The Immigrant Experience in California
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This study will provide a comparative analysis of two books about immigrants' experience in California. Amy Tan's novel, The Joy Luck Club, portrays two generations of Chinese-American women, and Ernesto Galarza's autobiography, Barrio Boy, examines the experiences of Mexican immigrants, especially those of the author as a young male who settled with his family in the barrio of Sacramento. The essence of both works is the authors' intention to honor immigrants' lives, both fictional and factual, and to have the reader appreciate their humanity, heritage, courage and culture. If there is one theme in both works it is the theme of cultural, generational and familial continuity and endurance in the face of clashing cultures and the forces of assimilation. Tan wants the reader to understand the profound and intimate connections between the two generations of mothers and daughters and between the two cultures those generations bridge. Galarza wants to show that the inevitable acculturation process which he and his family went through did not erase his or their personal, familial or cultural identity. Galarza's book is meant to be a refutation of the "rumor" that Mexican immigrants and their offspring have lost their 'self-image' [and that] . . . a Mexican doesn't know what he is; and if by chance he is something, it isn't any good. I, for one Mexican, never had any doubts on this score (Galarza 2). The events in both books which lead the characters to come to the United St
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f Rio Blanco" (Galarza 240).
Inevitably, however, the opportunities for personal and professional advancement for which the family went to California in the first place take the acculturation process to another level, beyond the barrio. As Ernie and his family climb up the economic and social ladder, they come to miss the barrio just as they earlier missed Mexico (Galarza 251). By the end of the book, Ernie's work experience and education expand. The book itself does not tell us that he becomes a success, but he in fact does become a well-respect teacher and writer.
The vignettes of the mothers in Tan's book recount are interspersed with the vignettes of the daughters, so that a mosaic is created, rather than the chronological story presented by Galarza. The brief opening tale in Tan's novel establishes the reason that the older generation of Chinese came to the United States in the first place. A Chinese woman has brought a swan---which she is told was once a duck which stretched it neck trying to become a goose---to America to one day give to her unborn daughter as a symbol of the capacity to become "more than what was hoped for" (Tan 3). The bird is taken by customs officers, but the woman keeps a feather, hoping one day t
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1676
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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