Sixty-Nine Cents, by Gary Shteyngart

868 Words2 Pages

The author Gary Shteyngart of “Sixty-Nine Cent” describes himself in a tug of war between the Russian culture of his parents and the American culture in which he wants to be a part of. At the age of seven, Gary Shteyngart and his family immigrated to the United States from Russia. When he was fourteen, his family and other Russian immigrant made a trip to Florida to see Disneyland. He describes “the ride over the MacArthur Causeway to Miami Beach was my real naturalization ceremony”( Shteyngart 103). At that age, he wanted to be like every American born boy, He wanted to eat at McDonald’s, walk the beaches, and speak to the girls, and to enjoy what every boy his age takes for granted. One of his desires was to eat a McDonald’s sixty-nine cent hamburger and drink a Coke. On the way back from Disneyland, he found out this was not going to happen. His parents were given a picnic lunch, packed by the woman who owned the motel, for them to eat instead of spending money at MacDonald’s. As his parents were sitting out “sort boiled eggs wrapped in tinfoil; vinaigrette, the Russian beet salad, overflowing a reused container of sour cream; cold chicken served between crisp white furrows of bulk, (Shteyngart 104)” Shteyngart could not believe that they were doing this to him. Here they were at McDonald’s and he was not going to get a sixty-nine-cent hamburger with a Coke. As a boy, Shteyngart was torn between the Russian culture and the American culture and sometimes it was hard to understand what he wanted and what he was taught. Growing up in a multicultural family, I can understand how Shteyngart must have felt. My great-grandmother’s father was the grandson of Jacob Hostettler, who was one of the founders of the Amish C... ... middle of paper ... ...try. >http://www.foodbycountry.com/Spain-to-Zimbabwe-Cumulative-Index/United-States-Amish-and-Pennsylvania-Dutch.html> Sylvia Grider. “Public Grief and the Politics of Memorial.” Anthropology Today (London), June 2007, 3-7. Print. Shteyngart, Gary. “Sixty-Nine Cent.” Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. Eds. Laurie G. Kirszner and Steven R. Mandell. 11th edition. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010 Boston, 102-105. Print. Suarez, S.A., Fowers, B.J., Garwood, C.S., & Szapocznik, J. “Biculturalism, Differentness ,Loneliness, and Alienation in Hispanic College Students.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. 19.4 (1997): 489–495. Print. Suter, Keith. “Roadside Memorials: Sacred Places in a Secular Era.” Contemporary Review 292.1692 (Spring 2010): 51+. Psychology Collection. EBSCO: Academic Onefile. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

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