Imagine waking up in a house that is not your home. You do not know what the morning routine is, what is eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or even know what is and what is not appropriate behavior. In the movie Coming to America which was directed by John Landis, Eddie Murphy’s character, Prince Akeem, is in for a cultural shift when he decides to move from Africa to Queens, New York in order to find his princess. In the film, Akeem is exposed to how Africa differs from America when he discovers the differences in power distance, work ethic, and the value of money. In America, we are independent people who strive to do and be better for our futures. Although we do have a democratic political system, we are given our rules and regulations. However, we are able to challenge them. For instance, if a person is found guilty of committing a crime, the perpetrator is able to appeal to the hearing if they believe that they have been wrongly convicted. In Africa however, according to Coming to America, they have more of a hierarchal system in place having a king, queen, prince, and princess. Therefore, when Akeem came to America, he was not prepared to be looked at differently for having his gold suitcases, fur, and jewelry because these things are a norm to him back …show more content…
Our parents, push us to go to school, college, and then work a career in order to be defined as successful. In America, we have the saying, “Work hard, play later,” because we value work ethic and appreciate it. In contrast, in Coming to America, Akeem did not even know how to use a mop properly because he had been fed the golden spoon. This means that he had, had an easy going lifestyle. Moreover, when his dad found out that he had been working while in America, he was not happy. According to the movie, it can be inferred that royalty does not and should not even lift a finger because they are better than
“Making it in America” , written by Adam Davidson, shows the American Dream is not viable. Through the main character “Maddie” whose American dream is “owning her own home, to take her family on vacation to the coast, to have enough saved up so her children can go to college”, thus she works hard and tries her best to become one of the advanced Level 2s. However, the truth is there is an impassable gulf between Level 1 and Level 2 about the skills or knowledge of computer-programming and maths. The difference of the slavery is like the distinction of “unskilled” and “skilled”. Because of the lack of training past high school, what Maddie could do is welding machine, which robotic machines can also do like her or even better than she.
The essay “Love your Immigrant Parents, follow your Bliss” by Andrew Lam is about his story of when he told his parents that he was deciding to drop out of medical school to become a writer. Giving out a message to the reader that it’s better to do the things that you love and are passionate about and not what is expected from you. What influenced Lam personally to follow his own path of becoming a writer was when he realized he fell in love with writing. However, Lam was also influenced by his bicultural background in a sense that he was Vietnamese and that made him struggle with “filial piety” but also had the influence of his American culture was what pushed him towards becoming a writer. This is reminiscent to Malcolm X’s “A Homemade Education
This made him really optimistic. America strongly believes in the “American Dream”. America believes that with money and power you can obtain anything you want. Many try to reach this,but there is reality about these illusions, and it shows it in book as well.
For instance, he uses challenges that Asian American actors have experience in the film industry such as the minimal roles they are cast for and how white actors are cast for Asian American roles. He describes this current issue by the use of powerful illustrations such as stating that the Asian American actors use white powder to play white roles. He highlights the difficulties the Asian American people have gone through here in America and how today’s society justifies their previous actions but still sustaining an orientalist view towards the Asian culture. For example, he states, “Hey, things are better for you now. You should have tried being around twenty years ago, before me and some other good Asians marched with your white people for your rights.”
Success can be hard as an immigrant. In Funny in Farsi when the iranian revolution began “a group of Americans in Tehran were taken hostage in the American embassy. My father was laid off.”(117). Since the hostage situation and it being in Iran all of the sudden all people from Iran are bad. Just because a few Iranians did some bad things now Kazem, Firoozeh’s dad, is out of a job.
(43) This means Salva is an achiever because instead of not helping because he was a child, he helped all the adults and got reeds. Salva leads a group of thousands of boys to Kenya with his dedication and determination. The text states “I will get us safely to Kenya, he thought. No matter how hard it is” (81) This demonstrates Salva being a hard-worker because he is helping thousands of boys cross to Kenya.
