The Silent Struggles of Immigrant Hope

568 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: American dream and immigrants

Our eyes locked, as tears streamed down her sullen face. She was a petite woman with heavy dark eyes, revealing her struggle, her pain, and a hope for a better life. She cradled her infant gently, yet firmly as if it was her last breath. With every sway, she kissed her child’s head as a promissory note that she would take care of her and provide for her the world.

I never knew what extreme poverty or helplessness looked liked until my eyes locked with Lucy’s. However, my Sudanese parents understood the struggle all too well, as they left their dire situation to come to the United States. My parents worked hard for their livelihood so that their children would not experience a tumultuous life. Therefore, I believed, idealistically, this would be feasible for every immigrant. Unfortunately, life is not presented on the same playing field, and opportunity is not granted easily. …show more content…

She was a homeless Kenyan immigrant who arrived to this country in pursuit of the idealistic American dream. Unfortunately, like many dreamers, her dreams were cut short, and she was left -- homeless, destitute, and forgotten. My mother met Lucy at a friend’s house and she had compassion for the young woman’s situation and brought her

Show More
Related

  • Lullabies for Little Criminals

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    Baby narrates her story through her naïve, innocent child voice. She serves as a filter for all the events happening in her life, what the narrator does not know or does not comprehend cannot be explained to the readers. However, readers have reason not to trust what she is telling them because of her unreliability. Throughout the beginning of the novel we see Baby’s harsh exposure to drugs and hurt. Jules raised her in an unstable environment because of his constant drug abuse. However, the narrator uses flowery language to downplay the cruel reality of her Montreal street life. “… for a kid, I knew a lot of things about what it felt like to use heroin” (10). We immediately see as we continue reading that Baby thinks the way she has been living her life is completely normal, however, we as readers understand that her life is in fact worse then she narrates. Baby knows about the impermanent nature of her domestic security, however, she repeatedly attempts to create a sense of home each time her and Jules move to another apartm...

    Read More

  • Separation Anxiety and Attachment in Infants and Toddlers

    2903 Words  | 6 Pages

    Susie’s mother opened the door to let Molly, Susie’s babysitter, inside. Ten-month old Susie seemed happy to see Molly. Susie then observed her mother put her jacket on and Susie’s face turned from smiling to sad as she realized that her mother was going out. Molly had sat for Susie many times in the past month, and Susie had never reacted like this before. When Susie’s mother returned home, the sitter told her that Susie had cried until she knew that her mother had left and then they had a nice time playing with toys until she heard her mother’s key in the door. Then Susie began crying once again.

    Read More

  • Interpretation Of Abortion In The Mother By Gwendolyn Brooks

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    The point when considering individual encounters, "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks touches on the frequently passionate theme of premature birth. This sonnet was transformed decades back, yet still remains significant right up 'til the present time. Tolerating premature birth and the conclusion can in fact be a testing undertaking for a lot of people, while others adjust to it without much of an issue. Gwendolyn Brooks, in this great work, permits us to investigate the mom’s perspective purpose of fetus removal via an abortion and how a mother reacts to her interesting circumstance. All around the lyric the speaker hints at distress, using symbolism, concerning the theme of premature birth and its conclusions by exhibiting to us her perspective, memories, love, unpretentious triggers, and disarray.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Singer Solution To World Poverty By Peter Singer

    1809 Words  | 4 Pages

    Peter Singer’s article, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”, highlights the need to prevent absolute poverty in developing countries. An estimate of one billion people live in “a condition of life characterized with malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy” according to Wesley Bagby (pp. 29). As a victim of Sudan’s civil war and a former refugee, I totally understand what it means to be homeless and street child. The hardship endured by homeless and street children on a daily basis is unbelievable; a day without food to eat, a day without clean water to drink, a day without shelter, a day without cloth, a day without medical care, and a day without security. There is no doubt that a

    Read More

  • What is the Significance of Parent and Child Relationships to Sylvia-Amelia-Julia and Olivia in Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories and Dani in Jane El...

    1318 Words  | 3 Pages

    The warmth that parents bring to their children’s lives starts at infancy. Mothers and fathers of young children shower their kids with baby-talk and physical touch. These behaviours show the child that others are sensitive of their needs and those parents can be relied on for emotional responsiveness. However, this didn’t occur until twelve years later in Dani’s life, whereas Olivia, three years old , is her mother’s, Rosemary’s favourite and is described as ‘so lovable’ – a word Sylvia-Amelia-Julia had never heard her use to describe any of them – and is wished to “stay at this age for ever” because of this. Dani’s mother, Hayley, didn’t get the chance to hold her child before she was “placed in a clear Perspex cot and wheeled out of the birthing room” to the intensive care unit as she was premature – birthed at only five months “so small. So desperately, impossible small – barely larger than the midwife’s hands”. Although despite Hayley’s absolute exhaustion afterwards, she still felt “an overwhelming need to reach out and touch the child”, but her strength left her when she pushed herself up, so “she could do nothing but look” as her child was taken a...

