Immigrants And Picture Brides example essay topic

Immigrants arriving in America for their first time are initially devastated at their new lives and realize their "golden lives" were simply fantasies and dreams of an ideal life in America. Immigrants from foreign countries, including those mentioned in Uchida's Picture Bride, faced countless problems and hardships, including a sense of disillusionment and disappointment. Furthermore, immigrants and picture brides faced racial discrimination not only from white men, but the United States government, as well. Immigrants were plagued with economic hardships lived in deplorable living conditions. Though nearly every immigrant and picture bride who came to America fantasized about an ideal life, they were faced with countless hardships and challenges before becoming accepted American citizens. When an immigrant from a foreign land comes to America, immigrants hope to fulfill their golden dreams in the land of the free; however, as they quickly learn shortly after they arrive in America, their new lives are filled with hardships and disillusions.

A picture bride, who arrives in America with a dream of living with a wealthy, successful, and handsome young man, is frequently disappointed to discover the realities such as the appearance and lifestyle of her future husband. When Hana first meets Taro, she discovers that " [Taro] no longer resemble [s] the early photo [his] parents sent [Hana]... he was already turning bald" (Uchida, 12). This shock of reality is not uncommon to picture brides, in fact, "many men in America send pictures to picture brides of themselves from when they were ten to twenty years younger... next to a beautiful car-owned by their boss" (Bunting, 1). Picture brides and immigrants arrive in America filled with hopes for a better life for themselves and their children and a wonderful new life in America. The shock and dissatisfaction immigrants and picture brides experience when they first arrive in America greatly contribute to their change in attitude from an optimistic mindset to a cowardly, hesitant behavior. Furthermore, picture brides quickly discover that their husbands were not wealthy business owners, as the men claimed in their letters, but their husbands were rather poor men, trying to scrape a living, and this reality check contributes further to immigrants' hopeless outlook to their new life.

Hana is stunned at seeing her husband's shop, after visioning it as a grand shop on a busy street, discovering the shop to be not "nice at all. It was drab and dirty and smelled of stale food... [one] would expect something a bit finer" (Uchida, 34). Hana becomes disheartened as her visions were shattered by reality and a sense of betrayal from her husband's lies. She, like many picture brides and immigrants, expected too much of a new life, and when she discovers the way things really are, she feels deceived and dismayed. Accepting the truth and the reality of their new lives is a part of an immigrant's experience in moving to America and is a crucial part in shaping their attitudes in their new lives. Once an immigrant becomes situated with their new life styles, the foreign immigrants are introduced to a sense of hatred and discrimination omnipresent in society.

Many Americans and white men were not welcoming towards alien immigrants and expressed a great deal of discrimination and hatred. Immigrants and their families realized they had to learn to accept this hatred if they wanted to live in America, and eventually taught themselves to be tolerant towards discrimination, without knowing a motif behind a white man's disgust towards immigrants. Hana was able to accept the discrimination and eventually passed down her tolerance and acceptance down to, her daughter, Mary, who learn to submit to a white man's intolerance. Mary became aware that "her Japanese face denied her certain privileges... when she went to the City Plunge, she was told 'We don't think you " ll enjoy swimming here' " (Uchida, 160).

Immigrants that experience a new life in America must learn to readily accept the fact that white men despise and discriminate against them, only because of their face or the color of their skin. In addition to racial discrimination, immigrants were restricted of many of their personal rights and freedoms, including the right to own land. With no sympathy from the government, the government imposed a law stating that "Asians cannot own land in California, even if [they] had the money to buy it. A law called the Alien Land Law prohibits it... [America] will not allow [Asians] to become citizens because [of their race]" (Uchida, 79-80).

It is evident that not only did white men discriminate against immigrants, but United States government did, as well, to the extent where the where no help to immigrants was provided in order to let them retain their legal rights as citizens. Immigrants felt that they had no one to turn to for help besides others within their group of alienated immigrants, furthering destroying an image of a glorified life in America. The public was not the only sect in society who discriminated against immigrants-the government began to confiscate immigrant's rights and freedoms unconstitutionally, despite immigrant's contributions to society and loyalty to America. The government, under the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, "authorized the secretary of war to prescribe areas from which any or all persons could be excluded: The President's Executive Order 9066. It means that [Japanese Americans were] all going to be evacuated one day soon... [they were] all going to be uprooted from [their] homes and interned without a trial or hearing" (Uchida, 187), clearly a violation of an American citizen's constitutional rights. Though the law was enacted to protect the American public after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States government crossed a fine line between protecting the country's citizens and stripping away the few rights and freedoms legal immigrants had.

