Once Kwok discussed about immigration that: "My family had a dream of America," she said. "When we live in the United States, we tend to underestimate what America represents to the rest of the world. It is still a powerful symbol of freedom. And it certainly was for us."No matter how our difficult our experiences in the United States were, my parents never regretted coming here. They were always so glad that we had the freedom to choose our own futures here." "People give up their language, their family, their culture, their diplomas. They give up everything to come here so their kids can have a better life and a better chance. It’s a cliché, but it also is true." Kwok said first-generation immigrants are incredibly heroic and sacrifice so …show more content…
Everyone in the family worked in a clothing factory in New York's Chinatown. Kwok worked there every day after school between the ages of five and 11. "It was a huge, cavernous place, filled with dust. I was not the only child there by any means. Every able-bodied person in a family needed to work. It was essential to our survival. The sweatshop is my second home” she told .She said they were paid by the piece, not by the hour, which is illegal. "The pacing there is incredible. Nobody dares stop for a moment. If you do, you get fired." Kwok said some people worked in such sweatshops their entire lives, until they died. "My main goal in life was to escape from the factory." The working conditions were barbaric and in violation of health codes, Kwok said. "Those factories were a source of livelihood for whole families. If you eliminated them, what would they do?" She said most of those New York City sweatshops have closed since she was a girl. She said their operators moved back to China, where labor is cheaper. She said one goal of Girl in Translation was to explain that children really do live and work as she did in her first years in this country. She said many people cover up such pasts out of shame "when I was a kid, I didn't confide in anyone” but many have told her their own lives were like the one she portrays in the book. After Girl in Translation received critical …show more content…
"I still am. I hate to clean, I'm terrible at cleaning. And I hate to cook. I burn everything. To this day, I can't make dumplings. I'm clumsy, so I would drop everything. Everything a Chinese daughter is supposed to be good at I was not good at”. Kwok said her parents were thrilled when she got accepted at Harvard University, not because she would be attending an excellent school. In Girl in Translation, mother will look after her. After school Kim also go to the sweat shop to help Ma. And in Mambo in Chinatown, Pa Prepared for both Lisa and Charlie. Pa always made breakfast for Ma’s spirit, even though it would been eight years since she had passed away (p11). From all such works she escaped and her inborn passion made her to become a professional ballroom
America is a land filled with immigrants coming from different corners of the worlds, all in hopes of finding a better life in the country. However, No one had an easy transition from his or her home country to this foreign land. Not every race thrived the same way—some were luckier than others, while some have faced enormous obstacles in settling down and being part of the American society. Many people have suffered
Affected by my family, my background, and everything around me, I was born in a family who is the first generation to get here. My grandmother, and my parents, along with some other relatives, moved here in search of better opportunities, like those from other countries for the same idea. They started out fresh but had a hard time to get started, when I was little, I assumed it had to be somewhat easy, but for people who do not know English it is like starting from scratch, but they did well, they’ve made it.
The Statue of Liberty is an American icon because it symbolizes freedom, success, and the power of this nation. This image is what the U.S stands for to the outside world. Foreigners strive to move to America because of its wealth and acceptance towards all races and ethnicity. “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” recounts the story of how Carlos Garcia, Laura Garcia, and their four girls move from the Dominican Republic to the United States to escape a dictatorship, and establish a new life in flourishing New York City. Many unexpected culture shocks await them in their new country. Although the girls find it difficult to adapt at first, they soon begin to assimilate and Americanize. On the other hand, “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl” by Elizabeth Wong illustrates the life of an Asian American having to embrace two entirely different cultural identities. Both the Garcia family and Elizabeth Wong's family have to deal with two opposing cultures without losing too much of their heritage. The book and the essay are similar in that characters in each story lose much of their original tradition. However, they are different in that the families move to the states for distinctive reasons, and the cultural preference of “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl” is more evident than that of “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”.
As the four women entered America, which is far from their motherland China, they experience a change of culture, the American culture, which was dominant than the Chinese. The Chinese mothers are faced with a difficult task of how to raise their American-born daughters with an understanding of their heritage. The daughters clearly show a gap in culture between the Chinese culture and American culture. The mothers wanted their daughter to follow the Chinese traditions, but the daughters followed the American traditions and even some of them got married to American men. The mothers tried to tell their daughters the story about the Chinese ancestors but the daughter could not follow them and the daughters thought their mothers were backwards and did not know what they are saying. As much as the mothers tried to show love to their daughters, the daughters usually responded negatively. They often saw their mothers’ attempts to guidance as a failure to understand the American culture. Being Chinese and living in America, both the mothers and the daughters struggle with many issues like identity, language, translation, and others. The mothers try to reconcile their Chinese pasts with their American presents; the daughters try to find a balance between independence and loyalty to their heritage
When most people think about immigration to the United States, they think of the U.S. as being the “land of opportunity,” where they will be able to make all of their dreams come true. For some people, immigration made their lives richer and more fulfilled. This however, was not always the case. A place that is supposed to be a “Golden Land” (Marcus 116) did not always welcome people with open arms. Even after people became legal citizens of the United States, often times the natural born Americans did not treat the immigrants as equals but rather as outsiders who were beneath them in some way. In some situations, people’s lives were made worse by coming to the “land of opportunity.” Often times people were living no better than they were in their own countries not able to make ends meet, just to live in the United States. Virtually all immigrants during the 1900’s had the same dream, to become successful and provide for their families as citizens of the United States, but they soon found out that the life in their new country was not going to be easy.
