Professor N/ Dr. Kratka

Fqwis

09 May 2023

Forcing Changed Ways

In the short stories “ Call it Sleep” by Henry Roth and “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu, America plays a vital role in assimilation being forced upon immigrants and their children, which causes negative impacts and affects households.. Because both protagonists have immigrants in their families, they almost act as a burden to them which makes it more difficult to become accustomed to their American surroundings. Both David and Jack are heavily affected being forced to assimilate by their American society and environment.

In “Call it Sleep” the protagonist is a Jewish immigrant who’s family is new to the country and lives in New York City. Since David is not from the US, most things feel different to him and it’s hard for him to get around that. One instance is in the beginning of the text where he Yussie who lives in his building and he and his family are also Jewish, playing with him on occasion. David went to his house one day and played hide and seek with Yussie and his sister. He had to learn to play since he wasn’t familiar with the game and would have fun but then Yussie’s sister would take David to play a different game. David was uncomfortable quickly and wanted to leave. Because he wasn’t raised and from America, he wasn’t used to playing this way but was forced to learn how, to his dismay. The forced assimilation took place where he had to learn to play a game that he was uncomfortable with and that caused him to want to be antisocial. This incident created a domino effect, starting with making David not want to make friends and always stay in with his mother. Furthermore, it also caused tension at home where David’s father wasn’t pleased with his family as he viewed his son as weak and his wife babying their son instead toughening him up. In “The Paper Menagerie” Jack’s mother was a Chinese immigrant who didn’t speak great English. She would make Jack origami toys instead of real toys. One of Jack’s neighbors, Mark, came over to play and made fun of his origami because they weren’t considered paper and were nothing more than wrapped up paper. He had a Star Wars toy which at that time was very popular and most American kids had. Mark didn’t approve and this caused Jake to second guess himself whether or not he should keep playing with Lahou and the rest if the origami made for him. Since they were seen as “not regular” by Mark’s standards, Jack felt as though to fit in with everyone else, he should get real toys to play with. This incident caused Jack to box up all the origami made for him and he even started to separate himself from her. So after being made fun of by someone, Jack forced himself to assimilate where he would try to do what others did to fit in and not be made fun of.

Forced assimilation caused by American society on immigrants can be very unbeneficial where it can mess up the well being of a person but disrupt the family dynamic of a household. It also permanently changes the behavior of an individual. In the article “Jews Without Judism? Assimilation and Jewish identity in the US” by Robert P. Anyot and Lee Singleman, it mentions that “For American Jews, integration into the social mainstream has always ranked amongst the highest the highest personal and collective priorities, if not the very highest. Immigrant Jews are very different from regular Americans regarding their culture and how they carry themselves and aren’t accepted by American society. They now have to assimilate and change the way they do things such as speaking and the way they dress just to have some sort of acceptance by their counterparts. They’re forced to assimilate just to be seen as normal while in the process, they lose themselves and who they are. This connects to “The Paper Menagerie ” where Jack is made fun of because of his Chinese mother and the fact that she can’t really speak English. This caused him to like his Chinese heritage no longer. He would also be bullied in school and this would force him to listen to the outside noise. When he was at home, it came to a point where he was no longer speaking to his mother if she spoke Chinese to him, and yelled at her to speak English even though she really couldn’t. He even told his mother to stop making Chinese food and told his father to make American food. His father would even agree with Jack and wanted him to fit in as well. Jack saw his mother as a burden and would soon stop talking to her altogether. They would become estranged. Jack being pressured by his peers and being forced to assimilate made him value his life a lot less and even made him stop talking to his own mother. Jack wanted to be accepted by his peers and wanted to fit in so much that it cost him a relationship with one of his parents, that being his mother.

In “Call it Sleep”, David went through a moment where he know he had to learn to speak better English. He got lost when he was outside and he cried as he needed directions on his way home. He yelled for help and a lady said that she would help him find his way back home. She helped him but she lied and brought David to a police station and as she walked away she just laughed at David as he was crying. She mocked him as well and basically saying that he didn’t belong because of how he spoke English. This shows a case of forced assimilation  where David now needed to be able to speak properly enough to where he wouldn’t embarrass himself. Because David is an immigrant and is Yiddish, he had a strong accent so when he asked for directions, it got him in trouble where he mispronounced his street name.

In conclusion , America  plays a huge role in assimilation where it is being forced on immigrants and how it causes negative impacts, affecting individuals as well as households. As seen in both “Call it Sleep” by Henry Roth and “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu, the protagonists are being forced to change the way they carry themselves and do other things because of their surrounding environment and it affected both of them at home as well. Even though it came with a lot of negatives and downsides, I think the forced assimilation benefited Jack rather than David later on where it caused him to realize his mother’s true feelings and intentions toward him after her death. This helped him rekindle the love he had for his Chinese culture where at one point he shunned it because of what other people thought about him and told him.

Works Cited

Amyot, R. P. (n.d.). Jews without Judaism? assimilation and Jewish identity in the United States. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42863438.pdf?addFooter=false

Roth, H. (2006). Call it sleep. Penguin. 

Liu, K. (2016). The Paper Menagerie. MacMillan Ltd.