal and even treat them as an object instead of a human being. Cofer’s experiences of her early years as an immigrant made her suffer from what she called “cultural schizophrenia” (366). She grew up in New Jersey but her life was designed by her parent’s way of living back at the island. In her teen years she had a hard time trying to fit into society because of her appearance and the cultural differences. She often felt humiliated when she arrived at birthday parties overdressed for the occasion. Cofer explains her parents strict ways of showing her “how to behave as a proper senorita” (366), and at the same time expecting for her to act like a woman and dress in clothes culturally acceptable in Puerto Rico, but seen “as too mature and flashy” (366) by others to the point that she would get verbally attacked…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays