Examples Of Struggles In Water By The Spoonful

Young Immigrants Struggles in “Water by the Spoonful”: How Contemporary United States Recognize Multiracial Americans

The United States is often compared as a ‘Melting Pot’ due to its diverse race. It was aimed to create an ‘Americanized’ society where different cultures, languages, and religions blend and compose a unique national identity (Hakan 4). However, recent studies reveal that the increasing cultural diversity in the United States is threatening the long-existing belief of American national identity (Schildkraut 611). In other words, immigrants switch their identity while focusing on “concepts like ‘kinship’ or ‘native land’” instead of abandoning their cultures to become fully assimilated into American society (Čiubrinskas 62).

Elliot and Yaz meet each other to arrange flowers for Ginny’s funeral. Together, they look at the floral brochure and start talking about how it looks like “Mom’s garden” (Hudes 30). Looking closely at the image of a garden, Elliot looks back on the times with unpleasant feelings. They also discuss about going to Puerto Rico to “scatter her ashes together” as Ginny wished “at a waterfall in El Yunque” (Hudes 32). Even though Ginny never appears in the play – she is dead – her presence makes Elliot and Yaz implicitly relate their identity to a Puerto Rican. The family’s linchpin Ginny evokes the familial spirit in Elliot and Yaz. Ginny knew exactly how to pass on the Puerto Rican identity to the next generation. The garden, serving as a symbolic place, acts as a powerful trigger, evoking memories, and connections to the Ortiz’s Latin heritage. While it may involve a long travel, the experience of going home will create a lasting definition of home, Puerto Rico (Durham 119). Returning home resonates with the profound impact that reconnecting with one’s place of origin can have on personal identity. While it may be demanding, the journey could enhance the sense of family, culture, and personal connections with the homeland. Additionally, the homecoming experience may deepen the understanding in individuals of what constitutes

Similar to how the garden evoked Elliot and Yaz’s Latin origin, another “physical place”, North Philly acts as an essential point to reveal their authentic identities (Durham 119). Thus, it implies that North Philly holds transformative qualities, acting as a stimulant for revealing the unconscious Latin identity of Yaz. In scene five, Yaz recalls the conversation with his ex-husband William that “every time [she] went to North Philly, [she]’d come back different.” (Hudes 33). She continues by describing how distanced she felt with her family. Elliot talks back saying that “all white prep school really fucked with your head, didn’t it?” (Hudes 34). The conversation between Yaz and Elliot depicts Yaz’s “existential crisis” because she cannot reconcile her identity as a North Philly girl (Dufournaud 457). The dissonance between the Puerto Rican life she grew up in and the white normal world she lives provokes an identity conflict. Moreover, Yaz even asks what it is like “to be normal? (Hudes 33). She does not identify her Puerto Rican-self as a normal person. Rather, she is ashamed by her Puerto Rican culture where “funerals are rare occasions”, “a cousin gets arrested”, and an “eight-year-old cousin [sips] through rum through a twisty straw” (Hudes 33). As a result, Yaz mentally classifies herself belonging to White social group. However, when she experiences feeling of