Bonus Blog #3

All three of these stories share the sense of “double consciousness.” When a person has a split conscious on how they should act because racially they look one way but when they are assimilated into another country they must act according to the standards of that country. In Antin’s story “The Promise Land” I see a similarity between Mary and the son in Sui Sin Far’s story. I use this similarity using a quote out of Antin’s story. “In after years, when I passed an American among American, if I was suddenly made aware of the past that lay forgotten, -- if a letter from Russia or a paragraph in the newspaper…suddenly reminded me of what I might have been…” This reminds me so much of the description of when Lae Choo went to pick up her son at the end of Far’s story. He was there for months and as a child he forgot so quickly of his mother and where he came from. I assume it not a surprise when a child forgets so easily of his mother and is capable of moving on because they haven’t been conditioned yet into a culture enough so they don’t share an identity yet. But for Mary to have such thoughts that she had even forgotten her own roots was amazing to me. I guess since she found it so easy to assimilate within school and that she looked American, she was almost happy to give up her roots. I know that if I were to still be living in Spain after I studied abroad, I still would not have been able to give up my roots and culture. For 21 years I have been an American and raised how Americans are raised, to completely clear myself of my culture would be extremely difficult. A difference I found was the hatred Kiku-san had for her skin color and the love Mary has for her skin color. It’s interesting to see that Mary being fully white loves it because she is able to assimilate well, but Kiku-san just being half white hates her image because she can’t fit into her own culture. It’s interesting to think that skin type plays a huge role in the culture you are brought up in. I could be white and brought up in a Hispanic community my whole life and I would either be ostracized because of my skin color or embraced because I’m different looking and associating myself that people I don’t necessarily look like. Race plays a huge role in our culture and I think we should all be willing to accept people for who they are.