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'Two Ways To Belong In America'
921 Words2 Pages
Everyone has a way to view the world around him or her, either through experience or religion. Nevertheless, all of those ways of viewing the world all ties down to culture, where it defines a person’s background, personality, and history/experiences. With each person’s having their own unique culture that only belongs to them, and no one else. Such as: a relationship between a mother and her daughter, the comparison between two sisters, and how one is considered as a human being while the other is marked as an unknown species.
There is a saying of “Like father, like son,” which might go as well as for the female side. But it not necessarily true; as for in the short story of “Two Kinds” by Amy Tang, the mother tries to show her daughter, Jing-mei, that she could be anything she wants in America. As she also
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In “Two Ways to Belong in America”, a personal essay by Bharati Mukherjee, explains how one sister is considered as a citizen while the other is considered as an immigrant. With each having a specific title given by the government. As the new American immigration laws were put in use, Mira, her older sister, complained that “’I’ve obeyed all the rules, I’ve paid my taxes, I love my work, I love my students, I love the friends I’ve made. How dare America now change its rules in midstream (71)?’” Arguing how America has done something to make her feel inferior. On the contrast, Bharati decides to become a US citizen and given up on some of her culture. Which she describes it as, “America spoke to me – I married it – I embraced the demotion form expatriate aristocrat to immigrant nobody, surrendering those thousands of years of ‘pure culture,’ the saris, the delightfully accented English. She retained the all. Which of us is the freak (71)?” Wondering if it was the right choice to choose in the beginning, or that it was a natural thing for this to happen to
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Summary Of Two Ways To Belong In America By Bharati Mukherjee
956 Words | 2 PagesBharati Mukherjee’s story, “Two Ways to Belong in America”, is about two sisters from India who later came to America in search of different ambitions. Growing up they were very similar in their looks and their beliefs, but they have contrasting views on immigration and citizenship. Both girls had been living in the United States for 35 years and only one sister had her citizenship. Bharati decided not to follow Indian traditional values and she married outside of her culture. She had no desire to continue worshipping her culture from her childhood, so she became a United States citizen. Her ideal life goal was to stay in America and transform her life. Mira, on the other hand, married an Indian student and they both earned labor certifications that was crucial for a green card. She wanted to move back to India after retirement because that is where her heart belonged. The author’s tone fluctuates throughout the story. At the beginning of the story her tone is pitiful but then it becomes sympathizing and understanding. She makes it known that she highly disagrees with her sister’s viewpoints but she is still considerate and explains her sister’s thought process. While comparing the two perspectives, the author uses many
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