Edited at 2007/07/18 23:21:52 PDT
Andrew Xu
7/17/07
Mr. Joseph Scalice
Rough Draft of Analytical Essay
The “American Paradox”
It is often said that America is a place of opportunities, but not quite so known is the fact that America, although not so predominantly nowadays, is also a place of discrimination and prejudice. Despite the fact that current reality does not live up to his dreams, Carlos Bulosan, as dogmatically as ever, insists that America is a place where dreams come true, a place where he actually can prosper and flourish. This is what drives him, what motivates him in the “slow” times.
In America Is In The Heart, Carlos Bulosan, now in America, is faced with unspeakable prejudice and racism when seeking employment to fulfill his dreams. Why did Carlos want to immigrate the United States in the first place? A short examination of two paragraphs in the book will help answer that, and many other quintessential questions.
“But the Philippines was undergoing a radical social change; all over the archipelago the younger generation was stirring and adapting new attitudes. And although for years the agitation for national independence had been growing, the government was actually in the hands of powerful native leaders. It was usch a juicy issue that obsure men with ample education nexploited it to their own advantage, thus slowly but inevitably plunging the nation into a great economic catastrophe that tore the islands from their roots, and obfuscated the people’s resurgence toward a broad national unity.
For a time it seemed that the younger generation, influenced by false American ideals and modes of living, had become total strangers to the older generation. In the provinces where the poor peasants lived and tuiled for the rich hacienderos, or landlords, the young men were stirring and rebelling against their heritage. Those who could no longer tolerate existing conditions adventured into the new land, for the opening of the United States to them was one of the gratifying provisions of the peace treaty that culminated the Spanish-American War.” (5)
During this time frame, the Philippines was an American colony, and was rapidly being Americanized; characterized with the fact that “American ideals and modes of living” were sinking into Philippine society. The fact that the Philippines was being Americanized became such a “juicy issue” that “obscure men” with “ample education” exploited it to their own “advantage,” inevitably plunging the nation into a great catastrophe that threatened to rip the country out of its roots. This influence caused the “younger generation” became “total strangers” to the older generations, who had toiled so hard to earn a scintillant amount of money. The younger generation, bound by hopes of a prosperous future, ventured into the United States. So great was this influence that it eventually seduced Carlos to venture into America, looking for a bright future himself.
When Carlos arrived in Seattle in 1930, he was greeted not with loving and embracing arms and opportunities, but with artifice and brutality. A short while after Carlos set foot in Seattle, his companions were robbed of their money.
“Fortunately two oldtimers put me in a car with four others, and took us to a hotel on King Street, the heart of Filipino life in Seattle. Marcelo, who was also in the car, had a cousin named Elias and his unknown friend persuaded my companions to play a strange kind of card game. In a little while Elias got up and touched his friend suggestively; then they disappeared and we never saw them again.
It was only when our two countrymen had left that my companion realized what happened. They had taken all their money.” (99)
In this first hand perspective, Carlos learned what role trickery and deceit played in America. Another scene similar occurred a week down the line, but this time, it was about brutality.
“ ‘Let me alone!’ he shouted.
Julio hit him between the eyes, and the bookkeeper struggled violently. Julio hit him again. The bookkeeper rolled on the floor like a baby. Julio picked him up and threw him outside the house. I thought he was dead, but his legs began to move. Then he opened his eyes and got up quickly, staggering like a drunken stevedore toward the highway. Julio came out of the house with brass knuckles, but the bookkeeper was already disappearing behind the apple orchard. Julio came back and began hitting the door of the kitchen with all his force, in futile anger.
I had not seen this sort of brutality in the Philippines, but my first contact with it in America made me brave. My bravery was still nameless, and waiting to express itself. I was not shocked when I saw that my countrymen had become ruthless toward one another, and this sudden impact of cruelty made me insensate to pain and kindness, so that it took me a long time to wholly trust other men. As time went by I became as ruthless as the worst of them, and I became afraid that I would never feel like a human being again. Yet no matter what bestiality encompassed my life, I felt sure that somewhere, sometime, I would break free. This faith kept me from completely succumbing to the degradation into which many of my countrymen had fallen.” (109)
In this passage, Carlos first-handedly sees brutality in America, an atrocity that even the Philippines did not harbor. In a little while, Carlos “became as ruthless as the worst of them,” but he was completely sure that “somewhere, sometime,” he “would break free. “This faith” kept him from “completely succumbing to the degradation” into which many of his countrymen had fallen.
