America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan (604-610)
How do you keep your personal worth from changing when your environment tells you are not worthy?
In the passage, America
is in the Heart, by Carlos Bulosan, there is a man that has traveled from his home country of the Philippines, to the United States. The passage talks about his travels from Seattle
to Lompoc. During his travels from Stockton to Lompc, the main character,
Carlos, traveled by many trains in the freight cars, and then was driven by car
by another Filipino man. When Carlos arrived in Lompc he found his brother. His
brother was not the same person he was in American as he was in the Philippines.
“We are in the bootleg racket,” said my brother. “Alfredo and I will make
plenty of money. But it is dangerous.” (609) This quote is an example of how Carlo's brother changed from the man he was when he was in the Philippines from an honest working man, to who he is now, which was a result to his new environment.
I came to know afterwards that in many ways it was a crime
to be a Filipino in California. I came to know that the public streets were not
free to my people….. We were suspect each time that we were seen with a white
woman. And perhaps it was this narrowing of our life into an island, into a
filthy segment of American society, that driven Filipinos like Doro inward,
hating everyone and despising all positive urgencies toward freedom. (606) The literary device used in this quote is tone, the author uses this to let the reader know how Filipinos were treated and how it affected them.
In the following quote Carlos's brother lets him know that he is there for his brother and if he wants to go to school he will support him and reminds him to not lose his self worth because of what happens around him. “If you would like to go to school, “ said my brother in parting, “just let me know. But whatever you do, Carlos, don’t lose your head. Good-bye!” (610)
“Please, God, don’t change me in America!” I said to myself,
looking the other way so that I would not cry.” (610) Carlos is talking to himself to remind him, do not let the environment around him change him.
Great analysis Amber, the story of Bulosan surely shows a lot of emotions on how a person changed over a period of time due to their experiences in life. In this story, the brother of Carlos has been changed and become a different person, a person who is different from what he is back in the Philippines. In my own experience, I could really relate to the story because as a person and I think you also experienced it, anything bad happened could really change someone insight of life. Changing them to someone that they are not supposed to be.
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