Bharati, the speaker in the story has her citizenship and her sister Mira, only has her green card. The author Bharati and Mira are two sisters from Calcutta, India. Mukherjee’s story “Two ways to belong in America” compares and contrast paradigms on Mira and Bharati who were raised in the same house but developed different views on immigration. Bharati’s is the one who easily adapts to the American culture and becomes Americanize. She feels the need of being part of a community.
Alfredo Jimenez Instructor Munoz English 26 16 July 2012 Cultural Differences In the process of moving to a new continent an immigrant has to choose between keeping his original culture and adapting to a brand new culture. In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee she writes, both her and her sister arrive to the states in the early 1960’s to study at Universities. Both Muhkerjee and her sister were raised with identical views on life back in Calcutta. Each sister takes differently to one and other’s lifestyle. One wants to continue the Indian heritage and the other wants to create a new life style.
Mukherjee, Mira’s older sister has lived in America for over thirty years, in which she married a Canadian and helped the community by working and teaching at Berkeley University in California. Now, after all these years in which she has been in America, she considers herself American. Being an American is also a person’s personal choice. If a person chooses not to call themselves American, but instead the ethnicity from where they originally came from, then that’s up to them. A person becomes American because they choose to be one.
Like her fiction, though, it is also about the issues that confront all immigrants in America. i i I This is a tale of two sisters from Calcutta, Mira and Bharati, who have lived in the United States for some 35 years, but who find themselves on different sides in the current debate over the status of immigrants. I am an American citizen and she is not. I am moved that thousands of long-term residents are finally taking the oath of citizenship. She is not.
Roussante Kitson Prof. Minati Roychoudhuri English G102 17 Feb 2014 Two Ways to Belong In America “In one family, from two sisters alike as peas in a pod, there could not be a wider divergence of immigrant experience”. As I converse about how both girls growing up with similar childhood and other background. Both Mira and Bharati, two sisters from Calcutta, who lived in the United States for thirty-five years, but then fines themselves on different side in the current debate over the status of immigrants. Bharati talks about how she is moved that thousands of long-term residents are finally taking the oath of citizenship. Mira is not.
What Difference are there between Jin & Wei-Chen in how they are represented? What psychological info can we infer about Wei-Chen when he dates Suzy Nakamura? What lesson is Wei-Chen teaching Jin? Jin & wei-Chen might be almost the same culture, but Jin was raised in America. When Jin first came to the city evertone made fun of him & Suzy getting married.
This essay Two Ways to Belong in America was written by Bharati Mukherjee is based on her personal experience adapting to the American society and government. This story illustrates the journey of her and her sister Mira's differences in values once they made their way into America and their struggles of being labeled as immigrants. The story is told from Bharati's point of view and she explains how she and her sister shared similarities both in appearance and religious values. The two sisters take differing sides on the status of immigrants in the United States. Having lived in the United States for about 35 years, Bharati is an American citizen while her sister is not.
Early on, Barrientos recognized the intolerance for differences in her new land. With a regretful tone, she explained how she, too, rejected her cultural diversity out of respect for her parents’ wishes and in an attempt to fit in. When she was seven years old, she heard the Registrar at her elementary school enrollment say, “You people. Your children are always behind, and you have the nerve to bring them in late?” (p. 58). I believe her parents understood that there would be many barriers on the path to success and went about removing as many of
When these traits did not surface, Jing-Mei began to realize she did not have these traits and started to feel internally inferior. She slowly started to resent her mother’s continual control over her decisions and went in a different direction than her mother wanted her too. In Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds”, the dialogue Tan includes within Jing-Mei’s flashback demonstrates that conflict and resentment can occur when not allowing your child to take his/her own path. In the beginning of the flashback, Jing-Mei’s mother is shown to be trying to control and dominate her daughter’s life. When she moved away from China, Jing-Mei’s mother had a vision that in America, you could be anything that you wanted to be.
On other occasions, some people move to America looking for political asylum and protection. Others want to live in a democratic country. So, now that I gave a brief synopsis of why people immigrate to America I can tell you about my friend Leo. I decided to interview Leo, due to the fact that he is truly living the American dream, after moving here 15 years ago. Leo was in the Romanian army and just did not like what was going on in his country.