Carlos was still hopeful, but maybe things were not as he had imagined. If Bulosan had thought that brutality and artifice were the culmination of his troubles, he was fatally erroneous. Soon, brutality and artifice became the least of his worries: racism and discrimination and prejudice were becoming more prevalent in his life. It turned out that it was not only in his life but in many other Philippinoes’ lives. One spectacular paragraph sums up my point:
“I came to know afterward 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 stopped each time these vigilant patrolmen saw us driving a car. We were suspect each time we were seen with a white woman.” (121)
It is safe to say that the [current] American society despised the Philippino race. Perhaps it against this that many Philippino unions were started. A Philippine newspaper, The New Tide
“was one of several publications that had arisen all over the nation, and had tried to grasp the social realities and to interpret them in terms of the needs of the decade. It sustained our lives, drowned our despair, and gave us hope. It broadened our scope and vision.
Then it went out of existence. Its founders tried to revive it. But like the other publications born overnight to rally behind a new social idea, it died a natural death.”
The New Tide was eradicated, although not before it showed the world that the Filippinos could actually prosper. It was not only a sign to the world, but to the Filippinos themselves; that they had a chance, slim as it might be. This was their way of striking back against the racist barrier of discrimination and prejudice.
It soon became clear to Carlos that it was possible to thrive in America by looking at experiences in his life and how other people burgeoned. One of the most compelling stories to Carlos Bulosan was the story of how a poor boy became the President of the United States.
“I repeated after him, uttering strange words and thinking of America. We were reading the story of a homely man named Abraham Lincoln.
‘Who is this Abraham Lincoln?’ I asked Dalmacio.
‘He was a poor boy who became a president of the United States,’ he said. ‘He was born in a log cabin and walked miles and miles to borrow a book so that he would know more about his country.’
A poor boy became a president of the United States! Deep down in me something was touched, was springing out, demanding to be born, to be given a name. I was fascinated by the story of this boy who was born in a log cabin and became a president of the United States.
[A couple of paragraphs down]
‘I didn’t know you could read, Allow,’ she said. ‘Lincoln was a poor boy who became a president of the United States.’
‘I know that already,’ I said. ‘Tell me what he did when he became president.’
‘Well, when he became president he said that all men are created equal,’ Miss Strandon asid. ‘But some men, vicious men, who had Negro slaves, did not like what he said. So a terrible war was fought between the states of the United States, and the slaves were freed and and the nation was preserved. But one night he was murdered by an assassin…’
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘Why?’ she said. ‘He was a great man.’
‘What is a Negro?’ I asked.
‘A Negro is a black person,’ she said.
‘Abraham Lincoln died for a black person?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He was a great man.’
From that day onward this poor boy who became president filled my thoughts.” (69-70)
Bulosan was blatantly moved by the rags-to-riches story and, although he did not try to emulate Lincoln, he did realize that America was a land of opportunities and that it was possible to burgeon in America. “From that day onward,” Lincoln became intertwined with American promise and hope. It really was possible, despite what reality told him. Carlos soon learned that although there are really mean Americans, there are nice ones too, one that you can count on and rely on.
“Walking down the marble stairway of the hospital, I began to wonder at the paradox of America. Jose’s tragedy was brought about by railroad detectives, yet he had done no harm of any consequence to the company. On the highway, again, motorists had refused to take a dying man. And yet in this hospital, among white people – Americans like those who had denied us – we had found refuge and tolerance. Why was America so kind and yet so cruel? Was there no way to simplifying things in this continent so that suffering would be minimized? Was there no common denominator on which we could all meet? I was angry and confused, and wondered if I would ever understand this paradox.”
Carlos eventually went to the hospital himself and experienced this first-handed when he was put in the hospital due to the fact that he had the advanced stage of tuberculosis. In some ways, it could be said that the hospital was where he got “many friends”, including Alice and Eileen Odell and many other hospital friends. A doctor even stood up for Bulosan, “ ‘It is very foolish,’ the doctor said. ‘We doctors try our best to help these patients toward recovery, but their future is dependent upon stupid restrictions.’” It is safe to say that the hospital was his haven and symbolized his home. It was upon these friendly bonds that drove Carlos harder to fulfill his dreams.
He made countless friends, including both bad and good ones, such as Alfredo and Marian, and learned from every single one of them how to survive in America or prosper. They, too, pushed Carlos to work harder towards final fulfillment.
Although reality might not live up to his dreams, Carlos has hope, absolute hope, that his future will bring final fulfillment with it. He knows that if he works hard enough, if he pushes himself hard enough, he would succeed. Times might have been rough in the past, Carlos would adamantly state, but it is not impossible; he just has to work harder, that is all. He might have to labor long tedious hours to diminish the prejudice and discrimination aimed at innocent Filipinos, but every thing that brings him closer to his goal would be well worth it.
Carlos Bulosan, beaten but not eradicated, learned that although times can be very rough and tough, if you have hope and faith and have the strength to labor long and hard, you will be rewarded and, for Bulosan’s case, reach final fulfillment and prosper and flourish.
“I knew that no man could destroy my faith in America that had sprung from all our hopes and aspirations, ever.” (327)