Essay - Literature Americanization in Two Works the Purpose of This Paper...

Literature

Americanization in Two Works

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the two short stories "Saving Sourdi" by Mai-Lee Chai and "Clothes" by Chitta Banerjee Divakaruni. Specifically it will ***** the process ***** immigrants becoming Americanized in the ***** works. Both of these short stories show how immigrants can have trouble fitt*****g into Ameri***** society, and ***** they try to become Americanized so they ***** fit in better. ***** the ***** teach lessons about ********** to fit in, and about hanging on to culture ***** tradition, too.

In "Saving *****," the main character is Nea, who always tries to "save" her sister when she is in *****, even if she does not need saving. Sourdi is older and wiser than *****, and she has managed to fit ***** ***** better, too, even ***** ***** ***** submit to an arranged marriage. Nea kind of expects life in America ***** be perfect, and Sourdi knows better. ***** thinks, "When we moved to South Dakota, I thought we'd find ***** real *****, the one w*****e we *****re supposed to be, not the hot sweaty America where we lived packed together in an apartment with bars on the windows [...]" (Chai 131). Nea thinks that to fit into Americ***** society, everything *****s to ***** perfect ***** perfectly American. ********** is funny, because they move ***** the Midwest, which is supposed to represent the "real" America, and Nea thinks it ***** "hick." She says, "'We're city girls,' I said, glaring at him. 'Why would we like this hick stuff?'" (Chai 134). Nea tries to be a real *****n, but she really does not understand what that means, or what it really means ***** be a true American. Duke is an American not *****cause he was b*****n here, but because he can appreciate ***** land and t***** life of a farmer, while Nea cannot.

***** story also shows ***** the girls have no trouble learning about the "important" things in American society. Chai wr*****es, "Sometimes we locked ourselves in the bathroom then, just the two ***** us, so we could talk about ***** like boys at school or who was the cutest actor on television shows ***** liked [...]" (Chai 132). The girls have no trouble ***** about society and how teenage ***** act ***** *****, in fact, it just seems to come naturally to *****m. They become just like American teenagers very easily, even though they have ***** work in their family restaurant and work harder than most other American kids. ***** are in between ***** worlds, ***** they manage to fit into both, some*****.

***** Sourdi's wedding, ***** does what any teenager would do, she rebels. She drinks beer, smokes cigarettes, ***** ***** all the things ***** kids do to get in trouble. Chai writes, "After a few minutes, ***** could take a sip from Duke's *****. [...] I took out the p*****ck of cigarettes *****'d stolen from Ma's purse and lit one. It took five puffs before I