The Immigrant Experience
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Assimilation and Integration
The Novel Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and the short story “How Are you” by Marilu Mallet, are two stories that when spoken of, cannot be mentioned without the term Assimilation also known as cultural assimilation. This term is used to describe an individual minority when he or she is absorbed into the ways of the majority fragment. Meaning, having them adapting to the language, culture and values of the majority. For that being said integration, in other words cultural pluralism, which is described as when small groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities. In a pluralist culture, unique groups not only coexist side by side, but also consider qualities of other groups as traits worth having in the dominant culture. Which is, another of the many aspects that is presented in these two stories.The following essay compares and contrasts, assimilation and integration in the Joy Luck Club And How Are You. Using the analysis of cultural assimilation and cultural pluralism to prove that these stories deal with integration rather than assimilation.
When immigrants come into a new country, most of the time they are more likely to become assimilated in other words cultural assimilation. For example, in “How are You” Marcia, the narrator, comes to Canada where she is left with no choice but to adapt to the culture she says, “where both refugees trying to adapt”(Mallet 203). She also says “they pay us forty-five dollars a week for going to these course and learning English”(Mallet 203). This is a perfect example of cultural assimilation where the individual adapts to the language of the host society, which generally is the first step of assimilation. Similar to that is found in Joy Luck Club, where cultural assimilation is demonstrated right from the start. For instance, when the narrator says “My mother believed you can be anything you wanted in America… you could be come rich, you could become instantly famous”(Tan 132). This plainly indicates the mothers adaptation to the American culture, believing in the American dream. Another example also found in Joy luck Club is where when the narrator says, “I dont have to do what my mom said anymore. I wasnt her slave this wasnt china”(Tan 141). This describes the little girl adaptation to the American culture, telling her mom that in this new society she cannot treat her the way she would in China, clearly demonstrating cultural assimilation.
Second, even though immigrants who come to a new country might seem as if they are being culturally assimilated, they are not exactly assimilated but rather integrated. Meaning a condition in which minority groups participate fully in the dominant society, yet maintain their cultural differences, also known as cultural pluralism. For example, in Joy Luck Club, when the narrator talk about how her mom had come to America after losing everything in china in seek for a better life. Despite that, they settled themselves in “Chinatown”(Tan 134) United Sates California, a small community in California that is filled with everything that makes references to Chinese culture, language, religion and etc. This represents a perfect example of cultural pluralism since it allows the Chinese to fully participate is the American society, at the same time, allowing them to maintain their natural culture. Furthermore, when taking a look at “How are you”, when the narrator and her classmate Casmir, came to Canada after having escaped from their country due to certain circumstances where they obliged to learn English. In spite of that, they live in neighborhoods of Québec considered very multicultural. For instance, Casmir lives close to “waldman, near the Portuguese store where he buys his chicken to make his