My American Story <<<< Here is a link to My American Story I completed for this class.

The Cats of Mirikitani

An eighty year old man living on the streets of New York City is not what he seems in this documentary called, The Cats of Mirikitani. He is called Jimmy by people on the street, however his real name is Tsutomu Mirikitani. Jimmy appears to be just an ordinary homeless man, however there is so much more to him than what you see. He is an amazing artist and draws pictures of cats, flowers, nature, and the internment camp where he used to live, the attack on 9/11 and the bombing in Hiroshima. The documentary depicted Jimmy's artwork, but also his life, how he ended up homeless in New York, and how he got off the streets.

Jimmy's artwork is seen as beautiful and powerful. While he lived on the streets, he would not take any money from anyone unless they were purchasing his artwork. He met Linda Hattendorf while living on the streets. She often went to visit him to see his art and try to decipher what they mean and what kind of story he had to tell. They became good friends, so when September 11, 2001 came around and the twin towers were attacked, Linda found Jimmy on the streets, coughing from all of the fumes. She invited him back to her apartment and he stayed with her until she could help him with his social security and finding a place to live. Linda successfully helped him, but along the way she finds there is much more to Jimmy than he seems. He was born in Sacramento, California and raised in Hiroshima, Japan. He was there for the bombing and when he came to the United States, he lived with his sister until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Under the Executive Order 9066, Jimmy and his sister were sent to two separate internment camps many miles apart.

When Jimmy was finally freed from the internment camp, he worked for Seabrook Farms for some time and then eventually went to New York where he became a cook. He was hired by a man to be a live-in cook on Park Avenue. However, in the late 1980's his employer passed away and he was left without a job or a home. From then on, Jimmy lived on the streets of New York selling his artwork to make a little money to survive until he met Linda in Soho and they became friends. The picture to the right is his view of what happened on September 11, 2001. Each of his pictures have distinct characteristics and tell a story.

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani 

To the left is a photo of Jimmy when he was young. He was an aspiring artist and specifically left Hiroshima to escape the war and pursue his career as an artist in the United States. His motto was "make art, not war." He strongly disapproved of war and militarism. He saw the world differently. It is amazing that he could see the world the way he did. He is truly an inspiration to all who knows of him and has seen the film. It is an excellent film and I strongly recommend it to all of the people out there that are aspiring to do what they love. Everyone deserves a chance to make their dreams come true and Jimmy Mirikitani did just that.

The Cats of Mirikitani is an inspiring documentary. I definitely recommend it!

"The Third and Final Continent" and Arranged Marriage

The narrator of "The Third and Final Continent," by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a Bengali man who has just been subject to an arranged marriage and is searching for a better life for him and his new bride, who comes to America later in the story. His name is never mentioned, but the reader still can get to know him from the way his story is told. From the story, I got the feeling that he was a determined, loyal, young man in search of a better life for his future family. When discussing the job he had been offered at MIT, he says "The salary was generous enough to support a wife, and I was honored to be hired by a world-famous university, and so I obtained a sixth-preference green card, and prepared to travel farther still" (Lahiri, 174). The fact that he named his first priority as the "salary was generous enough to support a wife," tells the reader that he really is looking out for what is best for his wife and future family. So, he went to America specifically to make a living to help him bring his wife to America and raise a family with her.

The story's title is significant because he has lived on three different continents, India, England, and then finally, America. The fact that he names it the "third and final continent," tells the reader that he settles there and prefers to stay there over going back to his home country. I think he finds that he can make the best living there and from his experiences there with Mrs. Croft mainly, who was a huge influence on him, he realizes that America is where he wants to be.

Arranged marriage is the traditional way that people in India get married. They do not view marriage as a union of two people, instead they view it as an alliance between two families (Flanigan). In the Indian culture, they have these arranged marriages for several reasons including parental control, preservation of ancestry, and it allows the consolidation and extension of family property (Flanigan). The narrator views marriage as a job that he is expected to do. His marriage was arranged by his brother and his wife and he says "I regarded the proposition with neither objection nor enthusiasm. It was a duty expected of me, as it was expected of every man," (Lahiri, 181). So, this passage shows that he was not looking forward to marriage. He saw it as a "duty" and not as a union. He knew it would have to happen, so he let it happen and now he would take responsibility for it.

