Investigates the struggle of migrants towards cultural assimilation and ethnic-identification as portrayed in Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club", K.S. Maniam's "The Return", journal articles and an interview with a professor of migrant literature.
Abstract This paper demonstrates that, regardless of ethnicity and cultural background, migrants worldwide have similar problems of ethnic-identification and cultural assimilation. The author compares two semi-autobiographical novels by two Asian migrant authors of different diasporic movements: Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club', which reflects the Asian-American migrant experience, and K.S. Maniam's "The Return", which is a portrayal of the Tamil-Indian migrant community in Malaysia. The paper concludes that migrant literature should maintain its niche in contemporary literature to continue to fulfill its purpose of spotlighting the often silent struggles of migrants everywhere. The paper includes in the appendix a summary of the interview with a professor of post-colonial Malaysian and Singaporean theater and a list of the questions.
Table of Contents:
Abstract
Introduction
Review of Literature Methods
Findings and Discussions
Cultural Displacement, Ethnic-Identification and Attempts at Assimilation in "The Joy Luck Club" (Amy Tan) and "The Return" (K.S. Maniam)
The Trouble with Tongues: Language as a Barrier to Ethnic-Identification and Cultural Assimilation
The Absence of Reminiscence: The Lack of Memory of the Homeland and its Consequences on Ethnic-Identification
Negotiation and Elusion: Attempts at Assimilation and Ethnic-Identification
Conclusions and Recommendations
Appendix: Interview Questions
Appendix: Interview Summary
From the Paper "These efforts, however, lead often to crisis of ethnic-identification. It is not simply a matter of being one culture or the other; it is the dilemma of being neither. Many find it difficult, in reality, to articulate the "cultural hybridities" Bhabha mentions. This displacement of and attempts at negotiating ethnic identity thus become the common vein of Tan and Maniam's highly personal works. The semi-autobiographical stance of both novels is reflected through the first-person narrative and the protagonists' personas."
Tags: asian-american tamil-indian ethnic-identification language, cultural memory
Abstract In this paper, this character analysis focuses on the unethical and cruel behavior by the doctor/father figure in "Indian Camp" by Earnest Hemingway. The inherent lessons that the doctor imparts on his son reflect his racism and lack of human compassion for his patients. This is the unethical foundation for the doctor's behavior, as he views the human body as a mere engine that he has the power to heal. Without humanism and a quest for deeper compassion, the doctor behaves cruelly toward the woman, which results in the suicide of her husband.
From the Paper "This literary analysis will seek to understand the inherent sense of cruelty and racism that resides within the behaviors of the father/doctor character in Hemingway's "Indian Camp." By observing how the doctor's actions and behaviors reveal the coldness of medical practitioner in Hemingway's narrative, one can understand why ethics is a major issue in this story. By observing the father/doctor character in Earnest Hemingway's "Indian Camp" one can realize the racism and unethical medical behavior that arises in this tale. In Earnest Hemingway's short story: "Indian Camp" an unethical doctor must evaluate and then surgically remove a child due to problem at birth for a native Indian woman."
Abstract In this paper, four North American Indian myths are analyzed to define the extent to which they illustrate characteristics of myths and legends. The paper brings the theory of the use of language as myth.
From the Paper "Characteristics of Oral and Mythic Literature. Before the invention of writing, the only means of recording human events apart from visual representations, was in stories, myths or legends that were memorized and recited orally to listeners. The universal classics of literature known as the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" created several thousand years ago by the blind Greek poet Homer, were almost certainly recited or chanted and only written down at a much later date."
Abstract This paper takes a look at the literature that has emanated from the Southern states of the USA. According to the paper, the genre of Southern literature is divided into Old South and New South. The paper goes on to discuss the differences between the two.
From the Paper "The South would develop as it did because of the nature of the land, the climate, the sorts of agricultural products that could be grown, and the need for a certain level of labor that was answered by the slave system. Much of America was shaped by its sense of the frontier, and in the South the frontier played an important role. More properly, it was the idea of the frontier that shaped American society. American history involves a mixture of histories, cultures, and national backgrounds brought together in what was truly the New World when it was discovered by European settlers. At the time, there were several Indian tribes in North America and the larger civilization of the Aztecs in South America. The settlers from Europe brought their culture with them, and they only broke away from that culture slowly over a period of time as they created something new. With the advent of slavery in the plantation economy of the South, blacks from Africa were brought to the Americas and introduced elements of their culture. These different forces mixed and interacted over time to become the underpinnings of American history and what would become a distinctive American culture."
