In Julia Alvarez’s bildungsroman novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the concept of American assimilation is vigorously examined. The story highlights the experiences of an immigrant family, who move to the United States. Sofia, the youngest of four daughters finds it extremely challenging to balance out “fitting in” in an american setting, and meeting the expectations of her strict dominican parents. Sofia consistently finds herself struggling to not stick out of a crowd, while still upholding the virtues her parents have instilled her. The difficulties encountered by Sofia are due to her parents putting tremendous amounts of pressure onto her shoulders. Sofia is having a hard time assimilating to American culture because of her
This story is exactly what Julia Alvarez went through. It’s her life story. In the book Yolanda plays Julia’s role. The story relates accurately to how the family struggled having to adapt to the American culture. “As the only immigrant in my class, I was put in a special seat in the front row by the window, apart from the other children so that sister Zoe could tutor me without disturbing them” (“How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” 166).
One’s growth and attitude is affected by the environment one grows up in. This is relevant in both books Kindred and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. In both books, the main characters, Dana and Yolanda, struggle to assimilate into their new environments. For Dana it is adapting the role of a slave in the antebellum South and for Yolanda and her sisters it is learning how to blend into American society. Though these characters assimilate into different societies in different ways, they both assimilate to gain a sense of security and self-understanding which can be seen through their understanding of the power of language and search for a home.
At the end of the novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Yolanda shares a story that is rather disconnected from all of the other stories. She shares a story of her finding a litter of cats in a barrel, and how she takes one of them only to throw them out of the window when she becomes annoyed with his meowing. Because of this, Yolanda becomes haunted with the kitten’s mother at night. The black cat that haunted Yolanda for so many years is a symbol to her past life, and the violence she created and endured. Yolanda first started seeing the mother cat after the incident when she threw the kitten out of the window.
In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the characters are caught between their native homelands the Dominican Republic culture and their new found country the United States culture which is not the only factors in this novel. Yolanda, a character in the story the third child, encounters sexuality and freedom vs. religious beliefs raised as a Catholic no premarital sex. She also faces prejudice against their race, language barriers and in earlier years adjusting to a different economic status. It places her between the issues of understanding the English language and unwilling to commit to a sexual relationship with her boyfriend in college during the sixties social, sexual revelation. Although these conflict of Catholicism, heritage, and
As a diverse country that the United States is, many of the new generations are becoming mixtures of different countries. There is always a great deal taking place when immigrants migrate to another country especially in the United States since it is a melting pot. When first arriving to a new country, the immigrants tend to still follow their tradition because they still want to be a perfect representation of their origin country; in this case it would be Dominican from the book “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”. Although, they are now living in a new country where “change” plays a huge role in their lives. The Garcia family are open to change because they want to form part in the U.S. since Dominican Republic is going through major
Many people from all over the world migrate to the United States for a variety of reasons, such as education, work, and freedom, or for crimes like selling drugs, violence, terrorism , etc. Yet, after typically coming to the United States at a young age, they call it home. It becomes the only place they know, since they never return to their native country. For instance, Julia Alvarez in her novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, refers to the immigration experience, because after their initial struggle, immigrants feel more at home in the United States than in their own countries.
In the United States there are many cultural backgrounds that have been stereotyped for what their culture is supposed to look like. Tanya M. Barrientos wrote an essay; “Se Habla Esppañol”, which she expresses her experience being a Latina, who is not fluent in speaking Spanish. Therefore, most cultures that move into the United States with a foreign language and children; the children tend to act or be more like an American, than their own culture, which later become confident in their native language. Growing up in the United States as a young Latina, Tanya Barrientos was found to only speak one language; English. She was raised to only speak English because at that time, her parents wanted their children to fit into society.
Adjusting to an unfamiliar environment can be quite scary and alarming. Especially when home is out of the country. But, no matter the distance or location, home and culture is within. It should be embraced in any setting. In “Accents” by Denise Frohman and “Naturalization” by Jenny Xie, the narrators talk about how their families adjusted to the American culture, coming from a foreign country.
The immigrants entering the United States throughout its history have always had a profound effect on American culture. However, the identity of immigrant groups has been fundamentally challenged and shaped as they attempt to integrate into U.S. society. The influx of Mexicans into the United States has become a controversial political issue that necessitates a comprehensive understanding of their cultural themes and sense of identity. The film Mi Familia (or My Family) covers the journey and experiences of one Mexican-American (or “Chicano”) family from Mexico as they start a new life in the United States. Throughout the course of the film, the same essential conflicts and themes that epitomize Chicano identity in other works of literature
For as long as people can remember, the stereotype that men have “more power” than women in a relationship has been a relevant argument. In the novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents the Author, Julia Alvarez, writes about four girls and part of that revolves around their relationships with men. In all of their relationships with men, he has the power in the relationship which means he makes the decisions for them. When they lived in the United States the girls and their mother had more say in the society. When they lived in the Dominican Republic men just saw them as submissive housewives who bear their children.
Richard Rodriguez and Gloria Anzaldúa are two authors who both immigrated to America in the 1950s and received first hand experience of the assimilation process into American society. During this time, Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had struggled adjusting to the school system. Since understanding English was difficult, it made adjusting to the American school system increasingly difficult for Rodriguez. Whereas Anzaldúa, on the other hand, had trouble adjusting to America’s school system due to the fact that she didn’t wish to stop speaking Spanish even though she could speak English. Both Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had points in their growing educational lives where they had to remain silent since the people around them weren’t interested in hearing them speaking any other language than English.
Immigrants that are new to the American society are often so used to their own culture that it is difficult for them to accept and adapt to the American culture. The language that is spoken, as well as the various holidays and traditions that Americans entertain themselves with, aren’t what most immigrants would deem a neccessity for their life to move on. Nonetheless, they still have to be accustomed to these things if they have any chance of suceeding in a land where knowledge is key. The story “My Favorite Chaperone” written by Jean Davies Okimoto, follows the life of a young girl who along with her brother Nurzhan, her mother known as mama, and her father whom she refers to as Papi have immigrated to the United States from Kazakhstan, through a dating magazine. Throughout the story each family member faces problems that causes them to realize just how different their life is know that they’ve immigrated..
“The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María” by Judith Ortiz Cofer and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan depict the endeavors people take on in an attempt to integrate into society. Cofer demonstrates how stereotypes of Latina women have led others to misjudge her and explains the difficulty she had disassociating herself from those stereotypes. Tan demonstrates that the “broken” English her mother speaks has led others to think less of her and disregard her. One’s appearance instantaneously causes others to judge them. For some it is easier to blend in and be accepted by their community, but what is it that keeps some people from assimilating, and what effect does their otherness have on them?
Anzaldua employs her text to express her emotions in regards to various predicaments faced by immigrants during their lives in the United States. She approaches personal insights in regards to language such as expectations from the Anglo population when it comes to being an immigrant and speaking proper English, and the expectations from her Hispanic parents and their desire for their children’s success. Anzaldua’s work has several thought-provoking ideas within it, but this paper will be focused on the analysis of the following quote: “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue-
The essay “Only Daughter”, written by Sandra Cisneros is centered on the main idea that being an only daughter of seven sons “explains everything” of her life. Cisneros’ essay is structured to emphasize the emotional impact of surpassing socially excepted gender roles in a conservative Mexican family. Her fathers view on college is for Cisneros to successfully acquire a husband but her own view is to become an independent writer. Feeling discriminated because of her feminine qualities and unappreciated by her male family members she finds herself always wanting to impress her father with her writings. Feminism becomes a huge theme throughout this essay and conveys an only daughter of a Mexican-American family of nine exposed to the unequal