Author: Jeffrey Delfin

Gene Luen Yang’s The Shadow Hero, illustrated by Sonny Liew, fluctuates heavily between epitomizing and surpassing preconceived stereotypes about Asian-Americans. Throughout the beginning of the comic, the Chus are painted as the normal, archetypal Chinese family; they own their own convenience store and the marriage between Hua Chu and Hank’s father is one that is arranged and, for the most part, loveless. Furthermore, Detective Lawful’s characterization of the Chinese as “sneaky, slant-eyed bastards” (118) only goes to reinforce how other races define Asian-American archetypes. Additionally, the criminal Ten Grand emphasizes the notion of the submissive nature of Asian-American women when he refuses to select one of his daughters to become the next heir to his empire, instead choosing to select one through means of combat.

However, Yang pushes to move past such labels in his depiction of protagonist Hank Chu and his mother. Initially, Hank is seen as only following in the footsteps of his father, which is to run the family business in a monotonous future. This future changes when Hua Chu is saved from death by the hands of the Anchor of Justice (a Caucasian superhero) and consequentially becomes obsessed with training Hank to become a hero modeled after her savior. Hua Chu’s personality becomes more aggressive, but in a way that motivates her son to do the right thing and fight for the wellbeing of the greater good. She raises Hank to another level of heroism, something that is not seen in typical Western culture. Hank is defiant, strong (both physically and mentally), and is able to fend for himself and for those who cannot protect themselves. In this way, Hank moves past the standards placed upon him by Western culture and evolves into a champion of the Chinese spirit. During the convergence between the dragon and turtle spirits, Hank allows himself to become the leader that his community needs and is willing to fight against crime in a way that isn’t secondary to a main hero. He isn’t a sidekick; Hank stands front in center of the battle against criminals and asserts himself as a force to be reckoned with.

The Shadow Hero serves primarily as a reminder of how Asian-Americans are traditionally seen by society but also strives to redefine what being Asian-American means. Yang understands that some stereotypes are rooted in some form of truth, but allows audiences to see examples of Asian-Americans outside of these boxes. Hank Chu is a physical manifestation of what Asian-Americans, and in fact, what some Asian-Americans are. Hank’s resilience in training and fighting crime supports the stereotype of Asian-Americans of being hardworking, but also transforms that label to not just include intelligence or academics, but athleticism and morale as well. Hua Chu’s hot headedness is derived from the “nagging and overbearing” stereotype of the Asian-American mother, but is evolved to include the emotional capacity and range that she has for her son’s success and safety. It is in these extensions that Yang chooses to recreate certain stereotypes into something that Asian-Americans can be proud to identify with.

 

At the turn of the 21^st century, New York City experienced a plethora of major overhauls in all aspects of its existence, ranging from immigration, economy, politics, and terrorism. These spheres of urban life determined how the city would rebound from crisis, face an ever-changing demographic of inhabitants, and retain its reputation as the “city on a hill.”

With the massive influx of immigrants from all across the globe, New York became a mecca of wide-eyed foreigners desperate to make a better life for themselves and their families. For second-generation immigrants being raised in this new metropolis, the diversity of ethnicities enabled a sense of multiculturalism never before seen in immigrant populations. Due to the wide variety of countries and peoples represented in New York City, ethnic boundaries were replaced instead with cross-cultural relationships that resulted in countless fusions of different cultures, such as Indo-Caribbean music (207).

Each cultural group had their own unique experience with assimilating into so-called “American” culture. Russian immigrants flocked to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 (207). In order to survive in their new environment, Russian immigrants had to adapt quickly to American ways of life, such as speaking English and entering into entrepreneurial ventures. As a result, Russian identities with Judaism became strained over whether or not they wanted to retain their religious values or shift into a more American lifestyle.

