Immigration Literature

In Sugimoto’s A Daughter of the Samurai we see the experiences of a Japanese girl whose neighbors’ questions regarding her native culture provide her with greater insights into her own and its similarity to American culture. For instance, we see that Miss Helen is shocked to discover there are women in Japanese culture like Molly Pitchers but even more so to discover there are entire Japanese societies where men maintain the domestic sphere while women labor in the work force. As she tells Miss Helen, “A genuine woman’s-rights woman is not one who wants her rights, but one who has them” (Sugimoto 251). Still, despite similarities to American culture like the one above, there are many diff

. . .
ee, also, that a mother often anguishes over her inability to have raised her children in the true manner she would have liked had other circumstances been the case. For example, much like Langston Hughes’ poem A Dream Deferred, we see that because of little income or wherewithal other than to make a living and survive, the narrator understands her daughter’s potential talent was left untapped, “You ought to do something about her with a gift like that—but without money or knowing how, what does one do? We have left it all to her, and the gift has as often eddied inside, clogged and clotted, as been used and growing” (Olsen 185). In this, we can see that immigrants and minorities often face single parenthood and poverty in an effort to make a living in a new land. Yet, the universal human quality of wishing one could do more to support her child is something that transcends minority or immigrant status. Despite the fact that I Stand Here Ironing reads more like a feminist, mother-daughter bonding tract than the tale of a struggling immigrant to make it as a single mother, there are some significant elements in the story that are designed to demonstrate how difficult it is for minorities to assimilate into a mainstream culture
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Stand Ironing, Miss Helen, Dream Deferred, Japanese American, Shirley TempleShe, Miss Helens, Daughter Samurai, Olsen Jewish, Voices Literature, Barbie Doll, miss helen, stand ironing, daughter samurai, american culture, cultural values beliefs, fuller understanding, japanese culture, tillie olsens, cultural values, values beliefs, culture race,
Approximate Word count = 1255
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Immigration Literature