Analysis of the Poems, Assimilation and Returning

Discuss how effective the two poems are in showing a sense of cultural understanding and/or assimilation.

Personally, I find Assimilation by Eugene Gloria is more effective than Returning in depicting cultural understanding as a state of recognising and appreciating the culture. In the former, the poet focuses on the presence of the “scattered rice beneath the red-painted bench”. Although those rice grains are left-overs from his previous meal, the poet still attachs some significance to them, even juxtaposing the rice with a contrasting image of “the red-painted bench”, so that the white rice grains are more noticeable. The rice represents the Asian heritage of the speaker, as seen in how he wanted to “hid (the rice) from his classmates as he was ashamed to be different”. The speaker recognises that the Americans will recognise his culture. Hence, when the rice grains blend into the “schoolyard’s dirt”, this represents the assimilation of the speaker into the White community in his school. However, the speaker understands that this assimilation is not perfect. He is not actually becoming equal to the Whites, he is only becoming tolerated by the community. While the “white kids are lined on red-painted benches”, the rice grains huddle layers below, beneath the bench, beneath the dirt. Acknowledging that the American culture has many social classes, and that he is a part of the lower class is difficult, as that is a painful truth, however he still accepts this, as his appreciation of this community which despises him overpowers the social stigma that comes with being Asian, therefore, it is proof that the speaker in Assimilation recognises the flaws of the American culture and truly understands and accepts it. You cannot understand something unless you accept and internalise the new knowledge. I think the same goes for cultural understanding; you have to accept the truth about your relationship with the culture. So, as the poet has portrayed the speaker as