ipl-logo

American Dream In Citizen Khan

933 Words4 Pages

What does it mean to be American? Is it a who-got-here-first contest among nationalities? Or is it an individual’s realization of the American Dream- satisfied by coming to a land of opportunity and seizing the chance to make their dreams come true? Kathryn Schulz successfully tackles this issue in a beautifully curated nonfiction telling of the immigrant story in “Citizen Khan”. “Citizen Khan” recalls the life story of Zarif Khan, an Afghan immigrant who came to the US in 1907 at the speculated age of twelve and became a local legend in the small town of Sheridan, Wyoming by selling tamales. He soon became known as Hot Tamale Louis, and his legend still lives on in small-town Sheridan, which has now transformed into a flourishing Muslim community. This piece for The New Yorker by Kathryn Schulz uses an unusual immigrant’s American Dream reality to pose a reflection of what it is to be American. By sticking solely to facts and telling this one man’s life story as it is without inserting personal beliefs, and establishing a positive emotional connection between Khan and the reader, Schulz creates a successful argument to envision the term …show more content…

This can be seen when she is chronicling Khan’s childhood that propelled his migration from the Khyber Pass to the U.S.: “Khan’s childhood would have been marked by privation and conflict—if he had any childhood to speak of. Family legend has it that he was just twelve when he left”, Schulz writes. By using phrases such as “would have” and words such as “if”, Schulz humbles herself as the writer and acknowledges the fact his story is being told nearly a century after it happened, and as a result there is much deliberation regarding many of the life events and exact timeline portrayed in her telling of his

Show More
Related
520 Words | 3 Pages

Discuss the context of your selected article, the author's purpose, and the style and tone. What have you learned from this early analysis? In her personal essay “Eat Turkey, Become American,” Marie Myung-Ok Lee reflects on her immigrant experience in the United States. She discusses how celebrating Thanksgiving has helped her connect with her American identity and how her family has adapted to American culture.

Read More
1731 Words | 7 Pages

Cohen’s fourth thesis talks about the differences among groups of people in areas of race, gender, etc. and how those differences can create monsters in society. Unauthorized immigrants often get placed into a “different” or “unwanted” group and that causes them to face unfairness in society. “How Immigrants Become ‘Other’” correlates to Cohen’s thesis because unauthorized immigrants can be made into monsters due to differences in race and legal status. The group of unauthorized immigrants can become alienated in society, and the people themselves are sometimes referred to as “illegal aliens.”

Read More
236 Words | 1 Pages

The Joseph Kuchar family, who spent the first years after arriving in the United States residing in Baltimore, Maryland, is American in the truest sense. This distinction is the cumulative result of his offspring assimilating over five generations into the United States cultural fabric. Interestedly, their epic journey began in the early 20th century with a decision by the family’s founding father to emigrate from Bohemia to the United States. Like many other immigrants who arrived from Eastern Europe during the period between the Civil War and World War I, the Kuchars’ first decades in North America were marked by hardship and sacrifice. This story describes those years and the long-term consequences of these events on how his descendants

Read More
145 Words | 1 Pages

Richard Rodriguez’s claim about a person's identity is the using race as a basis for identifying Americans is not valid; culture should be what defines a identity. Richard Rodriguez says that newcomers were being “welcomed within a new community for reasons of culture. “ (136-137). Richard Rodriguez says that newcomers were welcomed when they were identified by their culture. Richard Rodriguez also says “I am Chinese, and that is because I live in a Chinese city and I want to be Chinese.“

Read More
435 Words | 2 Pages

Undocumented by Dan-el Padilla Peralta is a memoir that offers a vivid insight into the experiences of Latino/a/e immigrants in the United States. The book explores two interrelated themes: the author's personal experience as an undocumented immigrant and the broader socio-political context that shapes the lives of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Through these themes, Padilla sheds light on the challenges that undocumented immigrants face, including stereotype threats. One of the themes that run through the book is the experience of living in the shadows as an undocumented immigrant.

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

What is the American Dream? The American Dream is defined by the ideal that life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. In the article “ American Dream? Or Mirage?” by Michael W. Kraus, Shai Davidai, and A. David Nussbaum, the idea that the lower you are on the wealth/class scale the more you believe in the american dream, whilst on the other hand the higher you are, the more you think it is just luck rather than merit. Professor Kraus et al were wrong in saying that the American Dream is still alive when in truth the American Dream is dying if it is not already dead not only in the upper class but also in the lower class.