Tags: cash, Gautreaux, white, black, guilt, Indian
Abstract The paper discusses that the term 'Indian giver' has come to be a synonym for someone who gives something, only to take it back. The paper further explains that it was the Indians who were forced to give to the Europeans--their knowledge about farming and fishing in the Americas and ultimately their land. The paper discusses that in Jack Weatherford's book, "Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World," the exchange between Europeans and Native Americans was an unequal one, with Europeans taking of the positive benefits of the New World, while the Indians were doing all of the giving. The paper concludes that unwittingly, the Indians found themselves the recipient of the evils of European civilization, like slavery, and a disrespectful attitude to the land.
From the Paper "According to Weatherford, the early post-Columbian contact of the Europeans with the native populace actually enabled the Industrial Revolution to change Europe, and ultimately the world. "Had Europe and America not come together through Columbus or some other connection, the industrial revolution would never have happened in the way we know it," because Europeans would never have gained access to the metals of the New World, or to Indian mines (Weatherford 57). This contact also generated the money economy of Europe and fueled a shift to a European economy based upon real, hard, convertible currency. Metal-based currency also was critical in fueling industrialism and world trade. By beginning the book with tales of South American encounters with Europe, which were particularly brutal and unequal from the beginning of the Indian-European relationship, Weatherford initiates a tragic tone, explaining how enslaved South American Indians mining gold and silver in Potosi supplied the precious metals for most of the European coins that generated wealth for the Old World at the expense of the liberty of the New World."
This paper discusses in detail James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" and Charles Brockden Brown's "Wieland" and their contributions to the development of American literature.
Abstract The author reviews in detail the "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Wieland". She concludes that they are different in style and genre. Both Cooper and Brown contributed greatly to the development of a distinctly American literature. Cooper adapted the Romance; Charles Brockden Brown adapted the European Gothic novel to the American context. Cooper's influence is seen in frontier fiction; Brown's influence, in the works of Poe and Hawthorne.
From the Paper "James Fenimore Cooper wrote in the vein of European Romantic writers like Walter Scott, while Charles Brockden Brown recreated the new form of the Gothic novel. Both adapted the original forms to the American experience, which meant not only embedding them in the land but also shifting the focus from aristocratic European characters to the common man in the democratic social order in America. Both Cooper and Brown elevated the common man over any ideas about the superiority of the aristocracy and did so in the American setting."
Abstract This essay discusses how many children's books have been considered classics, but how they have also been challenged as having race and gender bias. Rudyard Kipling's "How The Leopard Got His Spots", Paula Fox's "The Slave Dancer", and Lynne Reid Banks' "The Indian in the Cupboard" are all examined in this context. The paper finds that they have a certain amount of racial bias.
This paper reviews and examines Donald Hughes' book "North American Indian Ecology" which focuses on a wide range of ecological and environmental issues faced by Native American Indians in the 20th century.
Abstract This paper explores and details North American Indian life and culture as portrayed in Donald Hughes' book "North American Indian Ecology." This paper discusses the land issues facing the North American Indian tribes including overgrazing, erosion and assessments of appropriate land usage. The writer of this paper finds Hughes' book to be straightforward and concise in clarifying the characteristics of Indian life such as hunting, food growing and rituals.
From the Paper "Tribes are having to mediate the disparate demands of their members and the industrial mindset of the BIA to balance forest use for economic need and preservation for cultural need. Tribes face many of the same problems as non-Native communities held hostage by the timber industry. Replanting has not always kept pace with harvesting on public or trust lands. The push to harvest old-growth timber is constrained by federal mandates to protect endangered species habitats, putting people out of work. Few local communities gain the "value-added" benefits of processing their own timber especially jobs and new businesses and when they do the environmental impact of mill sites has to be factored into any cost-benefit analysis."
