Coming to America by Akemi Kikumura

Hello,

I'm Sonya kong and today I'm going to have a literary analyzes

presentation on the literary work called Coming to America by Akemi Okamura

to introduce this work.

First coming to America is a short story in the book named through harsh winters,

the life of a Japanese american woman

written by a committee kumara.

So she is a Japanese american writer who holds a PhD in anthropology from U. C. L. A.

For this book.

She interviewed her parents,

especially her mother who immigrated to America with her husband.

In this book.

Her husband is called papa

in the time when the right of Japanese immigrants was poor.

The characters of coming to America experienced various difficulties in America.

So the story generally describes the physical and mental hardships

that the characters had to endure and the following effects that

they had on the characters.

So now I'll talk about the summary of this work.

So, coming to America begins with the narrator going to America,

the narrator who has moved to America for her american dream which would be

more money, opportunity or a better life

expected a beautiful and clean environment,

but what she faced was an unfavorable

environment and reality for Japanese immigrants.

The narrator's husband was popular among japanese immigrants,

that many people made a big fuss for him.

However, the narrator later found out about her husband's addiction to gambling.

So the narrator who has never been cooked or prepared

meal for her family had to work really hard.

The narrator then describes the harsh reality for Japanese immigrants, that

regardless of how educated the people were,

they couldn't get a job if they were Japanese.

Also, even if they got a job,

Japanese workers had to do all the harsh or dangerous jobs.

Later, the narrator describes the hardships of Japanese women immigrants.

So unmarried women or childless women

couldn't show their charm to a man because most Japanese men were creating

girls and if the women refused their sexual offers they were in danger.

Also,

the author gives an example story of courtesans wife who had

to return to Japan after courtesans unexpected death because Japanese women,

immigrants cannot survive in America without her husband.

The narrator had to work hard to raise her Children in America.

However, papa was not a nice husband or dad.

He never treated his wife gently

and he believed that a woman should never be idle for one minute.

He also got angry if a family member used english and

at home and forced his Children to only speak Japanese.

The narrative closes the story by saying that she's ok with

her husband because he brings enough money to feed their Children.

Now,

I'll talk about the things I found in this

work which are hardships such Japanese women immigrants,

racial discrimination effects on personality and

the cultural gap between immigrant generations.

So I found two parts in the story that

shows the theme of Japanese women immigrants hardships.

So the first part is

this story,

the dog would fetch the paper for him each morning,

but that night his master had died of a heart attack in his sleep.

His wife returned to Sherman and ken

during those days in the country, how could women get along?

So kate Olsen's wife who returns back

to Japan after her husband's sudden death represents

the Japanese women who came back to

Japan giving up immigration for various hardships.

So patterson's death took away the wife's opportunity for the job.

American dream as mentioned,

there was no way to get along for her as a Japanese woman left alone in America.

Her case shows how hard it was to survive as

a Japanese woman in America.

The next part I found was this part,

but once I got married,

I never entertained the thought of divorce

as long as he brought home enough to feed the Children.

I didn't care

even if he was gone for a month. I didn't complain as long as my Children could eat.

So I thought about the reason,

the reason for such an

inevitable hardships for Japanese women

would be the low social status of women,

especially for Japanese women.

The reality made it impossible for them

to survive in America without their husbands.

This has consequently resulted in the inferiority of women,

even in the family.

That's why Japanese women had no complaints about their

patriarchal husbands who earned money for the family.

The author delivered the theme by describing

the japanese woman who came to America for

the american dream but experienced the right liss and powerless life as a minority.

The next theme is the racial discrimination effects on personality.

So this part,

the dog would fetch the paper for

enduring.

Okay, so yeah, he was an extremely educated man.

But during those days educated or not, you couldn't get a job

if you were japanese.

So you helped out in the country.

So yeah, okay, there was a mistake.

So your mother's sons,

youngest brother who is extremely educated shows the

miserable reality that Japanese immigrants had to face.

The author shows how the Japanese immigrants could get a

job regardless of their education level because they were Japanese

at least to the readers.

Empathy with the sense of humiliation,

inferiority

and despair that Japanese immigrants have gone through.

The psychological factors indicate the reasons for papa's

gambling addiction and the treatment of his family.

So most

asian american literature contains racial

discrimination that the character's face.

But I thought

of the interesting part

of this book is that it,

it shows the effect on

effects of racial discrimination on the character's personality out

and how they change because of the racial discrimination.

The last thing I found was the cultural gap between immigrant generations.

So this part

he got angry if they used

one word of English

used Japanese, he admonished,

you go to school and learn english.

The Japanese is not good unless he can speak Japanese

even if I want to speak

speak english. I couldn't,

he wouldn't let me.

The Children will naturally learn english, he said.

Therefore at home, they received discipline in Japanese, the language,

social races

and practical wisdom.

So the Children using english at home represent

second generation immigrants who feel more comfortable

and familiar with american culture and language,

unlike their parents who were born in Japan and had certain Japanese identities.

The Children were only raised in America and thus

would feel less connection to Japan.

Therefore, the parents discipline in the Japanese language,

social disgraces and practical wisdom to their

Children implies the Children's cultural dilemma.

So learning japanese culture and language in the United States

where they were born raised and will live for the rest of their

life

will cause Children to have

internal conflict about their cultural identity

identity.

The Children's confusion about their cultural identity

developed the theme of the cultural gap between generations of immigrants.

So I'll talk about the settings of this book.

The time

it was the time when picture bright

marriages and immigration to America became prohibited.

So the picture bright marriage is a practice in early 20th century by immigrant

workers who married woman on the recommendation

of a matchmaker who exchanged photographs between

the prospective bride and groom.

It was a method for many japanese men too easily marry a Japanese woman.

This time setting indicates the reason why most Japanese men left in America

we're craving girls.

It's tragic to imagine all the hardships

Japanese women would have experienced from people

from the same culture

for

the social position of Japanese women was too low.

Next is the place

the story mostly took place in the camps

which are cattle's labor camp and

Stockton's cannery ranch.

In those places,

the characters had a hard time because of the bad living conditions.

They had to work hard, wearing boots all day long and stooping in the hot sun.

The author describes the racial discrimination along the workers

by saying that only japanese did dangerous asparagus cutting

the place setting implies that the characters will go through

new hardships that

they have never experienced in Japan.

So finally conclusion, I loved how the story delivered multiple characters,

situations and they're different hardships.

The story was mainly about the hardships that

the narrator experienced and I could empathize with her

injuring hard work raising Children and living with a patriarchal husband.

However,

reading the story also gave me thoughts about what hardships her husband

also encountered which helped me understand his attitudes towards his family.

Even though it is not

justice.

After reading reading the book

and imagining the harsh lives of the Japanese immigrants.

I was

generally

impressed by the immigrants,

strong insurance. That's what I learned

from this

story.

Lastly this is the citations for my

presentation and that's all for military presentation.

Thank you so much for listening

Coming to America by Akemi Kikumura

Chapters

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated