The New Colossus Poem

Despite Emma Lazarus’ view on America in “The New Colossus,” not everyone who ventures from their home into America is given opportunity and the freedom that they deserve.
Multiple accounts of discrimination and injustice are displayed in the poems of Bharati Mukherjee, Dwight Okita, and Judith Ortiz Cofer. This difference of opinion is caused by the different upbringings of all of the authors that has affected their social status in America. One example of this is expressed in Okita’s poem in which he speaks as his mother as a teenager during World War Two. During this period in time, most Japanese Americans were sent to live in internment camps after the mass hysteria caused by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Even though she was raised more American than Japanese, and that, “ [She] always felt funny using
The unjust American society has made their culture a taboo where spoken Spanish is frowned uponThis small store is the only place where people can speak their native language without judgement from the people around them: “ all wanting comfort of spoken Spanish” (Cofer). The storekeeper is described as , “ the Patroness of Exiles…who spends her days selling canned memories.” These memories are of the immigrants’ home country and the characteristics that they brought with them, most of which they are not allowed to display in public. On the other hand, all english speaking people can talk freely in public and to other people, making it easier for them to get a job, unlike most Latin Americans. The golden door of opportunity depicted in Lazurus’ poem is the opposite of reality. Not everyone has an equal opportunity for success. Making the past lives still linger in the immigrants’ and the store keeper’s minds: “Conjuring up products from places that now exist only in their hearts- - closed ports she must trade with”