Abstract This paper addresses the changes in American Indian warfare during the period of western settlement in the 19th century. It gives a summary of Plains Indian culture and reasons for conflict, and details conflicts between settlers and American Indian tribes. The paper's thesis, borne out in historical research, is that the introduction of horses and firearms made conflicts between US relocation forces and unwilling Indian tribesmen bloodier than necessary on both sides. The author does not take sides on the Native American sovereignty issue.
Abstract The paper explains that Jack Weatherford began to examine the history of the Native American as he discovered that many agricultural products would not have been produced in farming without the knowledge that Indians gave those in the new world. The paper describes how Weatherford further stipulates that it is through these advances in agriculture that the United States has remained a strong contender in the global market ,and that without the influences of the Native Americans on the early settlers those new to America would not have survived. The paper analyzes how, through his work, "Indian Givers: How Indians of the Americas Transformed the World", Volume I, Weatherford brings an insight to a people that most individuals have been negligent in understanding. The paper concludes that it is Weatherford's purpose to demonstrate that Native Americans have been a misrepresented and forgotten people when the history of North America is discussed.
Abstract This paper presents a brief history of the Native Americans of California, focusing on their struggles with colonizing Europeans and their eventual loss of land and civil rights. The paper traces the history of Native Americans in the US back to their arrival in North America from Asia. Next the author describes their settlement and cultures in North America, and California specifically. The paper highlights the arrival of Europeans to Californian, describing the Native American's subsequent loss of loss of land, culture and autonomy. Special attention is paid to the effects of reservations on the Native American population.
Outline:
California Indians Population Decline of California Indian Figure-1: Native California [Census 2000]
Figure-2: Native California Population [Census 2000]
Indian Plight since Columbian Period
Paper includes maps and charts.
From the Paper "This exploitation continued well into the twentieth century and displacement of Native Indian from reserves continued with little or no compensation until the early twentieth century. The enlightened society of the twentieth century began to apply the laws which have been on the statutes for centuries to all Americans. Discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion and sex can not be legally justified anymore. This important factor now provides legal rights and new protection to Native Indians. "
Abstract This paper discusses the public apology made by Kevin Gover, the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, to Native Americans for the harsh mistreatment they received at the hands of the U.S. Government. The paper looks at the many aspects of this mistreatment addressed by the apology, and suggests that, although late in coming, a public apology may open the door to reparations for American Indians.
From the Paper "In his speech, Gover made note of the Dawes Severalty Act, passed in 1887. This act was just one in a long line of examples of the early settlers? inability to understand the ways of the Native Americans. The act was created by whites who believed they were helping weak Native Americans by turning them into farmers and land owners. While this act uprooted the Native Americans from their homes and placed them in reservations, the American government alleged that they were helping, rather than hurting the Native Americans simply because of their belief in the superiority of America and of its culture."
Abstract The military history of British involvement in India began, fully, in 1857 when Indian forces staged a revolt against the British East India Company. The Indian army began as an indigenous force run by British officers. The British role in India, far surpassed the history of British Imperialism anywhere else in the world.
Abstract This paper is an anthropology paper that debates the true reason for resistance to Indian Casinos. The paper wholeheartedly supports the anthropologist Darrian-Smith in asserting that the one of the ultimate reasons for resistance to Indian Casinos lies in the centuries old traditions of non-Native discrimination towards natives, and both traditional and new age stereotyping.
From the Paper "Indian Casinos For much of hundreds of years the American people have variously exterminated, stolen from or assimilated their indigenous peoples. In more recent decades this has turned into milder forms of discrimination and stereotypical conceptualizations. The one enduring theme has been the patrimonial dominance over Native peoples, being the most regulated of all people within the boundaries of the United States. Relegated by land appropriations to remote, often worthless plots of reservation lands, the remnants of traditional Native societies have barely been able to eke out a subsistence living. However, taking advantage of laws previously designed against them, a limited number of Native American tribes have turned to Casinos as a source of revenue to alleviate them from their hardship."
Abstract This paper examines Indian-white relations on the post-revolutionary frontier up to the early 19th century. All social, political, and economic relations are marked by inequality and a dominant-inferior pattern.
