In Class Assimilation Discussion

“Two Kinds” and “Brave We Are”

The main issue we will see in these two stories and the film The Namesake next week is what issues people face when they leave their country of origin and come to America for a better life.

1)       Do you think the cultural issues that come up in these two stories are unique to particular cultures or not? Explain.

2)      The mother in “Two Kinds” believes there are two kinds of daughters. How does she define the two kinds of daughters and do you think her daughter agrees with her by the end of the story?

3)        In ‘Brave We Are” while giving her explanation to her son, what is the narrator’s conflict? What is she concerned about? Should she be? Would you be in this circumstance?

4)      To what extent is the meal the narrator is preparing a metaphor for what she is explaining? What does she mean in the last line of the story, “The strand must remain smooth, elusive and separate”?

5)      What pressures arise from assimilation? How do families address these issues?

6)      How symbols were used in “Brave We Are” to explain some of the issues new Americans face?

a) the meal

b) the song

c) the poem

7)      In “Two Kinds” the mother puts a lot of pressure of her daughter to do well. This can be referred to as her “putting all her eggs in one basket”. Explain how she attempts to shape her daughter’s life in the story

Below is a quote from President Obama’s speech in 2012 about America. Keep it in mind for these two stories and the film we will watch this week.

“…The basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement. The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive.”

From a Washington Post Article on our class blog:

"It's difficult to adapt to the culture here," said Maria Jacinto, 32, who moved to the United States 10 years ago with her husband, Aristeo Jacinto, 36. "In the Hispanic tradition, the family comes first, not money. It's important for our children not to be influenced too much by the gueros," she said, using a term that means "blondies" but that she employs generally in reference to Americans. "I don't want my children to be influenced by immoral things."

The Namesake

“Alone together in a foreign land in the middle of winter, the shy, polite newlyweds are virtual strangers, and the movie captures their delicate process of mutual accommodation. Ashima’s initiation into American culture has gentle, humorous moments. She is astonished to discover gas stoves that work 24 hours a day and learns the hard way that wool sweaters should not be dumped into a washing machine” (Holden).

“In high school Gogol rebels from his family and behaves like a typical pot-smoking, rock-’n’-roll-loving American teenager. On a visit to Calcutta he sneers at Indian ways. After studying architecture at Yale, he falls in love with Maxine (Jacinda Barrett), a stereotypical blonde WASP princess from Long Island. Cultural tensions flare when he brings her home to meet his family, and the couple are expected to withhold any expressions of physical affection, according to Indian tradition” (Holden).

“Assimilation is a term referring to another part of the adaptation process initially proposed by Jean Piaget. Through assimilation, we take in new information or experiences and incorporate them into our existing ideas. The process is somewhat subjective, because we tend to modify experience or information somewhat to fit in with our preexisting beliefs” (Cherry).