When he describes his wife, he discusses the five nights after their wedding that they shared a bed for. He explains that his wife always cried when they went to bed because she missed her parents. He never consoled her during that time and he went on doing what he was doing. There was no emotional attachment between them, so he said nothing and did nothing and continued looking forward to his trip to America. When his wife first comes to America, their relationship is very awkward. They barely know each other. When he sees her at the airport, he doesn't run up and kiss her, hug her, or anything. Instead, he asks her if she is hungry. Their conversations are brief and about subjects that are necessary to talk about. The awkward situation continues when they are eating together at their home and she is trying to hold her sari on while eating. He tells her that she doesn't need to cover her head and he doesn't mind, but she continues to keep it covered. This is probably because she is not yet comfortable with him and doesn't feel right removing her sari from her head.

One day, he takes her for a walk and shows her where he first lived in America, Mrs. Croft's house. They both go inside to visit with Mrs. Croft and while talking to her about her broken hip, Mala laughs and it is the first time he hears her laugh. Mrs. Croft asks who she is and then examines her. Eventually she cries out, "She is a perfect lady!" (Lahiri, 195). This moment is an ice breaker for the two newlyweds and helps them make a connection because right after she says this, the narrator laughs quietly and Mala sees and she smiles at him as he smiles back at her. He even says, "I like to think of that moment in Mrs. Croft's parlor as the moment when the distance between Mala and me began to lessen" (Lahiri, 196). I agree that this moment is the jumping off point for him and his wife and causes them to begin the process of falling in love. Mrs. Croft contributes to this moment with her kind words and she makes a true difference in his life.

This story is very inspiring and contributes to the understanding of Indian traditions. Arranged marriage is not something that is normal to people in America. This story exposes readers to different cultural traditions and explains what life is like in America from the point of view of an Indian man, who is determined to find a way to support his wife and future family.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Flanigan, Santana. "Arranged Marriages, Matchmakers, and Dowries in India." PostColonialStudies.Emory.edu. October. 2012. Web. 10 April. 2014.          

Smoke Signals

Smoke Signals is a film directed by Chris Eyre, that is about Indians and is, also, created by Indians. It is based off of stories in a book called The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, who also served as the screenwriter for the movie. Sherman Alexie is a Native American himself and experienced a tough childhood, which he managed to get through with humor.

The setting of the movie is Idaho at the Coeur d'Alene reservation in 1998. The film is about two Indian boys of the same age, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Victor is the more popular, stubborn, and serious of the two. Thomas is the opposite in the sense that he is the nerdy, story-telling type of person. Thomas is very spiritual and he's been raised by his grandmother, because his parents died in a fire that Arnold Joseph, Victor's father, saved him from. Arnold Joseph was an alcoholic and actually started the fire that he saved him from. They were having a Fourth of July party and he set off a firework while he was drunk and it flew into the house, causing the fire. Thomas' parents died and Arnold was able to save him and hand him over to his grandmother. The guilt was too much for him to handle and he cut off his long hair because of it. Arnold's alcoholism caused him to lose everything about eight years later when he argued with his wife and left the reservation. Victor never saw his father again. Then, about ten years later his mother got a phone call from Phoenix, Arizona from a woman calling to inform her that her husband was dead. This is when Victor and Thomas make their journey from Idaho to Arizona to gather his father's ashes and truck, however, when they arrive, Victor gathers more than just ashes and a truck.

Victor and Thomas produce a friendship through their journey to Phoenix. Back at the reservation, Victor was mean to Thomas and bullied him in a way. Meanwhile, Thomas was always kind to him and showed concern for Victor when his father left him and when he died. He even offered to help pay for him to go to Phoenix as long as he would take him along. At first, Victor didn't want this at all and then he changed his mind about it, because he needed the money. Through taking this journey together, Victor came to realize that Thomas was a true friend to him. Thomas was a story-teller and he enjoyed just going on and on telling stories about Arnold, but most of the time, Victor claimed they were untrue. Perhaps Thomas was trying to make Victor see a better side of his father that he hadn't seen before.

Victor spent most of his life with a growing hatred towards his father for leaving him and his mother behind. Through taking this journey with Thomas, he came to realize his father was not the terrible guy he thought he was. He, also, had many flashbacks of moments he had with his father when he was young. These flashbacks served as the memories he had of his father. When he arrived at his father's trailer in Phoenix, he spoke to Suzy, the woman that informed his mother about his father passing. Victor found many truths about his father from Suzy, including the fact that his father went into the fire to save him when he was a baby. Victor did not think that his father went to save him. He thought that he only tried to save Thomas.  

