A Sense of Belonging - Essay 2
A Sense of Belonging
Being an American means different things to different people; some immigrants come to this country to make it their home, while others come just for the opportunities America has to offer. In Two Ways to Belong to America, Bharati Mukherjee describes two different views of living and surviving in America. While in Mother Tongue, Amy Tan writes about her and her mothers’ struggle to overcome their own cultural differences. In this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting these two works, as well as relating them to Five Faces of Oppression by Iris Marion Young.
In both Mukherjee and Tans’ essays, the overall theme is women originally from a different country, living in America and dealing with discrimination, stereotyping, and countless cultural differences. Bharati originally wrote Two Ways to Belong to America for the New York Times to speak out about the movement in Congress to eliminate government benefits from resident aliens. She came to America to get an education and had worked hard and paid her taxes just like every other American, she believed it was unfair of our government to take away something she had earned. Also in this essay, Bharati speaks about her friend Mira, whose employer went to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to petition for her labor certification. Mira had lived in America for over 30 years and had not yet applied for American citizenship, however she still felt betrayed when her legal status was questioned. In Mother Tongue, Tan felt stereotyped in many different ways. She wrote about how her mother had been taken advantage of by people that could not understand her broken English. People seemed to dismiss her as being uneducated and illiterate because of the language she used. However, once Amy Tan spoke to the same individuals using a different type of English, which these people were more accustomed to, they actually did something to assist Tans’ mother.
Unlike Bharati Mukherjee and her friend Mira,
Being an American means different things to different people; some immigrants come to this country to make it their home, while others come just for the opportunities America has to offer. In Two Ways to Belong to America, Bharati Mukherjee describes two different views of living and surviving in America. While in Mother Tongue, Amy Tan writes about her and her mothers’ struggle to overcome their own cultural differences. In this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting these two works, as well as relating them to Five Faces of Oppression by Iris Marion Young.
In both Mukherjee and Tans’ essays, the overall theme is women originally from a different country, living in America and dealing with discrimination, stereotyping, and countless cultural differences. Bharati originally wrote Two Ways to Belong to America for the New York Times to speak out about the movement in Congress to eliminate government benefits from resident aliens. She came to America to get an education and had worked hard and paid her taxes just like every other American, she believed it was unfair of our government to take away something she had earned. Also in this essay, Bharati speaks about her friend Mira, whose employer went to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to petition for her labor certification. Mira had lived in America for over 30 years and had not yet applied for American citizenship, however she still felt betrayed when her legal status was questioned. In Mother Tongue, Tan felt stereotyped in many different ways. She wrote about how her mother had been taken advantage of by people that could not understand her broken English. People seemed to dismiss her as being uneducated and illiterate because of the language she used. However, once Amy Tan spoke to the same individuals using a different type of English, which these people were more accustomed to, they actually did something to assist Tans’ mother.
Unlike Bharati Mukherjee and her friend Mira,
Cited: Mukherjee, Bharati. Two Ways to Belong to America. n.d. 28 February 2012 <http://wiki-cik.wikispaces.com/file/view/Mukherjee-2WaysToBelong.pdf>. News Migration. Naturalization Controversy. Vol. 3. German Marshall Fund of the United States; University of California-Berkeley Center for German; European Studies. Los Angeles Times, October 1996. Sahari, Michael. Five Faces of Oppression. 13 May 2008. 19 February 2012 <http://mjsahari.blogspot.com/2008/05/five-faces-of-oppression.html>. Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan. Ed. Carol l. Robinson. n.d. Houding Productions. 29 February 2012 <http://cyberspacerobinson.net/courses/writing/writing1/2012reading/mothertounge.pdf>. Young, Iris Marion. Five Faces of Oppression. Princeton: Princeton U P, 2011.