Because my family sacrificed everything and came to America, I was able to be married and have children relatively easily. My husband has never had to leave us for a long period of time, or move us across the country. We were born into America, living a life full of luxuries that we do not even realize are luxuries, all because my ancestors moved here long ago. My children do not have to worry about what the next day holds, or whether they will be able to eat at dinner time. They get to go to college at a young age without any terrible sacrifices. My oldest daughter will have her associate’s degree right out of high school, and will become a doctor, something my ancestors never had the chance to do. It is crazy to think that my ancestor’s barley got the opportunity to go to school, and yet my youngest daughter is the youngest person to attend college here in Ashland. I am the first one in my family line to go to college, and am blessed with the opportunity to choose my occupation, something my ancestors didn’t get to do. This is the same for Junot, who was able to choose his own occupation here in America. Unfortunately Junot’s mother “never did become a nurse…Immigration got in the way of that horizon—once in the United States, my mother never could master English, no matter how hard she tried, and my God, did she try.”(Diaz 1). But because she wanted so much more for her son, she strongly encouraged
The American dream is an illusion of any person aspiring to be a part of a nation that calls itself “the home of the free”. Often imagery of America communicates ideas of freedom, equality, and success in life, from these we associate the American Dream. Immigrants are trying to escape from other nations where there are people dying in the streets and families that cannot make enough money to put food on the table. These people see America as the land of prosperity and opportunity; many come to this country for refuge. This view is shared throughout American history, when the Native Americans first arrived, to the settlers forming their colonies, to the Industrial Revolution, to the gold rush, and to this very day. Many people die to reach this land full of promise for a better life. However, the land of opportunity is not open for anyone, which is contradictory due to the nature of freedom and history of immigration in the United States of America.
When my family and I got in the plane that would take us to the U.S., I was very excited. It was as if I had butterflies in my stomach. I was also nervous because I had heard of people that were turned away when they got to America because the government was not letting as many immigrants into the U.S as they had in the past. Therefore, my whole family was a little anxious. Two things could happen when we arrived at the Washington, D.C., airport. We could either come to the United States to chase after “the American dream”, or we could be turned away which meant that we would have to return to our country of origin.
“We are nation of immigrants. Some came here willingly, some unwillingly. Nonetheless, we are immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants, one, and all. Even the natives came from somewhere else, originally. All of the people who come to this country come for freedom, or for some product of that extraordinary, illusory condition. That is what we offer here—freedom and opportunity in a land of relative plenty.” (Middletown Journal 2005)
...t states, “Nearly all the workers were teenaged girls who did not speak English, working 12 hours a day, every day” (“The Triangle factory”). They dedicated plenty of time to work in a dirty unsafe factory just to help their parents bring in money.
"Immigrants and the American Dream." Society 33.n1 (Nov-Dec 1995):3(3). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale University. 26 Sep. 2006.
There is not doubt that the United States is a nation of immigrants; however for many immigrants who come to this country today there experiences are often not what they expected. More times then not many people find themselves...
“Factory Girls” by Leslie T. Chang provides an inside look on migration in the inner cities of China. The book follows the lives of women who have left their home villages to work in factories. Primarily, Chang focuses on the lives of two women, Min and Chunming. Min left her village at the age of sixteen with her older sister to chuqu, or to go out, and see the world. She often changed jobs while in Dongguan because she is never satisfied with her position. Chang met Chunming at a dating agency where men and women could mingle with one another. Chunming began her career at a toy factory. In her diary, she often wrote out the goals she wanted to accomplish and how to accomplish them. She was very determined to become successful. Her persistence
In “Girl in Translation,” Kwok points out the conflict between Aunt Paula and Kimberly’s mother. In the novel, we can see that Aunt Paula treats Kimberly and Ma really badly. She just gives them a run-down apartment to live in, which is very dirty and feel likes a unsafe place to be a home for them. But Aunt Paula just insists, “remember, if there are any problems, we will fix them. Together. Because we are family” (Kwok 6). Kwok implies that it is really ambivalent for how Aunt Paula treats her younger sister, Ma, and her niece, Kimberly. For example, when she knows that Kimberly being accepted into a good university and get a full scholarship, she wants to kick them out of the apartment. It should not be the normal way that a person would
It is through the events in the journey of life that shapes and molds who we are as people. As for me, immigrating to America was one of those milestones that have shaped who I am. Those who have had the opportunity of moving from a different country to America know what a privilege it is. I felt the same honor to know that I would be journeying to the land of opportunity. Without hesitance, I spent the last two months packing and making the final preparations before moving to a new continent. Although it was a bittersweet time, leaving my beloved family behind, I knew that I couldn’t resist the treasure that waited for me in the new land. Coming from a developing nation the high level of sophistication that greeted me on arrival to America made feel like I was in paradise.