Japanese Immigrant example essay topic

HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS This book is a story about 4 sisters who tell their stories about living on an island in the Dominican Republic, and then moving to New York. What is different about this book is the fact that you have different narrators telling you the story, jumping back and forth from past to present. This is effective because it gives you different view point's from each of the sisters. It may also detract from the narrative because of the fact that it's confusing to the reader.

This is a style of writing that has been recognized and analyzed by critics. Julia Alvarez is a well- known writer and in a way, mirrors events that happened in her own life, in her book. Looking into her life, it show's that she went through an experience somewhat like the sisters. I interviewed an immigrant, not from the same ethnic back ground as the sisters, but a Japanese immigrant. This was a very interesting conversation because there were a lot similarities in adjusting to living in the United States. This book shows a viewpoint of the sisters coming to America.

I classify this as American literature because the book was written in a style that would make it easy to read for a people to read here. There is mixed language, and there is really no strong presence of Spanish being spoken. Alvarez is a interesting writer because she uses writing as a tool to find out what she is thinking, and to understand things, while developing books that are fun to read. If you take this book for example, it's what she thinks about immigration and her understanding of the subject. This book was made for everyone to see what the immigration experience is like.

Immigration appears to be an experience of struggle, and change shared by immigrants no matter what the origin. Alvarez was born in New York and then moved to the Dominican Republic shortly after she was born. Later in 1960, she immigrated back to New York and received her education in boarding schools. She has spent a majority of her life in the United States, and considers herself to be an American, yet she likes to bridge the two worlds of Latina and American culture. Most of her stories have hints of her Dominican roots but she show's her experiences with human insight. Even though her books may be seen as for Latin people, her writing is not targeted toward a certain ethnic population.

The narrative is a reflection of Alvarez's life. It's as if she's speaking to the reader through the characters she created. Julia Alvarez presents this story in a way that goes back to the past, while pointing at the future. This book acts as a compilation of different stories, told by different narrators, and made into the main story. This style has it's high points as well as the low points. The style chosen by Alvarez show's different viewpoints of the different narrators and it show's the struggle when u compare them of how they are now, and what they went through in the past.

The downside of this style of writing is that fact that it could be confusing to the reader. If you are not used to this style, it could be hard to tell who's talking. If you can follow along with the book then it is actually a nice book to read because of the fact that you can piece everything together and picture the events in your mind. I would say that this style enhances the book only because you can't use confusion as an excuse to say the book is bad. The message attached to this way of writing is the fact that your history is a part of you and it makes you what you are today. The stories from the past tell the different experiences, and you can see how they affected the sisters in their present experiences.

As part of my research I interviewed an immigrant. I interviewed a man by the name of Chris Tokiko. This was a man who had immigrated from the Japan at the age of ten. The first thing I asked about was language, and if it was a problem for him.

Fortunately he was taught English in school and it wasn't a obstacle. The only thing is that he had a stronger Japanese accent and it was hard for the younger kids that were his age to understand. Now the problem is that he feels that his Japanese isn't as good as it used to be. This is what usually happens if the parents don't speak the language at home much. This was the case with Chris. He doesn't quite understand why they decided to speak more English, but he feels that it has taken a toll on his speaking Japanese.

This was a problem for Yolanda when she went back to the island in the beginning of the book. Her aunts and family noticed that she had lost her accent. This is significant because of the fact that the title of the book has to do a great deal with the accents. It's the accent that represents where you " re from, and if you loose it, then usually it's almost everything else that goes with it in generations to come. The next subject I asked him about in the interview was the difference in culture in America.

He laughed because there is a big difference in cultures here in America. Years after he arrived here, he began to see the presence of drugs in school. If anyone was ever caught with drugs in a Japanese school, the punishment would be severe. He also noticed that he was getting more comfortable in the American culture. The one thing that affected Chris the most was that he started to feel that he was in the middle, and didn't feel like he was accepted in either culture. He would go back to Japan and his family says that he's becoming more Americanized and that he should learn how to speak Japanese again.