The lesson that the film served to teach it's viewers is that we should forgive our fathers. In the end of the film, Thomas' last speech consists of a poem by Dick Laurie. The poem is called "Forgiving Our Fathers."

"Forgiving Our Fathers"

How do we forgive our fathers?
Maybe in a dream.

Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often,
or forever,
when we were little?

Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage,
or for making us nervous
because there never seemed to be any rage there at all?

Do we forgive our fathers for marrying,
or not marrying,
our mothers?

And shall we forgive them for their excesses
of warmth
or coldness?

Shall we forgive them
for pushing
or leaning?

For shutting doors?
For speaking through walls?

Or never speaking?
Or never being silent?

Do we forgive our fathers in our age or in theirs?

Or in their deaths,
saying it to them,
or not saying it?

Thomas says a version of this poem at the end of the film. This serves to represent the lesson that viewers take away from the movie. The last thing Thomas says is "If we forgive our fathers, what is left?" I think that Thomas was an important character to the film, because he was there to help Victor see that he should forgive his father, because overall he was not the man that he thought he was. Thomas serves as his conscience throughout the movie in the sense that he is slowly convincing Victor that he should forgive his father for the things he has done. Dick Laurie's poem provides a strong meaning to the end of the film. It tells viewers that our fathers may have done terrible things throughout our lives, but we should always forgive them. Sometimes we don't have all of the facts and just assume that they didn't do it for a good reason, when they very well could have.

   

"My Name" by Sandra Cisneros

"My Name" by Sandra Cisneros, a part of House on Mango Street, has a very strong message. The speaker, Esperanza, does not feel that her name suits her personality. She explains that she has inherited her name from her great-grandmother and gives a description of what she was like. Then, she describes how she does not want to have the same fate as her great-grandmother. She, also, goes on to explain that at school no one pronounces her name properly. She has a strong jealousy towards her sister, Magdalena, because she, at least, has a nickname, while she is always Esperanza. She will do anything to change her name and feel more like herself.

Esperanza is Mexican-American. She desires a more Americanized name. She has inherited her name from her great-grandmother, who was a lot like her. She is described as a "wild, horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry." For this reason, Esperanza would have liked to have met her. "Horse woman" is referring to the Chinese year of the horse. People born in the year of the horse tend to be extremely independent and confident. She, also, mentions that it is "bad luck if you're born female" in the year of the horse and she believes that this is a "Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong." Mexican men want a woman who is going to be their trophy and do as they are told. They want their women to be obedient and quiet. They don't expect them to express their opinions or go against their husbands. Esperanza's great-grandmother did not want this life either, until her "great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier." This represents the way that women were treated by men. The comparison of her having a sack thrown over her head and carried away like "a fancy chandelier" shows that women were treated as if they were objects. A chandelier is proper and decorative. It is something that is there for decoration and not utilized. This is what men expected of their women.

Esperanza did not wish to be named after her great-grandmother because of what she went through. She feels that since she has her great-grandmother's name, she will face the same fate as her. She wants to be different and she wants to be herself. She doesn't want to follow in her great-grandmother's footsteps, because she doesn't approve of her fate. In the fourth stanza, she says, "And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow." The window could represent her way out of the life that she is stuck in. Her great-grandmother was looking out the window, out of her life, and into the world she could have made it in. She wonders about whether she made the best out of her life or if she was sorry that she never became everything that she wanted to become. Then, she states, "Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window." Esperanza feels that her great-grandmother just watched her life go by and was unable to do the things she wanted to do. When she says, "I don't want to inherit her place by the window," she means that she doesn't want to live the same life as her. She wants to live her life the way that she wants. Her name has a huge impact on the person that she will become, so she wants her own name. She wants a name that she can relate to.

In the fifth stanza, Esperanza discusses the fact that in school people cannot pronounce her name properly. She says, "At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver." She seems to like the sound of her name in Spanish, but dislike the sound of it in English, because of the mispronunciation. She goes on to explain how her sister's name, Magdalena, is not as pretty as hers however, she is jealous of her name at the same time, because her sister has a nickname while she does not. She says that Magdalena "can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza." This part of the poem explains another part of the reason that she does not like her name.