    Read More

  • The Pain Tree Analysis

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s

    Read More

  • The Trail of Tears

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    I walked into the room on New Year’s Day and felt a sudden twinge of fear. My eyes already hurt from the tears I had shed and those tears would not stop even then the last viewing before we had to leave. She lay quietly on the bed with her face as void of emotion as a sheet of paper without the writing. Slowly, I approached the cold lifeless form that was once my mother and gave her a goodbye kiss.

    Read More

  • Immigrants and The American Dream

    2129 Words  | 5 Pages

    The "American dream" is different for every person. To some it means financial success, to others it means freedom of expression, while others dream to practice their religion without fear. The "American dream" is a complex concept providing immigrants with the hope of better life. The U.S. government provides the environment and resources for everyone to pursue their dreams. Each year millions of people around the world apply for the Diversity Visa lottery program provided by the U.S. government, however only a few thousand people are lucky enough to come here. America is the place where people are judged by their achievements instead of having references or connections. Even though the American economy is in recession and the achieving of the American Dream is harder, many immigrants still achieve religious, political, financial, and sports dreams here in the U.S.

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: Homelessness Of Homeless People

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    I heard a blood-curdling scream and I jumped. I felt silent tears running down my heavily scarred face, but they weren’t out of sadness. Mostly. They were a mixture of pain and fear. I ran into the eerie, blood-splattered room and screamed as I felt cold fingers grab my neck. Before that night, I didn’t believe in the paranormal. Now I sure as heck do. I had been chased out of my house after a fight with my step-parents because I wasn’t doing well in school (I had dyslexia), and I had taken shelter in what seemed like a normal house. I realized what I had gotten into after the sun set. The doors locked without a sign of anyone going near them. A cold draft filled the room I was in. The house turned into a horrific scene, and I knew I would never get out alive. It was the Asylum. There’s a rumor in our town, a rumor that started when someone made the observation that everyone fit in. No one was considered strange, homeless, an outsider. That doesn’t seem possible, you think. In my town, there are tons of people with no homes, or people that don’t belong, you think. Well, think again. Those homeless people? Think about how many there are. They fit in with each other. Those people that don’t belong? Once again, they fit in with each other. But then, you

    Read More

  • Immigrants and the American Dream

    1633 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the start of the twentieth century America has attracted people all over the world to relocate and start a new life. For many coming to America was a chance for a better life and new things. They all had something in common, they all had a dream, that dream was the "American Dream". In the present day the desire to achieve the dream hasn't changed. However, the idea of the American Dream, brings up a lot of questions. What is the American Dream? Who defines it? Can it be achieved? Lastly, should everyone have a chance to achieve it?

    Read More

  • Analysis Of A Whispering Guardian's Prayer

    1372 Words  | 3 Pages

    One day she returns home early to learn that her child was critical injured and was in the hospital; quickly she rushes to his side to comfort he. This poem was written in the manner of a mother and child having a conversation about personal choices and consequences....

    Read More

  • Immigrants and the American Dream

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ronald Regan describes America as, “…a place in the divine scheme that was set aside as a promised land” (“Loosing the American Dream”). Do Regan’s words have any truth to them? How can America be a promised land when immigrants are still fighting for the chance to pursue the American Dream and social acceptance? Immigrants have different motives for coming to America some may seek citizenship for political freedoms that they once did not have due to uprising civil wars in their native country. Others may come for social freedoms that they were not awarded in their home country due to sexual orientation. Others may come for economic freedoms that allows them to go from rags to riches. No matter the reason, immigrants risk everything for a chance to pursue the American dream. So why is it so hard for immigrants to earn a spot as a citizen of the United States of America? Why are immigrants still facing narrow-mindedness criticism for being foreign? It is time for Americans to change their prejudice views of immigrants.

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: My Mistreatment Of Homeless People

    225 Words  | 1 Pages

    Although I have not experienced mistreatment of homeless people in great length, I know it exists. Since I am living on-campus at Georgia State University, I have a glimpse of the hardships that homeless people experience on a daily basis. During the short hour that I was in Woodruff Park on Friday morning, a police officer with the Atlanta Police Department approached a woman on his bike. The woman was smoking near the raft of water; smoking is understandably not allowed in public parks. What perturbed me was the way that the police officer approached the woman. Instead of politely claiming that smoking is not allowed in public parks, the police officer approaches her ignorantly and states: “public park” in a grim tone. The police officer

    Read More

  • The Great Depression: A Short Story

    236 Words  | 1 Pages

    The touch of the baby’s soft skin brought tears to my eyes. She was so innocent and didn’t know what waited for her at her doorstep. If only she knew what her mother and younger siblings had to do every day to survive. The thought of the Great Depression and the effects it had on the poor made me pity the woman and her

    Read More

  • Narrative Essay: The Homeless Woman

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    She was a tall, slender woman with a bulky fur coat and a Gucci purse with lots of expensive item inside. She always put on her best attire to show off to the lower class. The wealthy woman always gives a look of disgust to the un-wealthy, believing that she was better than all of them. It was a dark cloudy day and the woman went into town to go shopping for a new hat. While walking down the street the slender woman saw a homeless woman, and started to walk faster in order to avoid her, but that plan seem to have failed because the homeless woman was right on her tail.

    Read More

More about The Silent Struggles of Immigrant Hope

Open Document