In the Land of the Free

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
January 30, 2009
Journal #8 Sui Sin Far

QUOTE:
“He had been rather difficult to manage at first and had cried much for his mother, ‘but children so soon forget, and after a month he seemed quite at home and played around as bright and happy as a bird’” (886).

SUMMARY:

In the story of “In the Land of the Free,” the kid of Lae Choo and Hom Hing was kept in the missionary school due to the rules of the U.S.C. Their kid, Kim, had been named by the school and had forgotten his parents very soon after a month staying in the school. The above quote is literally describing what the kid has gone through since the day he was brought there, but the description was subtly describing the process of Americanization experienced by the kid in the missionary school.

RESPONSE:

The symbolic value of this quote summarizes the very underlying message of the story, which is about the restriction of immigration and the Americanization experienced by the Chinese immigrants. The kid in this quote symbolizes a newly growing Chinese population in the United States. Since the kid was coming brought by his mother to the states, this process symbolizes the wide varieties of causes that had driven Chinese people to immigrate to America. In this case, Far might be hinting a word-of-mouth spreading of American Dream from one Chinese (Hom Hing or Lae Choo) to the newer generation (Kim).

The phrase “difficult to manage at first” means the hardship needed to overcome the difficulties in assimilating into the American mainstream. This can be shown by the hardship Hom Hing and Lae Choo went through when they first entered America to establish their own business. Although their struggles are not mentioned in the text, the circumstances and fates of Chinese at that time were generally doomed to be oppressed by racism. “Crying for mother” can be related to Chinese’s wish to revisit their homeland, or their motherland. Since their American Dream gradually pieced due to the existing racism, Chinese in America began to miss their homeland and culture.

The lines “but the children soon forget…and seemed quite at home” symbolizes these Chinese immigrants soon strived to adhere to the American way of living and they soon diluted their strict moral sense in Chinese traditional values and culture. America to them might not be their “home” but they “seemed quite at home”. The feeling of belonging to neither America nor China confused them, but they obligatorily had to stay in the U.S. so they tried hard to assimilate to the culture. Soon, they “played around” and were gradually converted to the American living, just like little Kim started speaking English.

Far countered “popular stereotypes of Chinese immigrants and spoke against racial prejudice” (enote.com).This means that her focus of this immigrant story does not heavily stress on the economical or gender issues of the Chinese, because Hom Hing was a successful businessman in San Francisco and the text did not show much evidence showing Lae Choo conformed to the American value. I assume the central focus of the story is straight-forward and clear – the impact of Americanization on two generation.

The Imported Bridegroom

Sing Ruby Siu

English 48B
January 29, 2009
Journal #7 Abraham Cahan

QUOTE:
“He felt as though he had never been away from the place, and were tired to death of it, and at the same time his heart was contracted with homesickness for America” (775).

SUMMARY:
In the short story “The Imported Bridegroom”, the Jewish businessman, Asriel Stroon, depicted his conflicts when he arrived at a synagogue of his birth place. After establishing his roots in America, he and his daughter ceased to abide by the strict rules of being orthodox Jews and gradually adopted the Gentile way of living. However, deep in Asriel’s heart, he felt a lingering guilt of betraying his tradition, so he set off a trip to visit his birth town for several reasons: to choose a male of the law and to experience his long-forgotten old country. In the first place, he was totally overwhelmed by the dearly beauty of his town and praise the purity of the place. However, once he had a closer examination, he realized the inferiority of the place and he found out that parts of his heart were firmly attached to America.

RESPONSE:

Abraham Cahan was one of the oppressed socialist teachers who escaped to United States around 1882. With a strong basis in Jewish studies and literature, he became a central writer who showed excellence in depicting the painful and complicated process of “Americanization”. Since the day he arrived in New York, he “transfered his commitment to socialism to his new country” by devoting a considerable amount of effort in analyzing the process of assimilation of the Jews (Wikipedia). His study and own experience as a Jew in America enhanced his understanding of Americanization of the immigrants. In his major publications, he mainly conveyed the transitional process Jewish immigrants were going through at his time. The character, Asriel Stroon, represents a marginal Conservative Jew who had occasionally conformed. However, his daughter, Flora Stroon, represents a new age Jewish woman who belongs to Reform or Reconstructionist Jewish population.

I find the storyline about Asriel incurs more resonances. As an old man who yearned for the returning to his own country, Asriel frequently sought for representations of his own country in his heart. When he really had a chance to go back, he entered his native land with excitement, but he was soon turned down. Having stayed in America for nearly thirty-five years, Asriel’s connection to his country was unconsciously bleached by Americanization and he was well adapted to his life in America by all means. However, Asriel still felt painful when he thought of himself as a convert Jew, who was neither a 100% Jew nor an American. So, he imagined a fantasized longing for his hometown, and wished his visit will remove his sins and refreshed his love toward his homeland. However, after a short stay, he brutally realized that his attachment to America has jeopardized his love toward his traditional law and people. At the end, he found no way to wash his sins, nor to declare his identity to Pravly or America.

