Bharati Mukherjee Two Ways To Live In America Analysis

Life Changing Positions Immigration can be a controversial topic that many governments are feuding over today. As politicians argue, the real battle occurs as each individual immigrant determines how they will approach their new country. Immigrants must choose if they will assimilate to the new countries values, languages and traditions or maintain their home country’s customs. In the article, “Two Ways To Belong In America,” the author, Bharati Mukherjee, contrasts her and her sister Mira’s experiences along with millions of other American immigrants as they face betrayal, racism, and hardship. The author uses a sentimental appeal to illustrate Bharati’s willingness of acceptance and her sister’s averse attitude towards America through

Bharati comes to America with her arms open wide, willing to adjust her customs and conducts in order to assimilate to her new country. She celebrates change and views it as a positive aspect in her life. The author says, “America spoke to me - I married it - I embraced the demotion from expatriate aristocrat to immigrant nobody,” meaning that to Bharati, America is not just a country. It symbolizes opportunity and freedom, which she desires most. (Mukherjee 282). Bharati’s marriage outside her own ethnic group and willingness to move to “every part of North America” represents her amenable attitude towards change itself. Mira comes to America in search of good education and economic opportunities, however, she refuses to acclimate American pop-culture into her thoughts, actions, and perceptions. Mira’s closed mindset requires her to live a stagnant lifestyle in which she has “stayed rooted in one job, one city, one house, one ancestral culture, one cuisine…” (Mukherjee 282) and never provokes a change in whom she could become. The authors notion towards Mira symbolizes the fact that Mira ignores anything that calls her away from her ethnic identity. Mira intentionally does not connect to her new country as Bharati does, instead she feels “some kind of irrational attachment to India that [she does not] to America,” (Mukherjee 282). Despite an immigrant’s upbringing, each individual must choose to whether to participate in American culture and customs or to continue to abide to their previous country’s norms. Founded upon a multitude of cultures and countries, America has always embraced and even encouraged diversity in individuals. Established on the principles of freedom, diversity, and democracy, the United States of America provides the opportunity for each of the sisters to live the life they