Furthermore, the government continued to abolish the rights of immigrants, namely Japanese Americans, proclaiming that "Japanese Americans could no longer travel more than 5 miles from their home, and [there] was an 8: 00 curfew" (Uchida, 191) -the government was gradually relinquishing immigrants' freedoms, supposedly as an act of national security. However, by violating rights protected by the Constitution, such as setting a curfew and being interned without a fair trial; the government went to the extent where their actions were not rational and treated immigrants as unwelcome aliens in the "land of the free". In addition, the establishment of internment camps forced Japanese American immigrants to live and survive in inhumane conditions, such as overcrowded camps and terrible living conditions. Japanese Americans faced horrific living conditions due to racial discrimination and hardships at internment camps, which were build and provided for by the government during the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

In these camps, the living standards were the bare minimum-the United States government provided only enough food and shelter for immigrants to stay alive. The camps were "over crowded and [in] poor living conditions. Tarpaper covered the barracks of constructions without pluming or cooking facilities; food was given at a value of about 50 cents per person" (Ross, 1). The government stereotyped every Japanese American as a disloyal element in society and treated immigrants as inferiors to white men and treated them with little respect and concern for their lives. Inhabitants in internment camps were faced with a "lack of privacy. There were no doors to toilet cubicles.

[Their] showers lacked doors, and [many Japanese Americans] never used [showers] before and nearly burned [their] back [s] with the scalding water that shot out" (Uchida, 209-10), which further demonstrated the government's lack of concern for the Japanese Americans, disregarding their traditional lifestyles, such as taking baths rather than showers. Japanese immigrants faced extreme alienation and discrimination upon their arrival and stay in America, and were later violated and stripped of their constitutional and individual rights, but were forced to accept the discrimination in order to stay and live in the United States. It was not until "24 years after interment camps were closed when the American government paid $20,000 to each surviving internee when Ronald Regan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988... Regan hoped that by establishing the Civil Liberties Act and Public Education, children and future generations could learn from the mistakes and problems about internment" (Bunting, 1). Finally, as a final factor in the immigrant experience, immigrants faced many economic hardships. Though many were determined and passionate, immigrants were put to torturous work and were paid very little, experiencing hardships that greatly surpassed the jobs they had in their homelands.

Determined to prove to their families that they could live on their own and begin a successful life in America", [The Japanese farmers] worked hard from sunrise to sunset, seven days a week... That's why they can sell their products for less than white farmers... [however, ] as long as [they] are an economic threat, [Japanese immigrants] are going to be hated" (Uchida, 191). Immigrants worked exceptionally hard with passion and contentment; however, despite their efforts to make an honest living and start an idealized life in the United States, immigrants's ervices were never appreciated by white men, and they received little pay and profit for their hard work, due to a fear by white men that immigrants would be a threat to the economy and income of the white men. In addition, picture brides, who hoped to live a life supporting their husbands at home, were shocked that they were not put to domestic work, rather, they were put to work in the fields, "weed [ing] the fields, irrigate [ing], strip [ing] the cane of dry leaves, or cut [ting] seed cane... women on sugar plantations earned 50 cents for a 10-hour work day and were expected to work six days a week. A full month's pay of $13 was based on 26 days of work and equaled 66% of Japanese men's wages" (Bill, 1). Picture brides' actual lives were clearly not what they had envisioned before they arrived in America; they had never dreamed of doing fieldwork for such little money and in such poor working conditions.

Economic and labor hardships were likely the most grueling portion of an immigrant's experience which further diminishes an immigrant's attitudes and outlook in their new lives. Picture brides and immigrants came to America with a mindset of a glorious future, determined to please their families to prove that they in fact could live a life of their own. However, as a part of the immigrant experience, emphasized throughout Uchida's Picture Bride, immigrants faced numerous problems and hardships, including a sense of disillusionment and disappointment, facing racial discrimination not only by white men, but even the United States government. Immigrants were plagued with economic hardships, and were forced to survive day by day in terrible living conditions. After the tragedy at Pearl Harbor, the government further stripped Japanese American's rights, as seen in internment camps. Japanese immigrants had to quickly realize that they had to tolerate these conditions and put their fantasies and illusions aside in order to build a new life for themselves and future generations.

Bibliography

Uchida, Yoshino. Picture Bride. California: McDougal Li tell, Inc. 1971 Bill, Rebecca.
Japanese American Internment. web 4 May 2004.
Bunting, Samuel. Japanese Relocation Centers. web 4 May 2004 Ross, Teresa.
Field Work and Family Work on Hawaii's Sugar Plantations. web 4 May 2004.