For the Chinese, the road to success in America was on the other side of the spectrum. Spurring from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, discrimination against Chinese immigrants remained a key roadblock in Chinese success in New York City as immigration quotas remained intact until 1965 (208). Even then, Chinese immigrants were herded into downtown Manhattan (known as “Chinatown”) and give jobs only as sweatshop workers. Furthermore, the stratification between Chinese immigrants grew as the division between Mandarin (“uptown Chinese”) and Cantonese (“downtown Chinese”) solidified socio-economic status within the group. Additionally, the appearance of the “model minority” myth worked to both promote Asian success through its notion of Asian immigrants as hard-working and diligent and increase pressure on latter generations of immigrants who felt inadequate to meet up to those standards.

Latinos, on the other hand, faced the issue of cultural identity in that their assimilation to American culture was muddied by their ethnic allegiance to their home countries. In particular for Puerto Ricans, the notion of the “in-between” meant that they could not fit neatly into a category of “being American” or “being Puerto-Rican” (210). Latinos also faced tensions within different nationalities as exemplified by the clash between Puerto-Ricans and Dominicans in domain over the Inwood-Washington Heights area and who laid claim over the area. Moreover, there was a gap in assimilation between Dominican men and women as more women favored American life over their life back in the Dominican Republic because of the social networks they established with each other in their work.

Lastly, for West Indian immigrants, assimilation in New York was focused more on cross-cultural relationships than any other ethnic group. This diversity is due to their “struggle to negotiate both race and ethnicity in New York” (212). The fact that American culture had classified all West Indians as “black” meant that West Indians had to learn what the idea of “race” meant in a Western context. This became most apparent during the Harlem Renaissance where the British-influenced culture of West Indian immigrants clashed with the identity of African Americans. The relationship between the two groups is complex, sometimes clashing with each other because of both parties desire to distinguish themselves from the other while at the same time agreeing on terms of racial injustice faced at the hands of police brutality.

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Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s primary goal in serving the city was to focus on elevating the middle class (221). Inspired by his conservative background, he emphasized an individual’s responsibility of being successful and promoted the notion of “private enterprise.” He vehemently opposed New York’s welfare and Medicaid plans because he believed they only enabled the idleness of the unemployed rather than forcing them to work for their survival. His action of reducing welfare funds and cutting back on welfare recipients received mixed reviews, with some people praising Giuliani for doing what his predecessors couldn’t while others condemned him for only worsening the poverty problem.

Giuliani’s policies favored private corporations by allowing them large tax breaks while simultaneously negatively impacting predominantly minority-populated organizations, such as the Human Resources Administration (222). He also focused on reforming the city’s education system, by leaving school security to the police department and privatizing school officials such as superintendents and principals. By doing so, Giuliani hoped to achieved a uniform and standardized education system, but instead received backlash from teachers’ unions over unfair policies. Furthermore, Giuliani also hired City College alum Herman Badillo to change the CUNY system by dismantling its open-admission policy, something that was criticized for being discriminatory towards low-income minorities (223). Additionally, Giuliani also attempted to increase censorship on art by removing and even proposing to shut downs museums that exhibited “offensive art,” something many citizens retaliated successfully against (224).

In short, Giuliani was driven to change the social contract of New York City and implement his conservative ideologies on the city in ways that many found restrictive and even abusive. However, his reputation and legacy were propelled by the tragic events of 9/11 and his sympathetic response to rebuilding the city its rock bottom maintained him a spot as one of the most successful mayors in New York City’s history.

The protagonist Emma Lou in The Blacker The Berry is a character diluted by the same vices and same inconsistencies as the character of Irene in Passing. Emma Lou is impressionable, vulnerable, and incredibly self-conscious, both physically and emotionally. Starting from the inception of the novel, Emma Lou is characterized by the phenotypical connotations associated with her skin color, “..Emma Lou began to feel that her luscious black complexion was somewhat of a liability, and that her marked color variation from the other people in her environment was a decided curse” (1). The demographic breakdown in Boise is primarily white, and the social climate there is indicative of that, “But why did the people in the audience have to stare so? Didn’t they all know that Emma Lou Morgan was Boise high school’s only nigger student?” (12).