Esperanza does not like what her name represents when it comes to where her name came from, her great-grandmother, and what her fate was. She, also, does not like it because of the issue with mispronunciations in school. Another reason is for the fact that she cannot even come home and be called something else, like a nickname.

In the last stanza, Esperanza discusses the idea of baptizing herself under a new name. She comes up with suggestions to replace Esperanza. Her name is a representation of who she is as a person. So, she wants a name that she can call her own and feel like herself with. Baptism is reference to a new birth or rebirth in a sense, so when Esperanza says she would like to baptize herself, she means she wants to recreate herself under a better suited name for herself. She throws around some names, like Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Zeze the X is her favorite one, because she goes on to say "Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do." Zeze is a very simple name. It could very well be American and it is easy to say. When she says Zeze the X, this makes the reader wonder what the "X" could represent. When I think of the letter "X," I think of algebra problems and how you usually need to solve the problem for x. Esperanza wants a name, like Zeze the X, because it makes her a little bit mysterious. It makes you wonder, what the "X" could represent. "X" could represent anything about her. It could be her future profession, a characteristic about her, or it could be there just for people to interpret about her. Esperanza desires the ability to be anything she wants to be. She does not intend to have a set future, she wants to live her life and live it the way she chooses.

Sandra Cisneros

       

"A Father" -Bharati Mukherjee

The "first generation versus second generation" theme in Bharati Mukherjee's "A Father" struck me the most out of all of the other themes. I admire Babli for her desire of independence and her bravery for sticking up to her strict, traditional father. Children of traditional parents are subject to high expectations. The parents go by their traditions and are not usually open to new traditions or anything that goes against theirs. This puts a lot of stress on their children, in this case, Mr. Bhowmick's daughter, Babli.     

When discussing the first generation in this situation, I am referring to Babli's father, Mr. Bhowmick. He is a religious, superstitious, and very traditional man. Mr. Bhowmick follows a strict schedule, prays to his Indian goddess, Kali-Mata, and has a very traditional view of how his family should be. He is supposed to be the head of the family and the women are supposed to be submissive to him.  Mr. Bhowmick admits in the story that Babli is not the child he would have expected to leave as his only heir. She is financially stable and is dependable to her father in that sense, however she is not as dependable as a comforting, loving daughter.

The second generation is Babli in this case. Babli is a twenty-six year old, who still lives with her parents and works as an electrical engineer. Girls are expected to live at home until they are married. When Mr. Bhowmick discovers the possibility of Babli being pregnant, he makes many assumptions about how she got pregnant before he even speaks with her about it. He assumes that she will give him a grandson, that she is with a white boy, that possibly she went off and got married, or maybe she was raped at the office. He wants to believe that any one of these possibilities happened rather than be understanding of his daughter's wishes to have a baby without a man. 

Mr. Bhowmick and his daughter do not have a close relationship. Babli is very independent and is capable of supporting herself. She essentially does not need her father's help for anything. Her father does not like this about her. He feels that she should depend on him until she is married, at which time she will depend on her husband. When he finds that Babli may be pregnant, he decides that perhaps she has found a man to support her and this excites him. I think that the fact that he would rather find that his daughter has been raped than hear that she has been inseminated is absolutely absurd. He is so stubborn and feels so strongly about his beliefs that he would approve of her being raped before inseminated. That is unbelievable to me. When people have children, they should be accepting to who their children become and what they believe. There is only so much they can teach them, and after awhile there is a point where you need to step back and let them go in the direction they choose.

I admire Babli for doing what she did. I have strong opinions about women's rights and how they should be treated the same as men. I do not think that women should be underestimated by any means. Nowadays women can do anything that men can, but often times in many cultures, there are still people with the old-fashioned sense that women are below men, cannot work as proficiently as men, and cannot do the same tasks as men can. However, we are in America, home of the free and the brave, and that means that we have rights and can do anything that we set our minds to. I think that women have proven over time that we can definitely pull our own weight. We are capable of anything and we will not stop until we reach our goals and dreams, no matter what obstacles are in our way. Babli is a true hero in this story. She stands up for what she believes and does what she feels is right. She wanted a baby and she didn't see the need for a man to help her make that happen. Babli is an inspiration to women who read this story.    

Bharati Mukherjee