In Phuc Tran’s book, Sigh, Gone, he discusses the difficulty of figuring out his identity as an immigrant in a mostly American neighborhood. From questioning his name to determining where he fits in the social structure of his high school, Tran has to navigate learning who he is with an additional barrier to the average teenager, having a whole other culture as a large part of his life. As he ages, he realizes that he wants nothing to do with his Vietnamese heritage and works hard to present himself as anything but an Asain nerd stereotype. By the time he reaches middle school, his parents have been able to move into a house in a new part of town. Phuc takes this opportunity to reinvent himself into a full punk skater. No matter how hard he tries, however, people often slip back into only focusing on he’s clearly not white.
This issue seems to fade into his thoughts often, and even when he’s accepted into a new group of friends, all cursing punk skaters, he can’t let go of the fear that he’ll continue to be stereotyped, “I hadn’t consciously chosen to be a nerd but had somehow drawn those numbers in the social lottery of sixth and seventh grade. This never mattered to me until I cared, and the weight of this sudden awareness suffocated me…I know knew that I wanted to be a skater, but wanting that was not good enough. The group could still deem me a poser…someone who tried too hard to belong.” (Tran 135)
Based on this and what you’ve read in your own book, how difficult is it for an immigrant to become their own person? Are there times where they aren’t defined by their culture or other stereotypes?
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