Furthermore, Emma Lou is incredibly biased in how she sees the world because she enforces the racial standards that she is forced to abide by in how she analyzes someone’s character. For the entirety of her life, Emma Lou follows the maxim that “lighter is better” and that the opportunities that lighter-skinned black women receive are exponentially higher than darker-skinned alternatives. From her mother claiming that even dark-skinned boys experience better lives than dark-skinned girls to the debate at the rend party between mulattos and Negros to even Braxton’s affirmation that “the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice,” the social context that surrounds Emma’s life demands that dark is a curse and light is a blessing. This is exemplified in Emma Lou’s interaction with Hazel when she first arrives at USC. Emma Lou is immediately critical of Hazel; the vernacular and informal gestures that Hazel uses makes Emma Lou view her as a lower class black, “And Emma Lou had climbed aboard, perplexed, chagrined, thoroughly angry, and disgusted…All Hazel needed to complete her circus-like appearance…was to have some purple feathers stuck in her hat” (39). The critical nature in Emma Lou’s impression of Hazel amplifies the subjectivity in her perspective of the story. Although later on her impression is validated by the rest of the sorority girls on campus, Emma Lou remains flawed in how she perceives others, once again due to her heavy reliance on judgement based on color.

In addition, Thurman provides an entire chapter solely on Alva because of his treatment of Emma Lou that differs from the rest of her interactions. Alva’s introduction to the novel begins with his invitation of Emma Lou to dance at the cabaret. In Emma Lou’s eyes, Alva is the suitor that she has been looking for: compatible, charming, and light-skinned due to his mixed descent (half-mulatto, half-Filipino). However, when discussing his encounter with Emma Lou with Braxton, Alva is insistent that he was only doing her a favor and is only using her for sex. However, this evaluation is later changed when Alva is left by Geraldine and even Emma Lou rebukes him as a suitor. In the end, the ironic twist of Alva as a player versus Alva as a father shows the fact that gender does not outweigh the darkness of one’s skin.

Racial identity is a concept that is heavily clouded in ambiguity, subjectivity, and controversy. How an individual chooses to identify within a racial group versus what racial category society places upon him or her can either vary drastically between each other or match exactly. Regardless of the result, determining race is neither an exact science nor a definitive choice. In Nella Larsen’s Passing, the idea of “passing”, both in the literal and figurative sense of the word, highlights the fluidity and complexity of racial classification. The protagonists Irene Redfield and Claire Kendry continually struggle with the disparity between their physical appearance and their mixed racial heritage.

In terms of the figurative meaning of the term, “passing” refers to the notion of physically being able to classify as a certain race though on the contrary socially. This idea of “passing” as a certain race carries a multitude of socio-economic advantages and disadvantages that affect how an individual perceived by society and reflect various social interactions with different racial groups. In the case of Clare, she is initially able to pass as white, allowing her to avoid racial discrimination upon black people and acquire an elitist social status in Europe. Clare’s ability to be identified as white affords her a higher class ranking amongst the darker-skinned Harlemites in New York; she is indirectly assimilated into white culture through her marriage to her white husband, Jack. That being said, Larsen makes it known that although one may pass as another race, that does not ostracize them from the culture and heritage of their predominant race(s). This is seen in Clare’ insistence in participating in the Negro Welfare League’s dance, even at the dismay of Irene. Even through her acceptance as a white woman by the white community, Clare still feels the need to connect with her black roots and embrace the culture and community that she strongly identifies with. Her resistance against total assimilation into white culture further displays the ongoing battle of balancing multiple racial identities. Larsen shows that a mixed heritage complicates how a mixed individual perceives and interacts with the cultures that embody his or herself. Both Clare and Irene both struggle with bridging the gap between the two identities and it is further strained by Jack’s realization of their true racial origins and his retaliation at Clare’s deception.

On the other hand, Larsen also analyzes the literal means of “passing” and how each woman seems to only be “passing on” in their lives. Clare is painted as a transient character because she is forced to conform behind this second identity that she has inadvertently created for herself. She is not able to fully commit to either black or white and she is unsuccessful in finding a happy medium between the two categories, so in these ways Clare is only passing by in her life and her relationships with others. In Part I of the novel, Clare is painted as a rather passive character, choosing to hide her black identity from her husband in order to salvage both her marriage and the future of her daughter where as in Part II Clare is more upfront about what she wants in her life and how she chooses to interact with other social groups. Furthermore, the idea of passing also applies to Irene’s character development within the novel as she counter Clare’s racial indecisiveness by choosing to embrace her black heritage; even choosing to remove herself from Clare because of how Clare hides her actual race. Irene passes Clare in how she sees herself in the world, as Irene is confident in her identity as a black woman and distances herself from Clare because of the danger in Clare’s passing for a white woman.

