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. One way that Tran finds ways to carve out his place is to read, not just to improve his vocabulary, but so he can have the same cultural references as the typical white guy, using Clifton Fadiman’s The Lifetime Reading Plan as a guide.
Early on in the story, he discusses the relief that deciding to go punk made him feel because it gave him a group to identify with, even if it wasn’t true to who he was, “...I wanted to be white. It’s not a proud feeling, but it’s not a feeling that comes from the shame of being brown. It’s a tired feeling…Punk alleviated that exhaustion—or at least I thought it did. In my spiked leather jacket, Subhumans T-shirt, Doc Marten books, and ever-changing haircuts, I forest the portrait of a kid who belonged, a kid who fit in by not fitting in, and even if that portrait ultimately turned out to be flat and shallow, it had the illusion of depth.” (Tran 7).
Based on this, and your own text, what is the better option for immigrants trying to assimilate; should they fall prey to stereotypes and fit into the boxes already made for them or should they carve their own path? Or is there an in-between?
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