Week 17, Weekly Analysis, America is in the Heart

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. 

Reading Notes B, Week 17, Bulosan

America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan (604-610)

Go back to Stockton and look for a job in the tomato fields…(604)

I was in flight, again from an unknown terror that seemed to follow me everywhere. (604)

Niles (grape fields and apricot trees)

San Jose got on a freight going south

Salinas to San Luis Obispo

Filipino man too him by car to Pismo Beach.

…community was a small block near the sea- a block of poolrooms, gambling houses, and little green cottages where prostitutes were doing business. (606)

Filipino man took him to Lompoc, passed through Santa Maria

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)

Standing behind him was my brother Amado, holding a long-bladed knife. (607)

My brother grabbed me affectionately and for a long time he could not say a word. (608)

“We are in the bootleg racket,” said my brother. “Alfrado and I will make plenty of money. But it is dangerous.” (609)

He put some money in my pocket. “Here is something for you to remember me by.” (609)

“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)

Reading Notes A, Week 17, Wong

From Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong (593-603)

Chapter: A Person as Well as a Female

After graduation from the Chinese school, Jade Snow seriously sought a solution to her money problem. (593)

Jade Snow  worked in seven different homes and was exposed to a series of candid views of the private lives of these American families. (593)

“Education is your path to freedom,” Daddy had said. “In China, you would have had little private tutoring and no free advanced schooling. Make the most of your American opportunity.” (596)

“But Daddy, I want to be more than an average Chinese or American girl…..”If you have the talent, you can provide for your own college education.” (597)

No, his answer tonight left Jade Snow with a new and sudden bitterness against the one person whom she had always trusted as fair to her. (597)

She was trapped in a mesh of her tradition woven thousands of miles away by ancestors who had had no knowledge that someday one generation of their progeny might be raised in another culture. (597)

Chapter: “Learning can never be poor or exhausted” – Chinese Proverb

Jade Snow’s years at Mills College were inseparably colored by living at “Kapioani,” the dean’s little brown-shingled home. This simple structure located on a hillside road wore a charming crown: a garden of gaily colored fuchsias, bamboo….(598)

Now, living became fun! The fun was partly in being able to participate in the home activities of one of the campus’ central figures. (599)

Jade Snow though hard, wove her best Chinese and English knowledge into the paper, and felt satisfied with her work……. He told her that he had chosen the paper for reading at an English conference to be held at the college…. Jade Snow heard this announcement, smiled, but could find no words to answer when her classmates congratulated her. (603)