Essay on Immigrant Authors and Globalism: Culture Shock and Unexpected Experiences

Introduction

In the wake of international connectivity and the inevitable wave of globalism, writers from different cultures have had the opportunities to explain some of the effects of intercultural interactions, where their own cultures come under attack, meet surprises and expose them to unexpected experiences in foreign lands. In such foreign lands, the immigrant authors describe challenging issues of culture shock and some of the eeriest experiences they have had to deal with as part of the quest to find some identity in foreign regions. In the context of this paper, immigrants from Africa and some parts of Asia encounter and write about some of the defining tales of their lives trying to develop a sense of affiliation in the west, a region with a substantially different culture, and a place where the locals have a totally different perspective of what it is like to come from Asia and Africa. Specifically, the paper dwells on two iconic writers - Chimamanda Ngozi and Jhumpa Lahiri - from Nigeria and the Indian Subcontinent respectively, and their journeys to expressing their ordeals in the United States and to their efforts to tell a different story, one that sufficiently tells the readers what causes misunderstandings between cultures.

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Cultural Differences and Misunderstandings in Foreign Lands

When they first arrive in the united states of America, they realize that the cultural differences between their hosts and their home cultures are stark, and that even more seriously, their cultures are misunderstood because of the way western writers tell stories about Africa and Asia. The stories of these two authors explain how differences in historical context, social class, gender and language mold and shape their stories of arrival and belonging. In the case of Chimamanda, in her short story titled The Thing around Your Neck, it is a heartbreaking tale of a culture so grossly misunderstood. Quite a number of things take her by surprise. When she first gets to America, she immediately learns that unlike her native Nigerian culture, the American people are about give-and-take (Adichie 117). They are grossly open about their social issues, which would typically be considered private back in Nigeria. In her early days, she encounters many people that make her see the extent to which her culture is negatively stereotyped, something she attributes to the negative lens through which western writers make readers perceive Africa - a war-torn region characterized with illiteracy, ignorance, disease and the constant need for aid from international players.

Chimamanda Ngozi: Narrating the African Experience in America

When she arrives in the US, Chimamanda is shocked to find out that, according to white people, it is a big rarity to meet an African or a Nigerian speaking well-polished English. The people in the US are awed by her mastery of the English language because ordinarily, and according to what westerners tell them, Africans do not appreciate education because they are constantly wallowing in a miasma of poverty and political corruption. In her TED Talk titled The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda argues that the problem with listening to one side of the story is that we end up forming stereotypes - and that stereotypes are not necessarily false, but are incomplete versions of the story. For instance, she argues that such iconic writers as John Locke set up a misleading precedent by making western writers concentrate so much on telling the unfortunate side of the African story while ignoring the richness of the continent's diversity and the countless opportunities it presents.

In her story, Chimamanda describes some of the events and people that shaped her experience in the USA. For instance, when she leaves Nigeria for the US, her people know that in a few months, she will have acquired a house and a big car because people in the west have big cars, big houses and guns (Adichie 115). In my analysis, this is specifically because western literature had, at least at the time in which her story is set, made people in Africa believe that the wet was economically and socio-culturally superior and that they lead flamboyant lives, the kinds that people in Africa only dreamed of. Quite the contrary, she arrives in America and her first days are characterized by living in small rented rooms and that she cannot afford to pay her college fee, let alone buy the car and big house.

In the US, she is discriminated against as employers like Juan are willing to pay her but at a rate less than the average. At a restaurant, a Chinese-American makes a remark that strongly suggests that a white man is not expected to have a black girlfriend. People ask her if Africans have or live in real houses like other people, which makes her mad. In her TED Talk, Chimamanda further explains that Africa is grossly misunderstood, especially because up to this day, some people still refer to Africa as a country rather than a fully diverse continent (Adichie 8). In her short story, the author reveals how tough it is trying to find a cultural fit in the west as an African by describing how deeply she misses Nigeria.

Jhumpa Lahiri: Exploring Cultural Contrasts and Belonging

In the short story Hell-Heaven, Lahiri describes a cultural contrast between her native Bengali culture and the American culture, and how difficult it is for a Bengali immigrant to find a cultural fit in the US. She addresses the topic from a different viewpoint. While Chimamanda feels like her culture is highly undermined and that it lacks an authentic cultural voice to tell its story to the world, Lahiri feels that her culture is rather too rigid and oppressive, and that it should embrace open-mindedness as the American culture has. Lahiri tells the story of Pranab Chakraborty, her fellow-Bengali from Calcutta, and his relationship and eventual marriage with Deborah, his American girlfriend. The cultural contrast that makes belonging such a challenge is explained by the difficulties that Pranab encounters trying to introduce his girlfriend to other Bengali immigrants, and by his parents denial of his marriage to a foreigner. Even the narrator's mother is pessimistic and says of the relationship, "In a few weeks, the fun will be over and she'll leave him." (Lahiri 68).

In Hell-Heaven, Lahiri uses the story of Pranab to show the contrasts. First, the Bengali people support arranged marriages, which, according to the speaker aren't for love but for obligation. Secondly, the Bengali people are so conservative and regard care-free dressing as indecent and unacceptable (Marquez 38). They consider the western culture an enemy to their own and see people like Deborah as destructive, assumptions that are annihilated by the reality that when Pranab and Deborah eventually get divorced, it is because the former engaged in promiscuity with a married Bengali woman. Describing Deborah, Lahiri says, "She was the enemy, he was her prey, and their example was invoked as a warning, and as vindication, that mixed marriages were a doomed enterprise." (75). It therefore begs the question: is it a matter of culture of personal behavior. Through her mother's resentment of the American culture, the narrator finally demonstrates that the cultural differences are unfounded and that in the end, all people should learn to embrace each other across the cultural fabric and to see differences at a personal rather than q2cultural viewpoint.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the two immigrant authors, Chimamanda Ngozi and Lahiri, use different lens and angles to explain to the readers the reasons why arrival and belonging are tough transitionary phases in the lives of the immigrants. The Nigerian author explains that for people to smoothly arrive and belong, there is a need for the world of literature to tell both sides of the story. While the western authors tell their view of Africa, it is important for the African version to be heard as well. Also, it would be important for the Africans to also comprehend the negative sides of the western world rather than creating a situation where Africa is only associated with adversities while the west is highly decorated with positives. Lahiri also communicates strong themes around the need to create cultural conversations that will break the walls that have held humanity hostage; conversations that will break unnecessary limiting factors such as the outdated arranged marriages that bar some otherwise vibrant social relationships such as the one she envisioned for her mother and Pranab, rather than the arranged union between her parents, who live in different worlds.

Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. The thing around your neck. Golden Books, 2010.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. "The danger of a single story". Oct 7, 2009, YouTube. Uploaded by TED, Oct 7, 2009 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg&t=870s

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Hell-heaven. Knopf Canada, 2015.

Marquez, Blasina Cantizano and Ibanez, Jose R. Ibanez. "Mixed Marriages Are a Doomed Enterprise: A Taxonomical Approach to Family Units in Jhumpa Lahiri's Short Fiction." 2010.