Immigrant Experience: Literary Comparison (Unseen) Flashcards

1
Q

‘_________ he shares a ______ not a ___’

A

‘Whom he shares a name not a life’

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
- Gogol does not feel connected to his family, despite his cultural ties

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2
Q

‘_____ she had _____ been __________ else’

A

‘Even she had once been someone else’

Americanah - Chimamanda Adichie

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3
Q

‘______ enough to have ____ their ______ in the _____ from which they had ___________’

A

‘Long enough to have lost their place in the society from which they had emigrated’

Sour Sweet - Timothy Mo

  • Experience of the Chens, 4 years into living in the UK
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4
Q

‘It _____ him ____ like a ____________’

A

‘It made him feel like a gatecrasher’ (Chen)

Sour Sweet - Timothy Mo

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5
Q

‘____ was a _________ here’

A

‘She was a nobody here’

Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

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6
Q

‘They had ______ to be ________ with ________ __________’

A

‘They had begun to be viewed with blatant hostility’

Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo
(Amma reflects on experience of hijabi women following 9/11)

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7
Q

‘The new ________ were still _______ it, ____ in _______’

A

‘The new emigrants were still tasting it, lost in wonder’

The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

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8
Q

‘Nothing _________ to the ________ she had of ______’

A

‘Nothing compared to the picture she had of home’

Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

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9
Q

Context : Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

A
  • Protagonist: Eilis
  • Urged by her parents to migrate to Brooklyn from a small town in rural Ireland
  • Due to lack of opportunities in home town (economic migration)
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10
Q

Context: The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

A
  • Protagonist: Jurgis
  • Backdrop of early 20th-century industrialization (meat-packing)
  • Follows Rudkus family, immigrants from Lithuania to Chicago
  • Idealistic vision of America is quickly crushed by grinding poverty/dangerous work
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11
Q

Context: Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo

A
  • Polyphonic novel, third person
  • Follows the struggles/experiences of 12 Black British women who are interconnected
  • Absence of speech marks around dialogue (blurs the line between dialogue + description, readers can insert own interpretation, greater connectedness between reader + narrator)
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12
Q

Context: Sour Sweet - Timothy Mo

A
  • Married couple Chen and Lily who migrate to London from Hong Kong
  • Lily manipulates her
    traditional role in order to take control of their restaurant (Idealistic ambitions)
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13
Q

Context: Americanah - Chimamanda Adichie

A
  • Protagonist: Ifemelu
  • Nigerian woman who immigrates to the US from Nigeria to attend university
  • Experiences identity crisis (seeks to assimilate into American culture e.g speaking ‘American-English’)
  • Eventually embraces her Nigerian accent, natural hair, and returns to Nigeria
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14
Q

Context: The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri

A
  • Protagonist: Gogol
  • First-generation immigrant who’s parents migrated to US from Calcutta
  • Feels disconnected from his origins, changes his name to ‘Nikhil’
  • mother (Ashima) is subservient/adheres to traditional Indian values
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15
Q

‘Land of ________’

A

‘Land of promise’

Sour Sweet - Timothy Mo (Chen refers to England)

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16
Q

What is the perspective/narrative of ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’?

A
  • First person narrative
  • Written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son (Little Dog) to his illiterate mother (Rose)
17
Q

Describe the immigration in ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’

A
  • Immigrated from Vietnam to America, Connecticut
  • Spent months in a refugee processing camp in the Philippines awaiting immigration to the USA
18
Q

‘Palms already ________ and __________’

A

‘Palms already callused and blistered’

  • His mother has sacrificed her own well being by working in the nail salon
  • Motivated by need to provide for her son

‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’

19
Q

‘Your ______ are _________ and I hate ___________ that made them that ____’

A

‘Your hands are hideous and I hate everything that made them that way’

  • Idea of sacrifice in the host country in order to survive
  • Immigrant parents sacrificing for their children, enduring pain/hardship for opportunities

‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’

20
Q

‘What I ______ of work I know _______ of ____’

A

‘What I know of work I know equally of loss’

  • Immigrants work to achieve/access the opportunities of the host country, but lose themselves as a result
  • Immigrant parents sacrifice of hard-work means they are less present in their child’s life

‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’

21
Q

‘Girl, Woman, Other’

‘Chickpea ______, jerk chicken, Greek ________, lentil ______’

A

‘Chickpea stew, jerk chicken, Greek salad, lentil curry’

Dishes brought by Amma’s friends to her table

  • Highlights a fusion of cultures, multiculturalism of the UK

‘Girl, Woman, Other’

22
Q

Description of Amma from ‘Girl, Woman, Other’

A
  • First-generation immigrant in England
  • Her father, Kwabena, immigrated from Ghana
  • Daughter named Yazz
23
Q

‘Girl, Woman, Other’

‘said ___________ was an English _____________’

A

‘said affection was an English affectation’

  • Amma’s description of her fathers view towards displays of affection
  • Artificialty/insincerity of English gestures
    -Her fathers disregarding of British norms/acts

‘Girl, Woman, Other’

23
Q

‘Girl, Woman, Other’

‘The only person of __________ in the whole _________’

A

‘The only person of colour in the whole school’

  • Amma’s feeling/reality of being a minority within her host country
  • Lack of culture/diversity, lacks ties to cultural identity and roots

‘Girl, Woman, Other’

24
Q

‘to ______, to ______ in or she’d become a ________’

A

‘to dress, to blend in or she’d become a target’

  • Winsome’s (Shirley’s mother) precautions about her daughters safety in England
  • Position of immigrants in a new country, forced to diminish themselves or risk discrimination/prejudice
25
Q

‘Girl, Woman, Other’

‘you can’t _____ here… you can’t ____ here… you can’t ______ here’

A

‘you can’t work here… you can’t eat here… you can’t drink here’

  • Clovis + Winsome’s experience in England, during a Clovis’ search for employment
  • Face heavy discrimination and rejection
26
Q

‘Girl, Woman, Other’

‘people wasn’t just _________, they was down-right ________’

A

‘people wasn’t just unfriendly, they was down-right hostile’

  • Experience of Clovis + Winsome from the English
  • Faced blatant hostility, criticised/treated badly based on their skin
27
Q

‘Girl, Woman, Other’

‘why don’t we return ________ where we ________?’

A

‘why don’t we return home where we belong?’

  • Winsome’s suggestion after Clovis consistently fails at finding employment
  • Reality of immigration compared to the expectations of opportunity/advancement
  • Disappointment from the host country
28
Q

‘Rice ________ and Planters ___________’

A

Ashima mixes ‘Rice krispies and Planters peanuts’

  • to form and approximation of an Indian street snack
  • Attempt to sustain heritage in American society
29
Q

‘Chen felt at _______ and yet not at _________.’

A

‘Chen felt at home and yet not at home.’

‘Sour Sweet’
- Lack of roots, both disconnection and connection to host country
- May feel at ‘home’ physically but not at ‘home’ emotionally

30
Q

‘something which ________________ her from her _____’

A

‘something which separated her from her son’

‘Sour Sweet’
- Lily feels distant/disconnected to her British-born son (Man Kee) due to the fact that he can speak English
- Intergenerational conflict

31
Q

‘I took off our _____________ and wore my __________ so that others would _______ my face, and therefore ________’

A

‘I took off my language and wore my English so that others would see my face, and therefore yours’

‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’
- Learns English in order to assimilate and to be understood better
- By doing this his mother can also assimilate through him

32
Q

‘Dog ________ and excrement ____________ in the snow bank’

A

‘Dog urine and excrement embedded in the snow bank’

‘The Namesake’
- Ashima steps out of her apartment and sees America for the first time
- Negative impression

33
Q

‘If you have ________, they will think you are ________________’

A

‘If you have braids, they will think you are unprofessional’

‘Americanah’
- Aunty Uju’s attempt to look ‘professional’ for her interview, by taking down her braids + relaxing hair
- Inability to fully express/display cultural identity due to the discrimination and judgement it will provoke

34
Q

‘I only became _______ when I came to ____________’

A

‘I only became black when I came to America’

‘Americanah’
- Realisation of America’s racial prejudice/discrimination compared to the belonging in Nigeria
- Is now defined by her race