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9. Comparison and Contrast - TWO WAYS TO BELONG IN AMERICA

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9. Comparison and Contrast (Dakshya Online)


TWO WAYS TO BELONG IN AMERICA

 

Bharati Mukharjee 


Born in 1940 in Calcutta, India, novelist Bharati Mukherjee immigrated to the United States in 1961 and earned an M.F.A. and a Ph.D. in literature. Now a naturalized U.S. citizen, she teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. Her fiction often explores the tensions between the traditional role of women in Indian society and their very different role in the United States. 


“Two ways to belong in America” first appeared in the New York Times. It was written to address a movement in Congress to take away government benefits from resident aliens (foreigners). This is about the issues that confront all immigrants in America. 

 

In America, it is a common misconception that all foreigners are similar; it is believed that they all have similar dreams and each of them end up chasing after the same jobs. However, this is not the case. Not only do immigrants from different countries hold different dreams, but those with a shared background even have varying hopes and dreams for the future. This is evidenced in Bharati Mukherjee’s essay. She utilizes several rhetorical strategies in order to show that immigrants have the ability to be assimilated (adapted) into the American culture, but that they should not be deported if they choose not to follow to said culture.

 

In Two ways to belong in America, Bharati Mukherjee talks about two sisters (Mukherjee and her sister Mira) who moved to the United States in the 1960s. Both sisters moved to United States in hope to pursue their dreams and to achieve their goals with college and further education. Bharati and Mira had similarities in appearance and religious beliefs, but their lives ended up going down different paths. They had planned to go back to India after their education to marry the men their father had chosen for them. However, they did not go as planned. Bharati married a Canadian American man and became an American Citizen, despite the culture she was born into. On the other hand, Mira married an Indian man and obtained her green card. 

 

Over the years, both the sisters have adopted to America in different ways and have formed different beliefs based on their experiences. Mira wants to maintain her Indian identity. She beliefs that the immigration laws should only apply to those that go to America after the rules have been implemented. In outrage, she tells her sister, “If America wants to play the manipulative game, I’ll play it too”. By getting a temporary American identity, she proves that she is willing to play the game that America has thrown in her way. This will only be for the time she stays in America; she loves her country and will eventually denounce the American citizenship and go back home. Unlike her sister, Bharati has adopted to the American community and feels like a part of it. She compares the situation in America to the one that she faced in Canada, where the government turned against the immigrants. Therefore, through her experience in Canada she understands the betrayal her sister feels; that is why she has already acquired American Citizenship.

 

Regardless of the immigration struggles both sisters went through, they remained close and they did not let their divergent thought get in the way of their relationship. Both sisters know that they have sacrificed their beliefs and values to be where they are and hope others will not have to go through what they have experienced. 

 

This essay shows the parallelism between what different immigrants think of moving to the United States from their home country. Some embrace the change and are excited to adopt new cultures, while others are scared and wish to hang on their culture. Mukherjee Adopted the American culture and she says “America spoke to me – I married it” while her sister Mira argues “some kind of irrational attachment to India that I don’t to America”. According to Mukherjee, Mira is a pleasant well-educated woman that has deliberately not adopted the American culture, despite the posed requirements on immigrants. She states that her sister is “professionally generous and creative, socially courteous and gracious. She is here to maintain an identity, not to transform it.” Mira felt to the American Dream, she remained true to what she was and never lost the Indian background. 

 

The author presents struggles faced by immigrants in their quest for an American Dream. The tone of the essay is reflective and sympathetic while the style adopted is an anecdote (personal). Mukherjee reflects her life and compares it to the sisters through a persuasive voice.

 

The essay structure shows the emotional development of Mira. Bharati writes about how they have kept good relations though they differ very much. Then she shows what each sister thinks of one another in their heart. This comes after she describes how Mira was angry after she knew about anti-immigration bill. 

 

There are two ways to belong in America. The first is means that either have a green card and be a citizen. Another way is to fit in with society and to feel as if you belong. But to belong to America requires also to be able to live an independent life. 


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