Comparing Bread Givers and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

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A Realistic Look at Bread Givers and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

America is a country that was created and settled by immigrants from many different lands. These immigrants came to America in search of the "American Dream" of freedom and a better way of life, and their narratives have been recorded by various authors in both fiction and non-fiction stories. But can the fiction genre be considered a reliable source for studying the immigrant narrative? If American immigrant literature is to be used as a reliable source for understanding the immigrant experience, one needs to justify that this literature properly tracks the history of the immigrant narrative.

In an effort to justify the fiction genre as a reliable source for understanding the immigrant narrative, we will look at the personal life and fictional works of both Anzia Yezierska and Julia Alvarez, two second generation immigrant authors, who have written about immigrant experiences. In doing so we will determine if the personal stories of these ladies follow the basic immigrant narrative, if their fiction stories convey a realistic depiction of the immigrant people they write about, and as a result can we surmise that American immigrant literature can be a reliable source for understanding the immigrant experience?

The American immigrant narrative starts with the immigrant’s decision to leave the old world. The reasons for leaving may vary from person to person and country to country, but all come seeking a better life than they had in the old world. The narrative continues with the actual journey to the new world and the struggles that are encountered along the way. Once in America, many immigrants face shock at the new culture they enco...

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...n America, and the fiction genre can be a reliable and enjoyable source for understanding the immigrant experience in this multi-cultural society we call the United States of America.

Works Cited

Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. New York: Plume, 1992.

Alvarez, Julia. Something to Declare. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1998.

Contemporary Authors. Vol. 147. Detroit: Gale, 1995

Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 46. Detroit: Gale, 1988.

Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 93. Detroit: Gale, 1996.

Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 28. Detroit: Gale, 1984

Harris, Alice. Preface. Bread Givers. By Anzia Yezierska. New York: Persea, 1975. v-xviii.

Seller, Maxine. To Seek America: A History of Ethnic Life in the United States. Englewood: Ozer, 1977.

Yezierska, Anzia. Bread Givers. New York: Persea, 1975.

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