2. Group I - kdaisy25

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. "Araceli lived down the street from us in Tucson. A plump woman with big hair and a cackling laugh. 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 that some people see race before they get to know someone. If she wasn't different looking, or didn't have an accent, or didn't speak a different language there wouldn't have been any issues. 

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 were 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).

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.

In my book 'Strike Zone' by Mike Lupica Nick does not have a language problem because he moved to the United States at such a young age from the Dominican Republic. 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. When he's with his team he speaks English to communicate on the diamond. When around his parents he speaks Spanish. His dad always coaches him up after every inning that he pitches. Language is not a problem in my book. Nick only gets judged for the way he looks and what clothes/equipment he wears. Athletes on opposing teams are the ones that are being mean to him. He also gets judged cause his parents are uncocumented citizens in the US. "Our dad is innocent," Nick said to Mr. Gasson. (Lupica P181)