Cultural Conflicts for New Comers in America - Free Essay Sample

Human nature strives for advancement, quality education for children, and a standard lifestyle for oneself. People pass the struggling path differently to reach objectives. The unyielding strains are visible in the three stories "The Arrangers of Marriage," by Chimamanda Ngoze Adiche, "Who's Irish?" by Gish Jen, and "Hell-Heaven," by Lahiri. The stories describe three immigrant women from different countries living in America. Chinaza is the narrator and protagonist in "The Arrangers of Marriage," whose marriage is arranged by her aunt and uncle with Ofodile, who wants Chinaza to change her name, culture, and lifestyle in America rapidly.

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In "Hell-Heaven," Usha narrates about her mother, Aparna, a typical Indian woman, a family friend Pranab, and an American girl Deborah who marries Pranab. In "Who's Irish?" the narrator of the story is a grandmother who lives with her daughter Natalie, son-in-law John, and granddaughter Sophie. In the three stories, protagonists are caring for their families, belongings, and relationships due to which they experience obstacles in adopting a new culture. All three stories' characters presume a comfortable life in America. However, it took them more to change their culture to adopt the American way of life to maintain a stable life and a good relationship with their family members and outsiders.

Likewise, other immigrants, these three story characters, come to a new country America to seek better economic opportunity, safety, and educational goals, which they could not hold in their home countries. In "The Arranger of Marriage," Chinaza’s aunt and uncle arrange her marriage with a person who is a doctor in America and she would rather continue her education. Culturally she was supposed to arrange marriage and this marriage seems to be a key to her happiness. She thought America would be the place where she would escape from domestic life to freedom. She would have a fancy life, a big house, new furniture, and a beautiful kitchen. She could cook various Nigerian dishes for her family and new friends like a typical Nigerian housewife.

However, coming to America, the reality was different. There was no big house but a small apartment with old furniture and a small kitchen. Ofodile started behaving differently with Chinaza, and he wanted her to copy the American way of life as soon as she could. The story tells that Chinaza does not like how her husband pressurizes her to change her name as her husband changed from Ofodile to Dave. Chinaza says, "I had heard about a Waturuocha that changed to Waturu in America, a Chikelugo that took the more American-friendlier Chikel, but from Udenwa to Bell?” (Carrasco 135). She sees no reason to change her name or the culture in which she was raised and felt comfortable. As a wife, she has to listen to her husband.

On the other hand, she was new in the country and she thought what Ofodile told her would be right to do. By the passage of time and more interruptions of her husband on her talking, cooking, and friends, she starts grief living with Ofodile, whom she already realized from the day she arrived. There is a time when she introduces herself to her friend as “I’m Chinaza…Agatha” (Carrasco 141). She feels so upset by not telling her actual name. The discomfort was visible to Nia, her friend, how Chinaza stroked strangely to figure out the right way to communicate with others. For Chinaza, the more time she spends with Ofodile, the more regret she feels but, what all she could do was to suffer internally and helplessly(Carrasco 143).

Similarly, in the story, “Hell-Heaven” Aparna looks to enjoy life's convenience in America. She does not want to recall the domestic life she had in India. Still, it seems too hard for her to adopt American culture. Living in America, she wears red and white Bengali bangles, sari, and vermillion powder like a typical Bengali married woman. As soon she meets with Pranab, she feels close bound to him. Besides, Aparna's husband was wed to his job. Usha, about her father, says, “He was wedded to his work, his research, and he existed in a shell neither my mother nor I could penetrate” (Arianto 47). The way he engaged with his work was beyond the understanding of Aparna and Usha. That would be the reason he never appreciates Aparna.

However, Parnab, who is from Calcutta and moves to America to study engineering, easily grabs Aparna's attention. He always compliments her food and chats like a younger brother. But Aparna's loneliness pushes her to feel for him, which is very wrong for a married Bengali woman. She criticizes those Indians who adopt or flow with American culture. Practically she stops her daughter Usha from having a boyfriend and dating someone, or she joins late parties with her friends (Carrasco 133). Aparna scrutinizes Parnab to fall in love with an American girl and marries her. Simultaneously, for Parnab, it was easier to adopt being with an American and enjoy the company of his country's people. Still, Aparna anticipates that the couple would have an unsuccessful life due to cultural differences, which would lead them to conflict and miscommunication. The main reason Aparna appeared uneasy about Parnab's wedding with the American girl was that she would not be as close to Parnab as his wife would change him completely to a stranger as she belongs to a different culture(Carrasco 133).

In the story “Who’s Irish?" Chinese grandmother reveals the complexity of life that Natalie is having in America. Living in America, she holds and values her customs and beliefs from her country China which has no value to Natalie for which they both dispute and argue in-between. Moreover, the grandmother compares most incidences with China that such a thing would not be the same way in China and assumes that those things would be easier for all living in China. Natalie always disagrees with her mother and conflicts with her that her mother should stop comparison because she would not go to China for a living (White 106). The story clearly shows that both mom and daughter have communication gaps due to their age and cultural environment.

The storyteller explains that she raised Natalie on her own when her dad died she was around. Natalie stands out to be the family breadwinner since the husband is jobless and cannot take care of his daughter. Instead, the grandmother has to babysit Sophie, or she is considered unsupportive. The reciter admits Natalie as a miserable mother in behaving Sophie as Sophie is a suborn child(White 106). Once Sophie was misbehaving, grandmother spanked to discipline her for which John and Natalie demonstrated that she interrupted. They told her to leave their home and live somewhere else. The grandmother believed that such an unfortunate could not happen if they all were in China, where daughters take care of their old parents.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the three-story themes elaborate on cultural concerns among the protagonists. In “The Arrangers of Marriage," the husband tries his wife for the quickest social adoption. In two other stories, “Hell-Heaven" and "Who's Irish?" both daughters want to accommodate American culture, while their mothers are against it. Both stories show the main characters are involved in what they assumed would be a better life while striving with the ideas of adjusting to American culture. America is a free country where every individual enjoys the freedom of life within the circumstance of permissible rules and laws. Immigrants living in America could indeed achieve their goals and make a vibrant life. Still, they scarify their families, relatives, children, values, and beliefs the same way the grandmothers Aparna and Chinaza did. They adapt to the situation to avoid creating misunderstandings between family members.

Furthermore, in America, aliens have access to education, business, and social services from the government, and total independence to maintain their culture and values. I have seen no American point on what you do or what you wear as long you don't harm the community. Immigrants are taking benefits of this beautiful country. It is required for them to be valued citizens, adopt a new culture, and enjoy their culture's value, regardless of comparison, because every culture has its worth and merit.

Works Cited

Arianto, Tomi, and Ambalegin Ambalegin. "Suicide Experiments Due to Unmet LoveNeeds in Jhumpa Lahiri's Hell-Heaven Story." Ide Bahasa 1.1 (2019): 41-50. http://jurnal.idebahasa.or.id/index.php/Idebahasa/article/view/3

Carrasco, Cristina. "Traducción, negociación identitaria y violencia simbólica en un mundo migrante y heterogéneo: el caso de «The Arrangers of Marriage», de Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie." TRANS. Revista de Traductología 23 (2019): 129-145. http://revistas.uma.es/index.php/trans/article/view/5209

White, Eva Roa. "‘Who is Irish?’: Roddy Doyle’s hyphenated identities." Literary visions of multicultural Ireland. Manchester University Press, 2016.105-107. https://www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781784992118/9781784992118.00013.xml