Global Citizenship: A Research Paper on
Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin and Songdogs
“Every immigrant carries in him or her a certain quiet desire to be wounded. It's the nature of leaving in the first place. We leave in order, one day, to remember. This nostalgia slips between our rib cages and turns our hearts a few notches backward.” (McCann) Colum McCann (1965 -) offered this quote in 2006 New York Times Article, No Place Like Home. McCann discusses the pain and happiness that comes with being an immigrant. He goes on to say that there is “a time of year when every immigrant realizes that he or she is also an emigrant.” (McCann) Even though the person may feel like they are isolated, not fitting in with their new home, and having left their old one behind, McCann shows us that we are all global citizens and are connected by the use of anecdotes, parallelism, and diction in his novels Let the Great World Spin and Songdogs.
McCann uses anecdotes to show that we are all related. Often times, the anecdotes show that the characters have closer ties then the reader initially believes. Let the Great World Spin explores the feelings of isolation regarding immigration through the use of anecdotes. By the end of the novel, we learn that every character is related in some way.
The novel starts out with the introduction of a young, Irish, single mother and her two sons. As the boys go older, one of them becomes a monk in the Bronx where he believes in order to save his spirituality he feels is threatened, by the love he feels for a woman, he vows to help the prostitutes who do business outside his home in the home in the Bronx. Corrigan’s, the Monk this chapter revolves around, brother narrates this section, and speaks a lot abo...
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...edemptive in the end. “The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough”. (Lakshman)
McCann employs the device diction in his works to persuade his audience that we are global citizens. Geographical and historical narratives are mainly described through the pictures that Conor takes on his journey. The pictures are black and white, and in this way, McCann shows us the detachment that is happening. McCann’s choices for the characters to maintain in a tense atmosphere show how they are related.
“He carried it [the camera] along dark roads built eighty years before, by famished men from the poorhouses. They were narrow roads, bits of sea blown spray landing on them, winding drunkenly away from the cliffs towards the mountains. And drunken men walked along them, sometimes rows of men, like weeds in motion through the decade of the Great Depression. (p. 09)”
In Amin Ahmad’s I belong here, the reader is faced with a sense of sympathy that makes the reader’s view of the world, not only questionable, but alterable. This personal experience, written in the year 2010 shames the fact that this world has and shows how little progress the world has made in the judgment and discrimination of immigrants. These people look differently, speak differently, and live differently; but on the inside they are the same. Nonetheless, they are looked down upon by people from different cultures. The author uses his personal ethos and pathos to support the claim of value that immigrants are not treated fairly.
One million people, each year, immigrate to the United States of America dreaming of a better life. Many come by their own free will but many are forced by unfortunate situations in their home country. Those people generally have to leave behind whatever possessions they have and deal with an ever saddening situation. In the novel Interpreters of Maladies by Lahiri, Lahiri discusses in multiple short stories the specifics of the cultural struggles of adapting to a new land with different people and different traditions. In the stories A Real Durwan, Mrs. Sen’s and When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine she talks about how a person from India has come to America against their will. The immigrant’s story
[1] Toibin, Colm, ed. The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction. New York: Penguin Books, 2001.
In Colum McCann’s novel, Let the Great World Spin, tragedies strike every character, and the way in which the different characters seek closure and counseling ends up shaping their personalities. While the approaches used to combat their grieving varies from character to character, McCann makes a compelling argument in support of seeking out grief counseling within a community. Many of the characters, such as Lara and Claire seem to initially internalize their feelings, and continually beat themselves up due to their guilt ridden and grieving conscious. Yet when they find their respective groups, which on the surface, seem to differ greatly between Lara and Claire, both characters are relaxed in their element. Claire finds comfort in Gloria, the polar opposite of her, while Lara finds comfort in the reparations she attempts to make with Corrigan’s family, namely Ciaran.
"The day I left home, my mother came with me to the railroad station.When we said goodbye, she said it was just like seeing me go into my casket, I never saw her again." So is the story of Julia B. from Germany and many others who left their life and love for a chance of happiness in a new country. This is the story of the German immigrants in 1880-1930 who risked everything on a dream of better things.
When people migrate to America, they experience a cultural shock. Immigrants feel overwhelmed by the new language and culture. The struggle to adapt to the new environment forces them to try to fit into the American stereotype. In The Soul of Black Folk, Du Bois says that the way white Americans view African Americans creates a tension on African American social identity. This tension is also seen on immigrant’s social identity once they migrate to the United States. Immigrants struggle to reconcile two cultures with a multi-faceted perspective of self, which creates a double consciousness.
