In the Ted Talk, “What's Missing from the American Immigrant Narrative,” by Elizabeth Gutierrez, Elizabeth is an immigrant from Mexico and when her family got to America her parents got deported back to Mexico but she was able to stay at the age of only 15. She finished high school and took her little brother in to take care of him as he got his education while she went to college. She then got a good job and was able to support her brother and he got to stay in the US as well. She kept her oxygen mask on focusing on herself then helping other people. A quote to show that she wants you to put yourself first is, “My hope is that you will find the courage to put your oxygen mask on when you need to, and that you will find the strength to help those around you when you can.” (Gutierrez 3). This shows how she wants you to put on your oxygen mask on first before helping others.
In My book Out Of Nowhere by Maria Padian Tom Bouchrad is a native kid who becomes friends with a Somali immigrant named Saeed. He then becomes friends with more of the Somali immigrants. He begins to see how they struggle daily with racism and other ways of being hated. At the end a picture of Tom Hugging Samira who is a Somali immigrant which starts a lot of controversy with Tom's life and the Somali community. Tom realizes there is no simple solution to racism and the other problems that immigrants face every single day. His relationships with Saeed and Samira leave an impact on him. The soccer team ends up losing when they have internal issues with racism. Also, Saeed was not eligible due to poor grades. A quote that shows how Saeed struggles is, “Same day as Saeed’s fake birthday. Hell, same day as every Somali kid's birthday” (Padian 326). This shows how Saeed and most other immigrants don’t even know their birthday.
The connection between these is when times got hard they both worked through it. They did give up and both were able to find light at the end of the tunnel. When they got to the US at first they struggled but they both kept their oxygen masks on and were able to get through it and overcome their obstacles. And when they had time and were able to they helped those around them and their family in any way they could.
What struggles did you characters face? Did they overcome them? And did they help those around them when given the chance to?
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