Through this movie, it is important to take notice of how gender, education, class and traditional culture can influence a person’s journey to achieve the American dream. First, it can be seen that
In the film Coming to America describing the two cultures in the film are the African and American cultures from Africa and Queens New York. The African and American cultures in the movie are different in some ways but similar in other ways by the way the characters in the movie are all family oriented with the respect they show their parents and the way the parents only want what is best for their children. Then there are subcultures in the film that go a little further with style of living. The culture in Africa is that people are to wait on the royal family for everything they do, but in America, the family cares for themselves without the help of servants. The rites of passage are a cultural norm in Africa for the Royal family by having arranged marriages.
African Kingdoms Before Their Decline Many have viewed the world of Africa as a slave driven country without knowing the reason as to why certain events occur. One of the first few things people think about when they hear about Africa is the ongoing event of slavery rather than the country itself. Before the arrival of the Europeans into this country, Africa was a well-developed country with empires and rulers. Over time, Africa has had many advancements and trading routes that was necessary for many other countries to take over.
However, overtime, America’s attitude toward the American Dream has changed, which is hindering success. We can all agree that wanting to be successful while having a hopeless mindset contradicts the purpose of hard work. Many Americans are pessimistic, carrying negative mindsets that make it harder for them to achieve greater things. Based on an article “Is the American dream really dead?” , Carol Graham found that “poor people in the US were 20 times less likely to believe hard work would get them ahead than were the poor in Latin America, even though the latter are significantly worse off in material terms”.
Imagine living in a world where precrime was a way of life and used to help decrease the number of crimes. Naturally, such an invention would cause a struggle with the citizens under effect of this creation. Stephen Spielberg's Minority Report uses cinematic elements such as sound, mise en scéne facial expressions, lighting, and symbolism to depict the theme of struggle between the characters. The scene that shows the characters in conflict with either each other, or themselves is where the main character struggles with himself and another character. Throughout the scene analyzed in this essay, the struggle between John, Agatha and Crow is highlighted by these effects.
My Thoughts on the Issue of Unauthorized Immigration and Border Control in the United States Immigration is the movement of people into a country in which they are not natives or citizens with the intention to settle in the country, especially as permanent residents or future citizens. Therefore, unauthorized immigrants are people who are referred to as undocumented immigrants, people who have no prior invitation or official documentation before entering the country. This above stated definitions of this salient words involved in this write up, will serve as personal balance on this issue. If government is a system by which a state or community is controlled, then my ideology on this issue is being influenced by the course of study which is government. As we all know that America is called the land of the free and home of the brave.
I 'm Joanna but most people call me Jo; the "anna" got dropped when I realized I wouldn 't stay in the comfort zone any longer! I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and moved to the USA at five years old, where I adopted the "Coming to America" story. My single independent mother worked her butt off to give all three of her kids the opportunity to do and be whatever they wanted. That meant several weekends cleaning houses, painting with her, and overall just working to build character. Two decades later and I can absolutely confirm that I 'm doing exactly what I 've always dreamed of, so I thank her for the sacrifices every day.
Citizenship in the United States Being a United States (US) citizen means a great deal to me. When I took the first step towards US citizenship, the last thing on my mind was to become a “model citizen” or having the same rights and obligations as a US born citizen. When I obtained my legal resident in the US, which is the first step towards citizenship, the main concern on my mind was “I am no longer on at edge about being deported.” This was a great relief for me, as all of my family resides in the US. This same frame of mind is shared among many people who take the first steps towards citizenship.
In a world where people are influence to speak, act, dress and look favorable to the Caucasian ethnicity, people began to mask/lose their own identity. During the course of history, Africa American were treated in a horrendous way. This unacceptable treatment caused the diminish of their self-worth, self-esteem, and self-respect. The damages from enduring mistreatment for others and themselves led to the circulation of various movies exploring the controversies about inequality and racism against African American people.