In this essay we will attempt to explain what is an American. We will compare two different pieces of literature. We will analyze "In Response to Executive Order 9066" and "Mericans" to see how the authors define what it means to be an American. In my opinion cultural heritage and physical appearance do not determine what is an American. America is a melting pot. America is a land of immigrants. People come from all parts of the world to experience the American dream. These two pieces of literature are focused on Japanese Americans and Mexican Americans.
In the Poem which resembles a letter, In Response to Executive Order 9066 by Dwight Okita. The author is writing about a fourteen year old Japanese girl. The girl claims she prefers hot dogs over chopsticks. In my opinion this means the girl is more accustomed to eating like an American and not the traditional Japanese food which would normally be eaten with chopsticks. She also discusses how her and the white girl named Denise do similar things such as look at boys together. In this case Denise is accusing her of starting a war. It shows what the Americans thought of the Japanese. The Japanese girl is confused by the accusation.
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The entire piece of literature discusses the Mexican culture and religion that is being lived in America. It appears that the children who are being raised in America are losing their traditional Spanish language. In today's world in America many have lost the ability to speak their native tongue. As generation are spending more time in America and attending American schools where English is the instructional language, children begin to lose their language and assimilate to the American culture which includes the English
Literary Analysis: Exploring American Identity Introduction This essay compares “In response to executive order 9066” (poem) by Dwight Okita to “Mericans” (short story) by Sandra Cisneros. Specifically, the essay explores the central theme of American identity in the two literary works. The “Mericans” is about a little girl who has a story about the new world and the old world. In this case, the new world is America.
There is one person, a Japanese-American novelist, a poet, a playwright, and this man is no other than Dwight Holden Okita. Dwight Holden Okita has released one of his poems, In Responsive to Executive Order 9066: All Americans of Japanese Descent Must Report to Relocation Center, which the poem has been published sometime around 1982, this demonstrates discrimination, unfairness, ignorance and innocence of the Japanese and child. Okita got inspired to make this poem because he’d remember growing up into hearing some vague reference to his parents being in "camps" during the war, but it wasn't until he was in high school that he started to ask his mother serious questions about it and unlike his father, who was more reticent about his experience. Other poems that Okita had written are from his
The poem starts off with a happy mood, then switches to a sad and dreary mood at the end. In the start her life is that of a normal 14 year old girl who lives in the US. Her heritage is not white, but that doesn’t matter to her she still identifies with the American identity. In the poem she said she’s always felt more comfortable doing American culture things versus the culture of her heritage. Since the girl in the poem is of Japanese descent, her family and her were being forced to relocate because of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
As of the year 2016, there are an estimated 324,118,787 people living in America. 324,118,787 people consider themselves to be Americans and 324,118,787 people have decided that America really is worthy enough to be called home. These people, whether they were born within the country or emigrated from another country, comingle in this melting pot of a nation, sharing grocery stores and hospitals and neighborhoods and all the ideologies that make up American society, and each of these people have their own lives and opinions and personal beliefs. All of these people, all (roughly) 324,118,787 of them, fall under the definition of an American – a person who lives in America, because there is simply no other way to define what an American is when
Gruesz reviews the new Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (NALL). She notes that as Kenneth Warren's argument and the recent history of African American tradition building it refers to can help people appreciate the Latino literature. She states that Norton is “hobbled by the lack of any prior powerful literary-historical narrative with which to contend”(Gruesz). She argues, however, that the NALL “would raise a skeptical eyebrow at the repeated characterizations of NALL as a “treasure” and a “celebration” of the ethnoracial groups whose genius they index”(Gruesz). She argues that the Latino literature is viewed as an instrumental tool into the management into culture, shows a sign of times, and is is accommodating.
Class ESL 5 In the article, ”My English” by Julia Alvarez, the author wrote about her experience as she learn to speak English. Spanish was her mother tongue and struggled to speak English in the early phases. She thought that English was a form of Spanish, as there are different dialects in Spanish. Her parents spoke English when they didn’t want her and her siblings to know what was going on.
Assimilation: the process of taking in and fully understanding information or ideas. This is a common topic throughout both "Response to Executive Order 9066" and "Mericans", two stories about other cultures blending into American culture. Both stories focus on the toxicity of American culture and the racial divide between people. Even though the main characters in both texts have completely assimilated into American culture, they are still treated like outsiders and considered foreign, whether they grew up in the US or not. Although the stories diverge in terms of circumstances, tone, and mood, both generally reflect on the negative impact of American culture and how it has affected the lives of immigrants.
This paragraph from Kesaya Noda’s autobiographical essay “Growing Up Asian in America” represents the conflict that the author feels between her Japanese ethnicity, and her American nationality. The tension she describes in the opening pages of her essay is between what she looks like and is judged to be (a Japanese woman who faces racial stereotypes) versus what she feels like and understands (life as a United States citizen). This passage signals her connection to Japan; and highlights her American upbringing. At this point in the essay, Noda is unable to envision her identity as unified and she describes her identity as split by race.
The expression of themes and topic in "In Response to Executive Order 9066" and "Mericans" shows that there is no one way or right way to be American or appreciate American culture. "In Response to Executive Order 9066" is a
In the essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez. The author uses his memoir to show how he has fought through his childhood to understand English and how the english language had formed his identity. To him, Spanish was a private language, spoken only at home and in the comforting presence of his family. The Spanish language allowed him to connect with his parents because that was all they knew. However, After he was somewhat forced to speak English by the public, he became an outsider to his own culture, unable to speak Spanish, but still able to understand it as it states “we remained a loving family, but one greatly changed.
He shows this through his many experiences with bilingual court and education. At the end of his essay, Espada concludes with a basic summary of what he has learned. Espada claims “The repression of Spanish is part of a larger attempt to silence Latinos, and, like the crazy uncle at the family dinner table yelling about independence or socialism, we must refuse to be silenced.” Through the summary the reader understands despite English being the prevalent language the in the U.S. today the Spanish culture is still being preserved through bilingualism. On the other hand Rodriguez argues that in order to gain a public identity, one must be willing to sacrifice some part of their own cultural identity.
In Dwight Okita’s poem the theme is physical appearance does not determine what it means to be American. The title of the poem is “In Response to Executive order 9066…”, and is by Dwight Okita. The government issued executive order 9066. This Order detained Japanese Americans. An excerpt
David Okita, the author of the poem “In Response to Executive Order 9066,” is a published playwright, poet and novelist. He describes himself as Japanese, American, gay, and Buddhist. Okita’s father was a World War II veteran and his mother was held in confinement for four years at a Japanese-American concentration camp. The World War II plays as a significant theme in the poem “In Response to Executive Order 9066”. At first glance, the poem appears to be about an American girl who has an unstable relationship with her friend Denise.
What is the Little Tradition, what two elements create the Little Tradition; and how do the two tradition (Great and Little) compare to one another. “Complementing the Great Tradition is the Little Tradition where ethnic features of community life independent of religion are paramount” (Scupin, 2012, pg. 158). The Little Tradition Focuses on the myriad things that synthesize our daily ways of life. Consequently, implicating how we perceive things as to a group of cultural traits that we are all interrelated too by that of one essential trait where activities and outlooks within one’s own community. Throughout the course of time, vernacular varies betwixt different cultures, The Little Traditions overall brogue is excluded from that of the
This poem is about a Mexican-American speaker informing the reader about the struggles in which people from different ethnic backgrounds