After reading "Two Ways to Belong in America" by Bharati Mukherjee, I had many questions scrabbling in my mind. Parts of her argument seemed contradictory, and she tended to look at everything with a black or white perspective. In life its rarely ever black and white and in the case of immigrants in the United States, it definitely some shade of gray.
I didn't like parts of Bharati Mukherjee argument where she states that she and her sister are both "freaks." Neither one of them are freaks, in america we have so many different types of immigrants. There are the ones that fully embrace american culture and others who still hold their own cultures but semi-assimilate in american society. Bharati Mukherjee is too critical of her sister, she feels her sister is in opposition of her and that she shouldn't be. What Bharati is forgetting is that America is a melting-pot, filled with many different people with many cultures and ideals. You don't have to drop your culture and everything you knew, to become an american.
Shelia Jasonoff responded to Bharati Mukherjee's essay, she believes that it would be a betrayal to think that there is only two ways for immigrants to live in america: "assimilating or refusing to assimilate." She directly goes against her argument. Jadonoff uses herself as a prime example because she too was an immigrant in america from South Asia. She knows how it feels to be an immigrant and it evident to her that there is a in between area where you don't have to fully assimilate or refuse to assimilate to be an american.
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