Alexandra Quintero Quintero 1 U.S. History 170 Dr. Biggs 30 September 2015 Jon Butler is a well-accomplished historian, has written several successful novels, and is the professor of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies at Yale University. Written in 2001, his historical novel Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776, was Published by Harvard University Press in Massachusetts. Butler argues that the British mainland colonies became distinctively modern and uniquely American between 168- and 1770. In Peoples, the first chapter of his book, Butler explains the importance in the expanding population of people that made up the British mainland colonies.…
A person's culture is not decided by your whole family’s culture but it is decided by you and your openness. In the personal essay “Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee two sisters go separate way and follow two totally different cultures. In the story mira wanted to view the world through her family’s culture and view the world that way this. This is important because your culture makes a huge affect on how you see the world and people in the world. Also in the story, Bharati wants to go and follow a different culture than her family. This is important because she has taken a different road than the rest of her family has.…
Bharati Mukherjee’s essay about an “American Dreamer” was brought across with a strong positive point which I agreed with for the most part. After reading over her essay numerous times I finally got a hold of what she was trying to get across to the reader. On one hand she explains that she admires the bill of rights and what our nation was founded upon. I think a lot of people would agree with this considering how far our nation has got with it, but then again you have those who oppose. On the other hand she expresses how she feels about being called Indian-American. The way she conveys her opinion about it makes me want to agree with her more. Her writing is very persuasive and I have to say I not only agree with her because opinion, but for the reason that if I were to go to another country, and have to work as hard as she did to become a legalized citizen. Another thing were on the same page on is having to put a hyphenated status even after becoming a fully legalized citizen.…
Although the speaker of the poem is not nessecarily supposed to be Lee; the story of immirgrating to the United States as a child does parallel that of his real life. In “For a New Citizen of These United States” the speaker talks about coming to America and fleeing a troubled past. Now, as an adult the speaker is reconnecting with an old friend who escaped along with them; however this friend does not want to speak about the past and the speaker does. Like the speaker Li-Young Lee also escaped from his home country, Indonesia, as a child and wound up in the United States. Even though there are similarites between both the speaker and Lee there is no certainty that Lee was also having a difficult time communicating with a friend from the past.…
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.…
The term “American” is viewed differently by many distinct people. In this essay, one can find out what it truly means to be an American. An American is someone who can be themself and is classified as an American.…
and Beer). An example of egocentrism is the article “Two Ways to Belong in America” by…
Picture that it is one sunny afternoon, as you walk around the University of California, Davis campus filled with thousands of students walking by. As you observe your surroundings, you notice that there are students of different colored skin, speaking a variety of languages. UC Davis is home to a diversity of students from different ethnic backgrounds, Asian, American Indian, and Hispanic, to list a few. International students in particular have sparked my interests. I wanted to learn more about them and hear about their life experiences here in America. In this paper, I will relate an observation made on my fieldwork to what it means to be a citizen and discuss the complexities of translations between two cultures.…
In unit three we were able to see how certain educational leaders believed students should learn and what they should be learning while in school. For the first educational approach Freire’s problem posing method engages students to be independent thinkers while pushing them to collaborate with each other to solve problems. In Eric liu’s How to be American, she talks about the information American students should know and applying that knowledge and this is where the second educational approach can be seen. With the third education approach Hirsch explains in the article that being cultural literacy is having a certain amount of knowledge so one is able to exercise active citizenship. For educational approach four I go back to Freire because…
Asian Indians Their struggle as immigrant minority and major contributions to the American society Asian Indians come from an area with the second largest population in the world, but form only one of the smallest minorities in the United States. America was influenced by their religious and political beliefs long before the first immigrants arrived in the 19th century. The congressional act of 1947 granted them citizenship. Now, Asian Indians hold many important occupations (students, teachers, writers, musicians, scientists). Their most important contributions are geared toward engineering and the sciences. India was in a great shape up until the end of 19th century. When British arrived, the country was depleted of its wealth and resources. The poor had no choice but to come to the United States (The Land of the Free and the Land of Opportunity). The United States, due to the abundance of jobs and scarcity of labor, became a “Mecca” for immigrants from all over the world. The United States, in the nineteenth century, remained a strong magnet to immigrants, with offers of jobs and land for farms. Asians and Italians came for work, Russians came to escape persecution, and Jews came for religious freedom. Immigrants from all over the world including Europe, China, and Japan wanted to experience the freedom of improving your life and being able to take care for one’s family. East Indians represented a big group that wanted to take part in American culture. The large majorities from India were Punjabis, from a region called the Punjab. Most of Gielar 2 these immigrants were young men, between 16 and 35 years old. They left their families in India, and came here in small groups of cousins and village neighbors. Thus, the family and community ties remained very strong. They had several reasons to come to America. They were repressed by the British rule and had no land to farm on. To make matters worse, famine devastated India from 1899…
This essay explores the proccess of assimilating into the American society after a famiy moves to the USA from China in "In The American Society", by Gish Jen. It also explores the irony in the title of the piece.…
America is simply defined as “the land masses and islands of North America, Central America, and South America”. However, to the people of this nation, America stands for so much more. Many years ago, settlers came to the Americas for many reasons. Although it was not easy, we have them to thank for establishing this great nation. There were many elements important to American identity during this time, and some of these elements can still be seen today.…
Leaving your country is always a difficult decision, and whoever has experienced it understands the sacrifice it entails. When I left Poland at 18, I thought I was going to be in paradise, but to my disappointment it was far from that. I had to learn a new language and work hard to provide for myself. What kept me motivated was the hope for a better future and an independent life.…
Americans have always been a proud people, very competitive, and full of courage. Examples of this are shown in many generational moments such as the Revolution, Civil War, Pearl Harbor bombing, and the attack on the World Trade Center. Despite all these man-made calamities, America continues to rebound and come back better than before. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a high-ranking Japanese official once stated,”I am afraid we have awoken a sleeping giant,” and, was found to be more than right.…
As a child, rather than being told fairy tales and fables, my mom told me her story of leaving her family and the only life she knew to venture to America in hopes of creating a better life for herself, her future family, and her family back home. Her goal was to achieve the desperately sought over American dream. However, this was not the American dream she imagined. Upon her arrival she took on multiple blue collar unskilled jobs in order to make ends meet while simultaneously trying to learn English and assimilate into the new culture. Although, it may be common for immigrants to work these jobs for the first few years before finding a better career to attain that remarkably desired American dream; this was not the case. Over twenty years…