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2. Group I---DLeonard25 (Replacement B)

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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 he references The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and how Hester agrees to the social contract of being labelled as an adulterer with the scarlet A on all of her clothing. He transfers this piece of literature to the experiences he had in the second grade where one peer relentlessly referred to him as a “gook”. Despite not knowing what this meant, he handled it as a great insult, punching the other student in the face, therefore creating a social contract that he was, in fact, a “gook”, “I could have ignored it  or allowed my ignorance to shield myself, but that very ignorance would have further isolated me, and ultimately dehumanized me…But if I allowed myself to be harmed by words, I was showing them that I belonged at least by virtue of understanding their language. And all I wanted was to belong.” (Tran 56). 

Based on this, and your own text, how impactful is language in how immigrants are assimilating? What are other types of social contracts Americans hold immigrants to? Are these helpful or harmful?


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The Field Guide To The North American Teenager by Ben Philippe. Norris is a black French Canadian who is moved by his mother to Austin Texas, when he arrives in Austin he is not a fan of the Texas heat. In Texas hockey is not a popular sport but back in Canada, it's the most popular sport so he feels like he has a third eye being in Texas because of how different he is than the other students. He compares the vast difference between living in two drastically different environments. After realizing he needed money, Norris Kaplan decided to get a job at a local barbeque palace called the Boneyard. When he is on his way to a class he overhears a kid being bullied and decides to stand up for them and insults them for acting like cavemen and ends up insulting them and gets shoved into the freshly painted staircase. He ends up going to a house party where they are underage drinking But because of the Alcohol age in Canada, he had already drunk before. 

 

Language is not a problem in my book rather I have preconceived stereotypes about him being Canadian and that he is going to be this nice person when his life was uprooted and he moved to Texas with his mother. When He sees them bullying another kid he decides to get mouthy with one of the football players and ends up being a target of their bullying .“Hundreds up new strangers every day here Strangers who didn't know him or already thought of him as the rude Canadian”(Philippe 49).

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It's fairly similar in my book. Phuc isn't struggling completely, but he doesn't handle social situations the way he "should" or seems to be handled by others around him. It's not until he reaches high school that he starts to find his crowd with the skaters, but none of them are as nerdy as he is. He spends a lot of time trying to fit in and the rest of his time he is isolated, so he's still not experiencing genuine friendships. 

I have two questions for you: 

1) Does Norris have any supports or friendships? Is he backed up by anyone or connected to anyone? Could be a family member or a coworker if it's not someone at school. 

2) Is his mother struggling in a similar way? Does she also seem isolated and targetted, or does it not really focus on her success and experience? 

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Norris has not been able to make friends as he is struggling with adapting to the sudden move to Texas and he blames his mother for his hardships and for moving him to Texas. 

 

Rather his mother is doing well with adapting to the change, but the book doesn't focus show how she is dealing with the move for the most part but her attitude seems like she is enjoying the move.

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The book North and Happy is a bood written by Adi Alsaid who discusses the life of Carlos Portillo. Carlos suffers a great loss when his brother dies after he was shot in Mexico. Carlos lives a very sheltered life, and attends a high class school. He is also a dual citizen, he is a citizen of Mexico, and the United States. In this section of the book North and Happy, Carlos settles down in the Washington San Juan islands. After his journey to a few restaurants he settles on the one his deceased brother like the most, he then gets a job at that restaruant as a dishwasher. And begins training to be a chef, he then sparsk a relationship with the chef’s daughter. In this section he also really starts to grieve over his brothers loss he greives by reliving core memories with his brother, but also starts to process the traumua of the incident.

I dont see any language barriers in my book, but I do see some relation between the family expectetaiton form the japanese woman, and Carlos. Carlos has had his entire life controlled through his family, and has never had a chance to make decisions on his own, like how the japanese woman have their life controlled. The following quote shows how he despises his parents for controlling his life “‘you want me to talk to one of the guys? Get a job?’ ‘shut the fuck up’ ‘why? All you watch is those cooking shows’ ‘ sure, except, what would I tell mom and dad?, Oh hey remember my SAT prep courses? My internship with Dad? College next year? Yeah, never mind im gonna work at a taco stand.’” (Alsaid 13). In my book it is not Carlos that struggles to assimilate, rather his parents trying to assimilate him for him, and wont give him the opportunities he wants. Carlos wants to be a chef in Mexico, but his parents want him to try and get an education in America, and behold their expectations of being a success. Carlos despises his parents for not letting him explore himself, and are trying to plan his life for him.

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For part of my book, Phuc has the same impression of his parents at the start of my book. As things progress, he realizes that his father is trying to help him be successful, but his father realizes that Phuc probably knows better than him about some things. At some point, their relationship shifts and his father deals more with Phuc's rebellion than pressure to assimilate. To him, Phuc assimilates too much into the culture by doing drugs and spending all of his time with his friends. Their relationship becomes more about him disciplining a teenager than offering anything in terms of help assimilating. 

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In my book 'Strike Zone" by Mike Lupica Nick works hard to leave the stresses of home off the field, but it proves nearly impossible as immigration enforcement tightens its grip on his neighborhood. "My dad is innocent I swear" (Lupica P 122)) said Nick. How did Ignorance Isolate her? Nick is a baseball player from The Dominican of Republic. His parents communicate with him through Spanish. He communicates with his teammates using English. Nobody judges Nick since he is one of the stronger players on his team.

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What is the context behind your quote? Is Nick the one speaking? Who is he speaking to? What does this help you better understand about what's expected of him in America or where a language barrier is occurring? 

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Yes Nick is the one speaking. While at his baseball game Nicks dad always stands right buy their dugout coaching Nick up. After the inning ends Nick sees his dad leave the game with two law enforcement officers. This leads to Nick thinking about the Immagration process and how his dad is undocumented.

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In my story, The Other Americans, a family of immigrants trying to adapt to the American lifestyle. The patriarch of the family is hit by a car and killed, which is a big loss for the family. They carry on as normally as they can while also trying to find out who took their dad and husband from them. "She called the police to report a neighbor who was beating his wife, and when they came to take her statement, they found out she didn't have her papers. Before she knew what was happening to her, Immigration was at her door." (Lalami 12). This connects with the text because it shows how this immigrant was seen an a way other than human. 

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