Assignment #6

After a tough battle with blackboard, I am the victor!

Anywho…

You would think that there would be more similarities between families that migrate throughout the country and those that immigrate into the wonderful US of A. However, these two novels have told me otherwise…

It appeared that minority families who migrated into the ‘burbs (like those in Linden Hills) felt less like they had to fight to preserve their culture. This is probably because no matter where you go throughout the country, everybody knows at least something about Southern black culture. Slavery is such a large part of this country’s history; if you deny slavery, you’re omitting a significant chunk of our rich, complex history. So many aspects of black culture today began in the days of slavery. Many forms of music and dance that are still popular today root back to the days of cotton picking. Soul food is cooked all around the country! Because black culture has such a strong hold on American history, it’s not going anywhere. Subsequently, many people don’t feel like they need to flash their culture around. The residents of the predominantly black community of Linden Hills are too preoccupied with their materialism and suburban culture to really fight to preserve that of their ancestors.

As for the Gangulis, or our immigrant family, I feel like they really felt like they had to fight to keep their heritage. Ashima just couldn’t adjust to the American lifestyle. She and Ashoke try so hard to preserve their heritage that they give Gogol a distaste for his background for a long time. He dates a bunch of “exotic” Caucasian women. It seems that in the attempt to preserve their heritage, a lot of immigrant families become even more immersed in their original culture after they move to the states.