In both the literal and figurative sense of the term, passing brings to mind the question of how fluid can race be and whether or not race is more heavily rooted in biology or in sociology. Especially in a modern-day era of liberalism, self-identification and surpassing typical norms is becoming ever more present within this current generation (racially, sexually, religiously, etc.). Racial passing is something that most if not all racially mixed individuals encounter on a day-to-day basis and Larsen strives to point out that what may appear on the surface may not reflect what is really happening internally.

Throughout this semester, journaling has been one of, if not, the most effective method of retaining and analyzing the information provided to me when reading the text in this course. When I write down what is being said in the novels and summarize the major key concepts and plot points within the story, I am able to understand more of what the author is trying to convey and synthesize the thematic components of the literature effectively. Moreover, the summary-style of journalling also furthers my interpretation of the text.

One of the most memorable journal entries I’ve written this past semester is my entry about Breadgivers by Anzia Yezierska because of the thematic concepts that I found in the novel and how I applied that to both the characters in the plot as well as how I interpreted them in the context of my own life. I particularly enjoyed analyzing what the meaning of the American Dream meant for all the characters as well as how that reflected in how I view that same dream in my life. Breadgivers is a novel that is both empathetic and relatable; the themes of sacrificing traditions and standards in order to achieve success in the real world is something that I connected to heavily because I find myself going through the same struggle all throughout my time in college and journaling about that relationship allowed me to express my thoughts on the subject as well as further analyze the ideal of the American Dream in an alternative way.

On a more general note, journaling is something that I enjoy doing, both academically as well as personally. However, I have a newfound respect for academic journaling because it not only focuses on recalling information from a novel or piece of literature, but it also incorporates the personal analysis and stream-of-consciousness style of personal journaling. In that way, writing journal entries about these novels has helped me develop my own literary analytical skills and go further in depth about what the text signifies and what message the author is trying to convey through various rhetorical strategies.

When comparing journaling and note-taking, I prefer the former because of the artistic liberty that comes both reading and writing journals. While there is some fluidity in the note-taking process in terms of connecting ideas, journaling’s free-range capabilities allow for a wider range of interpretation, which fosters discussion about more unorthodox ideas that come from each journalist. Additionally, note-taking focused more on transplanting information directly from the novel to a notebook, so a lot of the literary analysis that comes from discussion and reflection is either lost or stunned in the process of jotting down notes.

All in all, the process of journaling has been very enjoyable through this past semester and has helped me develop myself as both a writer and reader. It has sharpened my analytic skills as well as paraphrasing the text that I read into language that is coherent for me.

 

In Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, the vivid illustrations within the graphic novel color the journey of a young immigrant who leaves his family behind in order to venture out and make a living in the great unknown. Throughout his stay in the foreign world, the man encounters various figures in learning how to adapt to his new surroundings; in particular, an elderly man who shares the protagonist’s job in the factory. The old man’s tale of his war-ridden voyage back home, only to find it in complete destruction, creates a powerfully saddening yet nostalgic undertone at that point in the novel. However, the image that follows that anecdote, and the one that rang most potent to me, was the image of the protagonist and the elderly man surrounded in a field of white, bird-like creatures, illuminated by vibrant sunlight.

This image struck to me for several reasons. First, the image marks as a significant turning point in the novel because of the shift in color scheme. In the previous parts, the novel is colored in primarily gray, black, and white; portraying the dark fears of the protagonist in a different world as well as the ominous stories of emigration from the other people he encounters in his travels. The use of bright yellow and brown tones provides a period of relief from the dark and vaguely depressing nature of the protagonist’s experiences in the new country, and for once substantiates a sense of hope for the rest of the plot. In drawing this image, Tan shows that not all hope is lost during the immigration process, and acts as a reminder to both the reader as well as the protagonist about why people emigrate in the first place. There is something beautiful to be found even in the darkest of places and this image encapsulates the essence of that message.

