Accordion Crimes, by E. Annie Proulx

1067 Words3 Pages

Racism and segregation among different races took place since the beginning of time, “Accordion Crimes” by E. Annie Proulx explores a similar situation of new immigrants coming to America seeking for a better life also known as the American dream but soon realize what its all about. The story spreads over about 100 years. The life that immigrants were living was very difficult. Racism and discrimination was part of every day life, it can be pretty similar to what Muslims have to go through since the catastrophe of September 11, 2001 that changed the world for ever. When new coming Italians arrived to United-States, they were all seen as part of some mafia, generalization was punishing those that had nothing to do with it like the Muslims today. What can be done to stop hatred between races? The easy answer is education, but that’s not the only solution.

In order to recreate the world of new immigrants coming to America Proulx didn’t use traditional narrative style but instead tried to use fragmentation style by not giving full complete stories which didn’t link to one another except of the accordion which was passed from family to family. By the traveling of the accordion we can see what went on in different houses (families) since he was part of them for a moment. We have a feeling of violence in each story; in almost every story the ending finishes in a violent way; when Felix gets killed by a Japanese bomb, broken necks, car accidents and heart attacks. What those examples shows is that usually in poor environments the violence is more present then in rich and high educated neighborhoods.

This is a proven fact, so when the television shows the camps of Bin Laden, let’s not be fooled the reason is that those people a raised like that from a very young age to hate America or United states. That’s when education plays a central role. By not being well educated, their information is controlled by a group of people which decide what to teach them, which results of raising a population to certain beliefs that a small group think to be just. By ending the stories in such ways is probably what Proulx wants; to change the state of mind of the reader to a similar uncomfortable helpless feeling that immigrants felt everyday back in the 1900’s.

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