In America his schoolmates would make fun of him up until he was in the later stages of high school. They made fun of his accent, and wasn't able to play a lot of the sports that were popular in high school. Chris also enjoyed Japanese music and he said no one understood why he listened to it. He says he just had a hard time fitting in with the crowd just because of the fact that it was obvious he wasn't from here. This experience was similar to Yolanda went through when she had sexual encounters with Rudolf Elmenhurst. You could say that sex is part of the American culture because it shows up everywhere sooner or later.

In college Yolanda was involved with this guy and he always made it apparent that he wanted to have sex with her. She wasn't used to this and didn't even consider having sex before. The whole situation comes to her as a shock but she brushes it off and goes on till' Rudy gets tired of it and goes on to another woman. Sooner or Later an immigrant is going to have to deal with racism. It can come in any form. People could criticize you because of your accent, the way you dress, and the way you look.

Chris came at the age of ten, when your schoolmates tend to make fun of you more than ever. He said that the other kids would make fun of him and call him 'chink eyes'; , or 'ching-c hong-chinaman. This is odd because of the fact that he's Japanese and not Chinese. He tried telling them but it was all the same to them, it didn't matter.

After a while, this kind of treatment forced Chris to find kids that were more his type. Later on in high school this kind of segregated group pushed him to be categorized as 'one of those asian people'; . Chris also experienced racism when he was a young adult. He would go into stores and the owners would follow him because they said 'asians have been stealing from them'; . In the book there wasn't so much racism. It was more stereotypical people talking about the sisters.

People thought they were the daughters of a rich man, and Rudy Elmhurst thought that Yolanda was a strict catholic girl who wouldn't have sex with him. Finally I asked if there was anything that Chris wanted to say about his whole experience. He said that it was and still is hard to fit in here in America. In Japan he was taught that it was always education first, but here it seemed as if no one cared about school as much. He says that he wishes he could hold on to his Japanese roots but it's hard because it's not around him everyday, and that he feels like he lost his identity.

The sisters' experience was similar to Chris's. The end result was the same, The immigrants felt that there was a loss of identity through the process of assimilation. Whenever Julia Alvarez writes she focuses her work on everyday commonalities that she recognizes among all people. This is important to her because she want's everyone to be able to relate to the stories she writes about. She has spent most of her life in the United States and considers herself to be an American, yet her writing bridges Latina and American culture. I would consider this book to be American literature because she writes is a way that anyone can just read this book comfortably.

There is no strong presence of the culture so the reader doesn't feel as if it's a book for only Latin people. Within her writing, Alvarez tries to uncover the truths that extend beyond any ethnic barriers. This would make it easier for everyone else. Besides the fact that this could be considered American Culture, it still gives everyone else a chance to understand another's culture, and how immigrants in our own families may have struggled like the Garcia Family.

Her works reflect the identities as a woman, a Latin American, and as a American. This book shows that no matter where you are from, either you or family in the past have struggled through immigration. Every minority that has travelled over to the United States has gone through this process of assimilation. It's always been a matter of fitting in the society at the time. The problem with this is the fact that through generations, assimilation ends up hurting the family customs and traditions.

The accent of the native tongue is lost, certain holidays may not be celebrated the same, and American born generations feel that they might have lost their identity, making it hard to fit in either cultures. Was is significant about this book is the fact it's like telling a story to someone about something that happened when they were kid. Anyone can relate because we all have stories from when we were kids. Alvarez presents this method of writing by making it so that it doesn't feel like it's a story about Latin Americans, when you know it really is.

Alvarez's mission is to show everyone what she has come to understand about ethnic identity, in a way everyone can see.

Bibliography

1) HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENT BY JULIA GARCIA PLUME BOOKS, (COPYWRITE 1991) NY, NY 2) INTERVIEW W. CHRIS TOKIKO BY BRYAN YEE 11/12/99 SF, CA 3) VOICES FROM THE GAPS 11/12/99 . web) JULIA ALVAREZ (MAJOR THEMES / BIOGRAPHY) web.