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On The Wall By Camille Dungy: An American Identity For The New Generation?

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What An American Identity is for the New Generation? How do we prepare our community for tomorrow with knowledge today? This is the question all Americans should be asking themselves to embrace their identities. As worded by John F. Kennedy, the all American immigrants in 1958 would sacrifice the shirt off their back just to better their children tomorrow. Or how Camille Dungy shows how despite being treated unfairly, the Chinese immigrants were restless to become a part of this community, or even how I helped my cousin fit in with a community he was originally lost in. All these show that being an American is being a community and learning from our past to build our future. One duty that every true American has is to sacrifice your today for the next generations tomorrow. This could be …show more content…

This quote is important because it shows the significance of all these immigrants' sacrifices to further the country of freedom. This shows that all these immigrants worked very hard and vigorously to make revolutionary sacrifices to their country. The immigrants referenced by JFK truly demonstrate the idea of an American identity. Other minorities can also demonstrate an American identity, such as the Chinese who fell victim to the terrors on Angel Island. In an informational text by Camille Dungy called “The Writing On The Wall”, Dungy sadly informs us that some Chinese folk “were held there for 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months and in one case up to 2 years.”(Dungy pg. 80). This quote truly shows the devotion of these immigrants and the growth from the low America sank to during the time of the Chinese exclusion act. This proves that anyone can see why even at Americas low it was still worth sacrificing for. The Chinese folk on this island were so devoted to adopting an American identity, shown by the time and effort spent trying to adopt

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