Read More
2221 Words | 9 Pages

“But as I travel from America to India these days… it’s as if the world has been turned upside down” (Fareed Zakaria para. 4). Zakaria holds an idea that so many others would deem disturbing. For so long, the United States has been known as a land of opportunity and hope; a place people could go to escape oppression and live freely. For so long the United States has been known as the country which holds the “American Dream.” For so long the United States has held onto this “dream,” refusing to change what it means over the decades causing Americans who came for the “dream” to feel overlooked.

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

Julia Alvarez and Amy Tan are American authors with similar circumstances. Although they were born and raised in the United States, their parents were immigrants from a different culture. Thus, their literary works are heavily influenced by their backgrounds, the literary themes and subject matter of which often deal with the multifaceted lives and thoughts of minority Americans. In Alvarez’s nonfictional essay “La Gringuita” and Tan’s extract “Two Kinds” from her novel “The Joy Luck Club”, both women express ideas of a promising America, where one “can have the best of both worlds” (La Gringuita) and one can “be anything you wanted to be” (Two Kinds). Although these statements are widely considered true by many, they certainly do not discuss

Read More
699 Words | 3 Pages

In A Raisin in the Sun, a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, the audience was able to obtain a sense of the struggle for the American dream. We are introduced to the Youngerś a black family living in the Southside of Chicago around the 1950’s. Each member of this family has their own meaning to what is the American dream. A Raisin in the Sun teaches us that even though life might be full of conflicts, it is important to not give up on our dreams.

Read More
920 Words | 4 Pages

America is the greatest country to ever exist in the history of all time. Where else in the world are you able to be whatever you want? As long as you work hard and apply yourself, you can achieve anything. In America, anyone can climb the social ladder if they put their mind to it. Success stories are all over the place.

Read More
529 Words | 3 Pages

The Oxford Dictionary defines the “American dream” as, “the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative”. The American dream hasn’t evolved since the coining of the idea; the dream is still to have a steady job, a nice house, and a pleasant family. However, that dream does not appeal to everyone. Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild looks back upon the incredible journey of Chris McCandless. The story of a well-to-do young man who after graduating from a high-ranking university, donates all of savings to charity, burns the cash in his wallet, abandons all of his material possessions, and cuts ties with all of his family and friends to embark on his own personal odesseye in nature to carry out an adventure living in

Read More
438 Words | 2 Pages

Memoir As an immigrant, molding myself into an identity was difficult. Truthfully, I am never American or Bengali enough, although I possess qualities of both cultures. I respect and incorporate both cultures into my daily life, whether it be reflected in my clothes or the music I listen to. I might like Bengali food better, but prefer American music, that doesn’t make me any less Bengali or American; many people tend to forget that. I came here when I was young; I retained many Bengali cultural elements and at the same time absorbed countless new American ones.

Read More
618 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever thought about the phrase “American History” and wondered the real stories that occurred in an individual from the past? Several other citizens of America have, too. The simple answer to the meaning of the title “American History” written by Judith Ortiz Cofer purports that said story illustrates the history of an American citizen and revolves around a significant event from the past. However, the overall message become larger than the straightforward idea. While educating readers on the time placed during President Kennedy's death in 1963, the author illustrates the struggling truth behind the story of an average young individual American immigrant girl in a plethora of ways.

Read More
604 Words | 3 Pages

In the video, we can appreciate different realities that these people have to face every day, it might not be very different from our own reality but it is indeed a more challenging one. There are many families in the U.S. struggling each day, working to have a better life, to achieve “The American Dream”, but these particular families that life in Detroit and Oakland have more difficulties than most people. Their health is deteriorating by extreme pollution causing them asthma since an early age. Obesity is a major problem that is cause by the consumption of cheap food that they can only afford. Crime and Vandalism is part of their daily lives.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America,” from 50 essays, Bharati Mukherjee contrasts the different views of the United States from two Indian sisters. The author distinguishes her American lifestyle to her sister’s traditional Indian lifestyle. Both sisters grew up in Calcutta, India, moved to America in search of education and work. Bharati adjusts to the American society very quickly, where her sister Mira clings to her Indian traditions more strongly. Despite both sisters living in America, only Bharati is an American citizen, while her sister Mira is not.

Read More

More about American Dream In Citizen Khan

Related Topics

Open Document