The School Days of an Indian Girl

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
January 23, 2009
Journal #6 Zitkala Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)

QUOTE:
“Under a sky of rosy apples we dreamt of roaming as freely and happily as we had chased the cloud shadows on the Dakota plains. We had anticipated much pleasure from a ride on the iron horse, but the throngs of staring palefaces distributed and troubled us” (1114).

SUMMARY:
In Zitkala Sa’s publication “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” she depicts her experience of attending the boarding schools that were built to teach and civilize Indians. The above quote is extracted from the passage at the very beginning of her experience so as to foretell readers how her real experience contrasted with the dreamy visions she once had before coming to the East. At first, the white missionaries came to her very wigwam and promised her that she would be able to taste the “big red apples” and ride the iron horse. After coming to the school, Zitkala Sa realized that the white teachers had been not that nice to her and her imaginary vision were broken since then.

RESPONSE:

At the age of eight, Zitkala Sa’s innocence and curiosity “led her to desire the apple orchards and to choose to be educated by the missionaries” (Wikipedia). Under her strong request to taste the white education and culture, her mother agreed to send her over to the hands of the whites. However, not long after she arrived, Zitkala Sa’s hair, which she was very proud of, was cut under whites’ forces. For this, she remembered the practice and beliefs of her people about cutting hair, and she felt that she lost the dignity and strength an Indian American should have. Besides this, she was required to report on time, speak in English and dress in foreign clothes. By doing these on a daily routine, she gradually lost her connection to the native religions, customs, culture and people. At first, she only felt her apparent hatred towards the whites, just like what the quote says. However, after her return to home, she suddenly realized that she was no longer the wild child she used to be. She now embodies a double, conflicting identity that she felt not completely attached to either end.

Often times these kind of paradoxical emotions happened. My grandmother has lived through the time of Japanese Invasion in China, so she yielded a profound remorse and hatred towards the Japanese. She used to tell me stories about how her relatives fell under the torture of Japanese when she was five years old, and I was deeply shocked by the fact. Her remorse was soon transferred to me at a young age, who also considered the behavior of Japanese disgraceful. However, as a child, I also fanatically fell in love with the Japanese comics, toys, computer games, fashion and food. Changing from prejudice to acceptance or even fantasy, I was shameful and sorrowful about my attitude change and assimilation when I thought of the Chinese history part my grandmother told me. It was at that time I started question my identity– whether I was the patriotic Chinese or a traitor? Although this kind of issue was diluted these days, I still felt the same kind of paradoxical feelings Ziitkala Sa felt.

Life among the Piute

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
January 22, 2009
Journal #5 Sarah Winnemucca


QUOTE:
“We shall no longer be a happy people, as we now are; we shall no longer go here and there as of old; we shall no longer build our big fires as a signal to our friends, for we shall always be afraid of being seen by those bad people” (507).

SUMMARY:
In Sarah Winnemucca’s “Life among the Piutes,” she quoted her father’s fearful dream. His father envisioned that there will be a great emigration happened in their tribe due to the intrusion of the white people. Her father felt that there would be a terrible assassination and disaster to his own people, so he ordered his people to hide themselves in the mountains during all summer and winter. The above quote is actually spoken by some old women of the tribe, responding to the chief’s speech. From their words, these women were filled with remorse and grief. Facing the cruel Whites who are going to kill and eat them, these tribe members anticipated gigantic changes that would threaten their happy life and freedom before.

RESPONSE:

Sarah Winnemucca was known as the first Native American woman who published and copyrighted books in English. Born in Native American community, Winnemucca however spent most of her adulthood in the white society and even married to a white husband. Despite her universally recognized success as a Native American female writer, her idealism and activism in her speeches and autobiography were viewed by many of her readers, including Native Americans, as evidence of collaboration helping “the U.S. Army kill her people” (Wikipedia). The controversy has always been whether Sarah Winnemucca is an authentic activism in Indian affairs or betrayer of her tribe. In my opinion, the Sarah Winnemucca reflected in the autobiography is very loyal to her race.

In her childhood, Winnemucca noted in her autobiography her feeling of being buried alive early in chapter one. As a little girl she heard of how her grandfather loved the whites, yet she witnessed the cruel white men chasing and killing her people; she must have developed a sense of hatred and agony toward her fate. She felt an urge to tell others the suffering of her tribe, so she put her experience of escape from the Whites very early in the book. The quote of the old women I put indirectly shows how Winnemucca felt about their emigration.

Brought by her grandfather to Sacramento, Sarah Winnemucca was among the few Indians who learnt to write and speak English. Being increasingly familiar to the Western psyche, she in her autobiography excellently described the cultural beliefs and customs of Westerners in order to gain authority and trust. Later, she depicted wonderful stories of her tribe, such as her grandfather and father’s vision, and the practice of Festival of Flowers in order to arouse interest and sympathy from the white audience. Winnemucca also used different literary techniques, such as symbolism, metaphor, exaggeration and sarcastic tones, to express her different emotions. Her proficiency in English though gave her ability to live in white society, also adds strength and effectiveness to her argument on Indian affairs.