There are many challenges that one must face as we go through life. I have faced a few myself, however, none proved more challenging than moving from my country; Jamaica, to the United States and subsequently moving to the state of Wisconsin. Deciding to leave behind family and friends is the hardest decision to make, however, there are a few things that I was not prepared for that made the transition more challenging than expected. Moving away from all that is familiar culturally, socially and economically can be even more of a daunting task than imagined. There are things that are taught to us by our parents and others that are more dictated by our environment than anything else, so when I immigrated to the United States I had three major challenges to overcome.
When most people think about immigration to the United States, they think of the U.S. as being the “land of opportunity,” where they will be able to make all of their dreams come true. For some people, immigration made their lives richer and more fulfilled. This however, was not always the case. A place that is supposed to be a “Golden Land” (Marcus 116) did not always welcome people with open arms. Even after people became legal citizens of the United States, often times the natural born Americans did not treat the immigrants as equals but rather as outsiders who were beneath them in some way. In some situations, people’s lives were made worse by coming to the “land of opportunity.” Often times people were living no better than they were in their own countries not able to make ends meet, just to live in the United States. Virtually all immigrants during the 1900’s had the same dream, to become successful and provide for their families as citizens of the United States, but they soon found out that the life in their new country was not going to be easy.
“One thing I think is certain that if the emigrants knew before hand what they have to suffer for about the first six months after leaving home in every respect they would never come here.”
It is easy for individuals to feel alone in the world after they go through a traumatic event. For many, however, a life changing experience can bring them closer to others. In Colum McCann’s novel Let the Great World Spin, characters find their place in the huge city of New York only after suffering. Trauma is a watershed experience marked by severe pain, the negative effects of which can stay with a person for a lifetime if they do not find a healthy way to move on. Stressful events can, however, be beneficial because they bring unlikely people together and widen individuals’ world views, creating a closer knit society through a shared experience.
The United States has often been referred to as a melting pot. Whether or not that statement is an accurate representation of the denizen of the United States, it still carries with it the appropriate connotation. The United States is a mixture of many different peoples, cultures, and traditions. For millions of people, that means that they identify with the culture of the country they come from, as well as the culture of the United States. This causes feelings of isolation and discomfort for people experience these potentially conflicting cultural identities. In the poems “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora and “The Translator at the Reception for Latin American Writers” by Julio Marzán, this theme is explored in great depth. Throughout both poems, the use of diction, irony, and form emphasize the poets’ feelings of isolation as a direct result of conflicting cultural identifies.
People from all over the world migrate to the United States in an attempt to live the American dream and have a prosperous, happy life. Jimmy Santiago Baca captures this in “Immigrants in Our Own Land” where he compares the dreams and realities of immigrants to what it’s like in a prison, segregated, unpromising and disillusioned. “We came here to get away from false promises, from dictators in our neighborhoods.”(Baca) “We are born with dreams in our hearts, looking for better days ahead.” (Baca) Instead of being honored for the hard work and dedication it takes to relocate in a foreign place, immigrants are met with criticism and disrespect. “Right away we are sent to work as dishwashers, to work in fields for three cents an hour.” (Baca) Immigrants are tasked with not having the opportunity to use the skills they have or may be able to pick up; instead they are forced to work janitorial jobs and those not lucrative at all.
There is not doubt that the United States is a nation of immigrants; however for many immigrants who come to this country today there experiences are often not what they expected. More times then not many people find themselves...
It is through the events in the journey of life that shapes and molds who we are as people. As for me, immigrating to America was one of those milestones that have shaped who I am. Those who have had the opportunity of moving from a different country to America know what a privilege it is. I felt the same honor to know that I would be journeying to the land of opportunity. Without hesitance, I spent the last two months packing and making the final preparations before moving to a new continent. Although it was a bittersweet time, leaving my beloved family behind, I knew that I couldn’t resist the treasure that waited for me in the new land. Coming from a developing nation the high level of sophistication that greeted me on arrival to America made feel like I was in paradise.
A continuation you can see a vision general about Globalization. This is not more that study Global Citizenship. You can see in these explorations a correlation in former global. Globalization is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. It is the process of international integration as a product of exchange of world views, products ideas and other aspects of culture. It is the process of international integration as a product of change of world .Globalization can do the different People because this creates economic and political positive with your technology. This Global are study different for example global climate, communication, solutions in global.