FINAL EXAM PLEASE GET ME AN A Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

FINAL EXAM PLEASE GET ME AN A - Term Paper Example counts, narrative fiction and academic studies which delve into the experiences of such journeys refer to a complex process which affects all parts of a person’s life. The person’s language, religion, physical appearance and sexual identity are all framed as problematic in American mainstream culture, and the Latino or Latina individual has to come to some kind of accommodation between conflicting expectations of family, self, and external reality. It is the solving of these contradictions that leads to the construction of a new and vibrant meaning which in turn influences mainstream American culture. Achy Obejas describes the moment of first contact between a Cuban family and the United States in a way which highlights the contradictions which immigrants have to negotiate. She describes the arrival of a ten year old Cuban girl to Miami using two different narrative techniques. The first technique is to use a first person description of the innocent child’s first impressions. The second, contrasting technique is to use a much more ironic perspective on events through the eyes of that child’s adult persona. The child has an instinctive suspicion of attempts by well-meaning officials and volunteers to enforce an acculturation process. The blonde doll and the grey clothing, for example, are rejected as being self-evidently inappropriate for a Cuban girl. There is a spirited defence of the pride and self-respect that the family feels in the face of enforced poverty during the initial months of settling in to the new environment. Second hand clothes are pressed upon the family, but the child notes approvingly that they will never wear them (Obejas, 1994, p. 118). The child clings to the green, synthetic sweater that she wore on the hazardous boat trip to America if it were a lifeline back to her beloved home in Cuba. The excesses of capitalist America are described using the image of a supermarket which is like a flying saucer in this fantastic â€Å"land of