The Immigrant Experience: The Anguish of Becoming American

The Immigrant Experience: The Anguish of Becoming American

Immigration from the Early 1990's still affects America today. The people who came to America from different countries brought their traditions, their families, and their culture. These three things stuck with them through thick and thin and are still thriving parts of what America is today. Many immigrants came with literally nothing in their pockets and had to work their way to success. The Immigrant Experience by Thomas Wheeler tells the story of nine different immigrants' trials and tribulations of coming and living in America. Each immigrant went through different experiences of becoming American but they also had their similarities. Four things that attributed to the assimilation of the immigrants are: language, money, religion, and ambition.

Each immigrant experienced their individual trials, but they still all had several similarities. Almost all of the immigrants in this book came to America without being able to speak English, except for the immigrant from London. Alan Pryce-Jones came to America able to speak English and this put him at an advantage over the other immigrants because he could communicate with Americans. Also, he came to America after he established his writing in Europe. He came with money and wisdom which set him far above the other immigrants.

The immigrants who couldn't speak English had to take classes and settle for low paying jobs because they could not communicate with their bosses. If they weren't working for someone else, they entrepreneured their own business. William Alfred, the Irish immigrant, was raised by a grandmother who owned her own business. This made it a little easier for him to find a job, and bring in money. J...

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...America and living here made them American. But, they all brought over their own traditions and culture that still affect families today. Americans all have the outer candy coatings, but each peanut inside is different. The peanuts make the M & M's what they are. The outer appearance is the same but the inward structure is not. The peanuts do not affect the way the M & M looks but they sure do affect the way they taste.

Next time you go to eat an M & M think about what America is. Is it a group of people who are all the same and have conformed to each other so that you cannot distinguish one from another? Or is America like a bowl of peanut M & M's where you can see how every one is similar but each individual is different on the inside? They may look American. They may act American. They may very well be American, but they cannot neglect their ancestry roots.