My Favorite Chaperone By Jean Davies Okimoto: Immigrants Adjusting To American Culture

Imagine if you were an immigrant moving to America, how would your parents adjust to American culture, would they find it easy or difficult? Mia soon learned her parents would not easily adapt to American culture, nor would they approve of it. Immigrants explore identity in a variety of ways, from family members having a difficulty adjusting to American culture, others possibly not agreeing with how Americans handle their culture, to what immigrants might bring when transitioning into the United States, how might immigrants adjust their identity to this new culture?

Forwards, Immigrants might have a difficulty adjusting to American culture, their parents, siblings, or even themselves. This would likely root from the reason that, although they would have most likely learned about America beforehand, the American culture is still a very broad and large beast, sprouting into many different sub-cultures. In the story My Favorite Chaperone, Mia’s parents had not yet adapted to how their culture differs from the American culture, this would soon lead to conflict within themselves. In order to support my claim, Papa says “Maya Alazova!” His voice roared across the parking lot. He pointed at me the way one might identify a criminal. “edee suda!” he shouted in Russian. Come here!”. This supports my claim that, when Papa saw Mia playing around with the American boys, having them carry her and her friend, he didn’t view it as fun, rather he viewed it as disgrace within their own culture. To further back my claim, The narrator in Museum Indians states “I introduce my mother to the city she gave me. I call her home”. This means, that although the mother is all fine and dandy living there she has not yet fully adopted the idea of living in a city that views her people, Dakota Indians, from simply a historical standpoint.

Moreover, the way that immigrants might adjust to how we view them, and their culture will vary, an example of this is when the mother of the narrator in Meusum Indians states, “Mom makes a point of complaining about the statue that depicts anIndian man about to kill a white woman and her children: “This is the only monument to the history of Indians in this area that you have on exhibit. ” This means that she did not agree with the one-sided nature of the monument in the museum, as it depicts an Indian about to kill a white woman and her children. The reasoning for her to disagree with this would most likely be that the one-sided nature distracts from who the Indians truly are and that children in the future will think this is what Indians are about, however that would not be true.

Another example of how the mother reacts to this is, “I don’t know how this got out of the family, ” Mom murmurs. I feel helpless beside her, wishing I could reach through the glass to disrobe the headless mannequin”. This statement explains that the mother is in distress of how the people who settled on her land views her, just as a piece of history, robbing them of their ancestry and true values of how their life used to be before they settled there.

At last, Immigrants vary in what they might bring when they immigrate to the United States, this can help them find comfort whilst also still pertaining to their original identity of the culture and place they originally belonged to. As aforementioned, this will vary from who they are, but some of the most common items are

• a prayer book
• a Bible
• a Koran
• a statue of Buddha
• religious medals
• candlesticks for Sabbath candles.

As these items are the most commonly brought items, this will allow us to obtain a better perception of how immigrants explore identity, in ex. Most of these items are religious items, from a Koran, to a statue of Buddha these items help immigrants find belonging in what might not seem like a friendly place at first glance as they attempt to adapt while keeping their identity as who they, and their culture are. Another example of this would be old items that have been in the family for years, to help immigrants feel more at home, as stated “Remembrances of old lives take up immigrant suitcase space, too. Things that have been in the family for a long time help new arrivals feel more at home, or at least less alone”. This means that the immigrants would pack items in their suitcases that might be viewed as a memorial, extraordinary or at least, a well-known and passed around item in their family. This would allow them to keep their perception of their identity whilst adapting to their new environment, without having to completely change, some might hardly change at all.

To conclude, immigrants will explore their identity in their new homes in a variety of ways, some might have great difficulty adapting to American culture, however they will prevail in the end, others might not support how Americans view them and their culture, or even they might just explore their identity with past items from where they used to live. All of this said, no matter who an immigrant is, they are nevertheless human, and all humans will have a different and unique personality, or in this situation identity.