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#2 Stubbs White 4----replacement C

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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. 

At one point in the story Phuc’s father beats him so badly on his butt and the back of his legs with a metal rod, that he can’t sit down in school the next day. His second grade teacher, after several prompts to sit, calls him to her desk and he breaks down to explain why he can’t sit. She decides to call his parents and asks to visit. During her visit, Phuc is forced to wait in his bedroom, terrified this interaction will cause him to be beaten again. When she leaves, his father explains that she told them about the incident and how parents in America can’t hit their children as much as parents in Vietnam, and to Phuc’s surprise, his father heeds her words. He reflects, “My father didn’t beat me that week. Nor the next week. And he didn’t beat me for the rest of that school year. It was a long reprieve for me, and I was thankful for it.” (Tran 67)

Based on this idea and the ideas from your book, what are examples you’re seeing of where Americans aren’t explaining things clearly to immigrants and it’s causing problems? Or where, after a brief explanation, simple things are resolved?

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Protobeing
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To cstubbs10, 

My book does not have issues in the book where Americans have trouble explaining things not clearly to immigrants. But in my book Lili has issues with being one of the only Spanish people in her new school. she was in a class one day and the teacher brought up a video about immigrants. No matter how badly she wanted to speak up to her classmates she kept her mouth shut. "WTF?! I glanced around, but no one else seemed as outraged as I was-." (Leon 95)

from ngoucher24

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Protobeing
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This showed up in my book too, the people have a different association with these things and they don't grasp how other people veiw the matters if they don'y stick around and look.

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Protobeing
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I completely agree with that.

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Protobeing
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Same in my book, When Maya was in lock down because of a suicide bomber who was suspected to be Muslim one of her classmates who is a problem throughout the book had said something rude when they heard that it was a Muslim. She had to keep her mouth shut and not respond back to him even though she really wanted to. 

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Hi ngoucher24,

What was it that happened in class that caused your character to freak out about it and not the other students? Do you think that the teacher knew what she was doing as wrong? 

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To cstubbs10

      To provide info my book is about a married couple who moved to California after the husbands parents got electricuted from a live wire, the child(who's now a teenager), and another teen from Pakistan who came to America to live with her Uncle upon when family there died in an accident. In the first third of my book the Wife died and the characters lives were introduced. The wife, Misbah, dying sets up conflict for Salahudin her son as he tries to handle life after her death. The story for Misbah has been and keeps on with being placed in the past and explaining how her life reached the present as well as the trouble she has ajusting and trying to run a motel. Noor, the girl who lives with her Uncle, faces the challenge of trying to get to attend college in the future when the people around her say she can't due to being unamerican or "illegal" and don't want her to do it either. For your question, the situation I thought of happened to Misbah and her husband having a room in their motel robbed by a woman who left a note saying she was forced to, "Everything was gone, stripped bare... "I'm sorry he made me do it.""(Tahir, page 189). My problem with this is this type of thing happening was completly unexpected to them and due to the note not explaining that these things will keep happening Sal gets abused by a person staying at the motel later on when he's a child. this causes the Husband to truely begin his drinking problem as he has trouble with what America can do to you if you lack knowledge(the abuser got away as he used a fake name). Oh and this whole time Sal's been keeping his life afloat by selling drugs so people end up getting hurt and he gets arrested. 

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Hi akettelhut24,

The book you are reading sounds like it has a lot going on with immigration and prejudice. Do you find that this book is accurate to what you believe may be happening in the world to immigrant people? I also wonder how the past stories of your novel relate to the difficulties this family faces with the misunderstandings of living in America. Do you believe the past stories are helping to understand the difficulties they have faced and also those that may lie ahead for them as immigrants? 

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In my novel, Love Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed, 17 year old Maya who is American born but Indian-Muslim. Her Mom came to America from India and brought the culture with her to raise a family. Her mom who wants Maya to stay close to home for college, Become a lawyer and get married young, Which is the cultural standard for Indian-Muslim culture. Maya does not want to follow that and wants to go to NYU for college and struggles to tell her parents that she applied and got in. When she finally told them they were mad with her because they wanted her to follow the culture standard. Maya's mom argued with her about it because she did not want Maya that far from home and what she was going for, which was going to film school. 

"'Maya, you're not going to NYU. The answer is simple. No. It's too far. We agreed that you would be staying close to home.' I feel a little prickle of anger. 'No, Mom. You and Dad agreed. Not me.'... 'I knew we gave her too much freedom. Always letting her do whatever she wants, never taking her to the mosque-'"(Ahmed,127)

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Hi alovering24,

What does Maya want to do at NYU and is this career choice in line with what her parents expect from her? I am curious if her expectations from her parents will maybe one day reflect that of what she wants form her life. Do you think they will ever find a middle ground? 

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