Imaginary Homeland--- Salman Rushdie In the “Imaginary Homeland”, it seems narrator’s life has been assimilated thoroughly. Immigrated to England when he was a child made him barely remember his childhood in his homeland Bombay. There are only black and white images and broken fragments have left in his memory. He felt his real culture identity was lost through the assimilating process. He was straggling about the multiple and incomplete identity. The “assimilation” was successful and positive when he grew up in the England. However, he indicated in the “Imaginary Homeland” that he did not want to abandon his real identity of being an Indian and Indian culture heritages. And it became the reason that he went back to India looking for his previous life. The narrator mentioned in the article: “The dream England is no more than a dream.” Nevertheless, he did not resist the assimilation strongly, but used this kind of experience as a tool extend the imagination in his writing. According to the article, he said immigrant writers are capable to write from a culture transplantation perspective, and what he did as a writer was writing his own version and admit the India he belonged. In addition, the idea he explored in the “Imaginary Homeland”, political shape the world from reality, but writer imagines the world from a spiritual point of view, which I believe is the narrator’s purpose of his writing career and express his longing for homeland as well. The Death of Horatio Alger--- Amiri Baraka In the article authored by Amiri Baraka talks about a young man who was being assaulted by his white friends in Central Avenue School. The narrator who is a Negro person wanted to interact with white people, but it did not end well. During the fight, he was being urged to fight back but he could not because he was weak physically. He tried to assimilate with white people’s cultures. However, he was being resisted by friends who continuously beat him up, which indicated the “assimilation” in this story was portrayed negatively. The whole story was full with pathetic and negative emotion. It can be seen from the story that immigrants tried to fit in, however, they were so powerless even with their families’ support. Mickey’s frozen hands was a metaphor that showed they were not resist assimilation, but too weak to realized that at that circumstances. A Fly in the Soup--- Charles Simic Compare to “The Death of Horatio Alger”, the “assimilation” was portrayed completely positive in the story “A Fly in the Soup”. The mean character and his family came to United State with well preparation and expectation. His father did a nice job on helping them to get through the culture shock and all those differences. There was a hard time for those boys’ mother to adopted new life and environment, but it is normal that learning language and making new friend are harder for an adult female than children. The narrator’s positive attitude on adopting to a new society and living environment made a perfect example of realizing the realizing American dream. There is no resistance of assimilation from the narrator at all.
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