3. Group A--igraham26

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue follows a Cameroonian immigrant family, the Jongas, and a wealthy American family, the Edwards. They need to navigate the so-called ¨American dream¨ in the 2008 financial crisis. Jende Jonga, his wife Neni, and their son Liomi, are Cameroonian immigrants struggling to make a life in New York City, facing challenges with the American immigration system. The collapse of Lehman Brothers (The Edwards family business) and the ensuing financial crisis throws both families into turmoil, forcing them to confront the fragility of their lives and the complexities of the American Dream.

¨You think a black man gets a good job in this country by sitting in front of white people and telling the truth? Please, don’t make me laugh¨(Pg 21). He is persecuted by experiencing hostility through racism from many people around him even when he is trying to do the right thing.

Girl In Translation By Jean Kwok is about a young Chinese girl immigrating to the U.S from Hong Kong, trying to accustom to the new morals and ways of life. Kimberly and her mother live in a very run down, bad apartment in the projects of New York, a place that was basically abandoned. Kimberly has to attend public school, where she has some challenges in the beginning, but eventually makes a good friend named Annette. Annette shows her the ways of life in the U.S and eventually Kimberly gets the hang of school there, and gets very high math tests scores, and was able to be a candidate to go to a private school. On top of school, Kimberly has to go to the factory where her mother was employed after school to work very long hours, sometimes being there all night with her mother. After excelling in her new private school, and working very hard to get good grades because she thought it was the only way to get herself and her mother out of poverty, she secures herself a scholarship to Yale and accepts it. Before accepting this scholarship from Yale, she also starts a relationship with her friend from the factory named Matt, and gets pregnant, and has the baby. After accepting this offer from Yale, she decides to focus on herself and her education instead of further pursuing her relations with Matt, raising her child with her mother, and becoming a doctor.

In the beginning of Girl in Translation, Kimberly and her mother both deal with ill-treatment because of their ethnicity and ability to speak the main language of the place they had Immigrated to, in this case from Hong Kong to America. Because they had to deal with this oppression and treatment, they both had to work very hard to get where they are in the end of the book, but especially Kimberly. She has to work exceptionally hard in school and at work with her mother to end up being very successful in the end. One quote that shows the sacrifices Kimberly had to take to get where she is today, and the things she had to do to earn her success is "I felt as if I were a scarecrow in a high wind. At any moment, I could be blown out of balance, all of the pieces that composed me would scatter and I would wake to find nothing left of myself, nothing left of the person I wanted to be" ( Kwok 188 ) 

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok is about a girl named Kimberly Chang who immigrates to Brooklyn, at 11 years old with her widowed mother from Hong Kong. There is a language barrier that forces Kim to take more responsibility to help her and her mother out of Chinatown and out of the control of selfish Aunt Paula. Her self devotion to use her education to instill a better future for her family conflicts with her desire to fit in and have fun with other American teenagers. This causes a turning point in her behaviors resulting in major life decisions being made. 

An instance where she and her family was persecuted against was when they were taken advantage of in a time they needed help the most. "He loomed over me. His accent was from the north of China. "I spent my time here, I want my money"" (Kwok 221). During a cold winter their only source of warmth, a kitchen oven, had broken. After calling a repairman that worked under the table for the Chinese community he took advantage of them, further breaking the oven and demanding 100 dollars that he knew they couldn't afford.

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian follows Tom Bouchard, a high school soccer star in a small Maine town where many Somali refugees have recently arrived. At first, Tom doesn’t think much about them, but when he meets Saeed, a talented Somali soccer player, he starts to see things differently. Tom also gets to know Abdi, Saeed’s cousin, who is quieter and more focused on school and family. Through his friendships with Saeed and Abdi, Tom begins to understand the struggles the Somali refugees face, including racism, poverty, and cultural differences.As tensions rise in the town, conflicts between longtime residents and Somali newcomers become more apparent. Tom faces backlash from some of his friends and community members for supporting the Somali players. He also becomes involved with Myla, a girl who volunteers at a refugee center, further opening his eyes to the challenges immigrants face. In a devastating turn of events the Seed family leaves the city. After the intense and tragic events that occur throughout the book, the family makes the decision to move away from their troubled environment.

Tom is not treated unfair but the refugees definitely are like Saeed. They have to deal with racism, and many snarky rude remarks to them. " Same day as Saeed's fake birthday, Hell, same as every Somalias kids birthday" (Padian 326), this quote is being rude to the Somalians just saying they all have the same birthday because they don't know.  

in my book Americanized, by Sara SaedI. She talks about being naive when her family moved, not knowing they could easily be kicked out, as time went on the government knew they were there, and Sara started getting made fun of during her time in high school because of how she looked. As time passed her mom got pregnant and they got a brother, her parents got a divorce so Sara and her sister could get a green card more easily by her grandmother. Sara felt very guilty for having her parents divorce for them, they didn't have to worry about their son much because he was born there. She had to take care of him most of the time, she felt overwhelmed with not being there legally and her parents being gone. They later had to move somewhere else because they were having financial problems, once that got solved their green cards were gonna work out, so her parents get remarried. Years pass, but in her twenties she works on filling out her immigration paperwork, and after some difficulty, succeeds in becoming an American. She then is able to marry her boyfriend.

Towards the end of my book Sara was perceived as very hard working and successful for going through all the challenges that she did, to become an American citizen. “You’re one of us now!” I could hear people say underneath their cheerful rhetoric” (SaedI 264)

The Grief Keeper by Alexrandra Villastante follows Marisol and her younger sister Gabi trying to seek asylum in the United States from El salvador. Both the girls had to flee their country due to gang violence and the dangerous situation they had been in, after Marisol and Gabi’s brother were murder they flee to the US and their mother into hiding.During this Marisol is conducted into an experiment to stay in the united states and have a safe haven for both her and her sister. 

In my book Marisol doesn't necessarily get persecuted, but she does worry about the idea that she and her sister would be deported the moment this experiment goes wrong.” I cannot let anyone think I am lazy and not doing my job.”(Villasante 117). This comes from the fact that all she thinks about is her making a mistake and getting sent away.