1. Group D---cleach26

In my story, Sigh, Gone, Phuc Tran talks about how he definitely doesn't fit in. Early in the book he describes what his life was like as a young child refugee. His Vietnamese family moved to rural Pennsylvania after they needed to relocate. Obviously, the kids at school notice how he's different, doesn't understand English, and is wearing extremely limited clothes. He finally starts to get into fights with the kids at school, one specific time because another student calls him a gook. Even though he doesn't know what it means, he knows it is an insult and he punches the other kid in the face. 

He also talks about another student, Ethan Alder, who was the coolest kid at school. Phuc wants to be just like him, but since that isn't an option, he decides he wants to dress like him. Ethan Alder always had "distinctive Bjorn Borg-style wristbands. White terry cloth, with red and blue stripes." (Tran 58). But, Phuc's parents can't afford the wristbands he finds at the local store. He takes this into his own hands and cuts up a pair of socks to wear instead. When he shows Ethan and another classmate, Grace, how they look the same, the reaction is not good, "She and Ethan giggled as the recess line processed outside. 'THOSE ARE SOCKS! Oh my God, Phuc is wearing socks on his wrists!'" (Tran 61). 

Unfortunately, this is just one example of many of where immigrants do their best to fit in and are then treated even worse than before. 

In my book Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian, Tom Bouchard is a colored boy who is in highschool. Just like any highschool kid he plays sports and hangs out with his friends. He lives in lewiston maine which has a lot of native smali people who are in his school and all around him. He meets a boy named Saeed who is a smali boy who plays soccer with him. He isn't very good at speaking english. When he doesn't know what to sign for the papers to be able to play soccer Tom helps him and his family to figure it out and even uses his information for some of it. Tom and his friend make a bad choice and decide to vandalise a highschool monument so Tom has to do community service. When doing so he meets a young smali boy who doesn't know how to read and write but he can speak decent english. At this point Tom is working with theres from out of the country to help them work their way around their new environment. 

In my book The two boys that are mainly exemplified as characters from a new country both struggle with either speaking or reading english. When they came to the U.S. they weren't looked at as that different from others mostly because of the amount of people like them already there. Though because they have difficulty with reading and speaking English there are special places like where Tom has to do service to help people like that. “‘Your mother and father need to sign here. Their name. That gives you permission to play soccer.’ I slowed down pronouncing each word carefully, but he still looked confused”(Padian 16)

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri introduces Ashima and Ashoke, Indian immigrants adjusting to life in the United states Ashoke survives a fatal train accident, which influences his decision to immigrate. Their son Gogol, is born in Massachusetts, and the family faces cultural challenges like for example in there culter great grandmother names all of her grandkids babies but around the same time Gogol is born she has a stroke and her mind isn't all there anymore so they took it upon themselves to name their kid.  "It's not the type of thing Bengali wives do. Like a kiss or caress in a Hindi movie, a husband's name is something intimate and therefore unspoken, cleverly patched over."( Lahiri Chapter 1)This quote illustrates the ingrained customs of this family's interactions and the personal adjustments they make while navigating life in America.

how are my characters in my book looked at differently when moving to a new country?

Ashima and Ashoke both feel out of place in America. Ashima struggles to adjust “For being a foreigner, Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy—a perpetual wait, a constant burden” (Lahiri Ch 2). Ashoke adapts more easily because he views it as a place of opportunity after surviving a fatal train accident "The accident...had once saved his life, as America, had saved his life" (Lahiri ch 1). They've both had things happen to them that haven't made things easy but its clear that there making it work and they aren't giving up.

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian is about a kid named Tom Bouchard, he is a popular highschool athlete. He goes to a prep school in Maine, but his issue is he tries to fit in too much. But we also meet Ishmael, a refugee from Somali who recently moved to the area. He struggles to fit in, and everyone looks at him as being different. He also struggles to speak English and many are racist towards him. "Sometimes he surprised me and came up with a string of English that made you think he could speak the language" (Pandian 96), This quote shows that he is looked at differently because of his struggle to speak English.

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian, is about Tom Bouchard is a high school athlete from Lewiston Maine. He ends up meeting a Somali Kid named Saeed who isn't very good with speaking or writing English who he plays soccer with. because of having to adapt to a new country and different norms there are moments where the Somali kids are looked down upon such as when they take awhile to get ready for practice. "Practice begin with extra laps, which pissed me off. It was the Somali guys. Again. The same two, Saeed and Ismail, were slow to get laced up."(41) this shows how just because the Somali kids aren't used to having to get ready quickly they're causing issues for other people which leads to them being upset at them.