Growing Up America Summary

Culture is one of the main factors that allow people to be different from one another. When immigrants come to America, they realize that it can be hard to adapt to the American culture. Dr. Rose Ihedigbo’s “Sandals in the Snow” and Amparo B Ojeda’s “Growing Up American: Doing the Right Thing” are both stories that tell how their adjustment from their homeland to America was different.

In reading both stories, I noticed they were similar, but have a few contrasts I 'd like to address. In Dr. Rose Ihedigbo story “Sandals in the Snow”, her family came from Nigeria to America. Rose Started her new American life on the West side of Massachussetts. This contrast from Amparo B. Ojeda “Growing Up American”. She was from the Philippines and lived with a host

In reading Dr. Rose Ihedigbo’s “Sandals in the Snow” and Amparo B Ojeda’s “Growing Up American: Doing the Right Thing”, I noticed Both Cultures take respect very seriously as they both seen in american culture children have no respect. In “Sandals in the Snow”, Dr. Ihedigbo explains how in the home, her children were respectful “...they respected their parents greatly, politely relating to them, paying deference to them and recognizing that they were the leaders and authoritarians of the household” (Ihedigbo 62). The Ihedigbo children have witnessed American children being disrespectful. James and David were in the mall and heard a white child yelling, “I want this pair of shoes, mom! I swear, mom, why are you so dumb? Why don’t you listen to me and get me what I want” (Ihedigbo 63). In Amparo B Ojeda’s “Growing Up American: Doing the Right Thing”, Amparo Ojeda said, “On our way out of the air terminal, the children began to fuss: “ I’m hungry, “I’m thirsty,” “I want to go to the bathroom!” I vividly recall how, as children, we were reminded never to interrupt while adults were talking, and to avoid annoying behavior” (Ojeda