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final_essay_english.docxAlfarhan 4
Khalid Alfarhan
Brown
English 100T
13th July 2016
How to belong to America
How can one belong in America? Foreign women student studying in America at one point face a choice of belonging to America. One woman, Bharati Mukherjee the author of “Two Ways to Belong in America” essay, falls victim of this situation. In her essay, Mukherjee narrates two different scenarios that befall her and her blood sister, both of South Asian origin when they went to study in the USA. The two makes choices whether to be an immigrant in the USA or be an expatriate in the USA after marrying while in the USA. By examining the message Mukherjee conveys, exploring the context in which she wrote her essay, and considering the intended audience for her essay, South Asian women in the United States can arrive at a deeper understanding of how living in the USA can influence their cultural background and daily lives.
The message Mukherjee conveys in her essay is that, a citizen from South Asia living in America can belong to America just as the same way as she did. The two ways are either as an immigrant or native American. The south Asians are known to keep their culture and resist westernization. They would like to marry from their ethnic community and conserve their culture. Mukherjee wants the audience to know the despite a strict cultural background, they need to get involved in building a place where they stay by acquiring the citizenship. She describes her and her sister’s background similarities before they came to America to affirm her message. “When we left India we were almost identical in appearance and attitude,” (290). She narrates that despite one having a conservative attitude one can become and American immigrant. “Mira and I differ, however, in the ways in which we hope to interact with the country that we have chosen to live in,” (293). In the essay Mukherjee becomes an American Immigrant by marrying an American student. Her message is strengthened by the fact that through the green card, one enjoys full rights of an America citizen, unlike Mira, her sister who chooses to remain an Indian expatriate. The author’s essay was the appropriate genre. She is able to use her rhetoric situations to bring out the message clearly in the essay. The author uses simple words, mixed sentence length to clearly convey her message. The short paragraph of different length makes her essay fluent and easier to read. Short sentences could have been used to make her message clearer. In addition to her message, Mukherjee uses context as a rhetoric situation too.
Considering the period of thirty-five year stay in the America which Mukherjee narrates her story on how there is a difference in how she and Mira pity each other. They lived in a foreign long enough to see differences that could be as a result of westernization. “She, for the lack of structure in my life, the erasure of Indianness, the absence of an unvarying daily core,” (291). The message was written in USA at a time when legislations on immigrants were under review. Being in USA made her pity women in USA with Indian background subject the immigration law reviews at that time intended take away their benefits. The essay is first published in USA by the New York times. The publishing of the essay might have put emphasis on the need to consider becoming American citizens by alien Americans like Mira. The essay is written in an English culture. The English culture makes Mukherjee see many ways in which she and her sister can be compared and contrasted. “I, for the narrowness of her perspective, her uninvolvement with mythic depths or the superficial pop culture of this society,” (291). Being blood sisters in a foreign country, Bharati makes it easy to understand the uniqueness between them. The different insight gives her an extensive comparison cultures. She feels there is the need for her to make decisions, vote and have influence where she stays. Being married to an American makes the Mukherjee, the write, to bring out the different choices the make in their lives about citizenship. The essay is written at a time when the congress wants to scrap the benefits of alien Americans. The politics seem to betray the author’s sister initial commitment to USA. It however, give Mukherjee a chance to convince Indian women living in USA to become US citizens. To make her rhetoric complete, she defines an audience as a rhetoric situation in her essay.
The intended audience is South Asian women studying or living in America as aliens in their teenage to old age. The article is meant to show a lady from an Indian culture that she can become an American citizen. Having lived in America for a long time she would like Indian women to belong to USA too. She no interest living somewhere one has no influence over. “I am moved that thousands of long-term residents are finally taking the oath of citizenship,” (290). The targeted audience is working class living everywhere in America. South Asians who are through with college education working in the America. “I’ve obeyed all the rules, I’ve paid my taxes, I love my work, I love my students, I love the friends I’ve made,” (292). The audience seems to be rigid to take up American citizenship. Most of them like Mira would like to keep their culture, marry from their ethnic communities back in India. The intended audience already know they are staying in a foreign country. The author however, ought to tell her audience more about what staying in USA means for them. The audience would choose to read this essay because they are faced with changes in the immigration law. This paper arrives at some conclusions based on these rhetoric situations.
[Work Cited]
Mukherjee Bharati. " 50 Essays: Two Ways to Belong in America. "NewYork : Oxford, 2000: 290-294. Print.