Not only does this image symbolizes the light at the end of the tunnel, but it also serves as a transition from the uncertain aspects of immigration and recreating oneself to the tangible memories and achievements of the immigrant mentality of working to sustain oneself as well others. While coming off as a bit fantastical in nature, the image of bright lights and leisurely moments act to ground the plot in the subtext of what is going around the protagonist. In this scene, the protagonist and his elderly coworkers enjoy some free time and play simple games; the simplicity of the scene is juxtaposed with the harsher realities of immigrant work and adjusting to life in an alien area. Tan introduces another component of the multi-faceted system of city life by both physically and culturally distinguishing between the urban grind and lax suburbia. The image is vastly open, with the two figures seen miniscule in size to the natural environment around them. The perception of depth in the image shows that the subjects are in the background, but the focal point in the foreground and the flying creatures that inhabit the field. Tan also uses the rule of thirds by drawing the huge sun diagram in the right third of the image, thus drawing more attention to it due to its location as well as its visual enormity.

This image encompasses all the traits of what the “Immigrant Dream” is: to create a world where life is better for oneself and their loved ones and where success and stability are within reach through hard work. There is a sense of glory that permeates throughout the image of the figures in the sun and the field and that feeling is something that so many immigrants strive to establish when making the jump from homeland to land of opportunity.

The scene between Michael Corleone and Frank Pentangeli after the initial assassination attempt on Michael’s life uses wide-angle shots as well as slow shot-reverse shot technique to exemplify the gravity of the situation between Michael and Frank. Director Francis Ford Coppola intentionally has the primary shots set up at a far angle to encompass the setting at which the conversation is taking place in. The fact that Frank’s house used to be Michael’s father’s old house adds emphasis on the family aspect of the Italian crime business as well as how betrayed Michael feels when someone in his family tried to have him killed. Additionally, the landscape set-up of the shots literally give Michael space to add emphasis to the moments in which he yells that someone tried to kill him and his family. In this case, the delivery of the line acts to fill the entire room since the scene is shot at such a wide angle.

 

Moreover, when Michael is first introduced in the scene, he is in the far left corner of the shot while Frank enters the room from the far right corner, thus using the classic rule of thirds methods to draw equal parts attention to the actors on the screen, in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to the audience. This separation in distance also adds to the foreshadowing of what’s to come as Coppola is now building Michael to not just be a passive crime leader but one who is hell-bent on exacting revenge on those who tried to hurt his family. Michael starts in the shadows, by the curtains of the window, almost as if he was lurking in the shadows the whole time which adds an element of lethality to him.

 

One other important thing to note in the scene is the where the light sources are located in the room. For the entirety of the scene, the actors are dimly lit, mostly covered in shadows. This once again draws attention to the ominous nature of what the two men are involved in and exemplifies that feeling of death that comes with them. The light comes above the characters’ head, which casts the actors in an uneven shade of light and dark. The use of chiaroscuro in this scene helps the audience understand just how serious the matters being discussed are. This concept of light and dark also recurs in the film constantly, as scenes with death and murder are shot in almost pitch black conditions while light is only used to draw emphasis to characters’ faces or settings of celebration.

Italian immigration started off in smaller numbers in the late nineteenth century and into the turn of the twentieth. Although young women initiated the first wave of emigration to the United States, it was the young men and bachelors coming to America to provide a better financial status for their families back home, and eventually transplanting their entire families over to the States. By 1920, over 800,000 Italian Americans lived in New York City, placing second to the Jews in population size (136). Italian Americans were widespread throughout the communities of lower Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, and even Queens, with their settlement patterns influenced by the proximity of their homes to the locations of their jobs (137). The neighborhoods were primarily broken down into subsections of Italian communities, based on the part of Italy that they had originated from. As a result of their large urban populations, crime and poverty grew rampant in the impoverished districts of the city, with the Sicilian mafia and the “Black Hand” crime mob dominating business through ransom threats.

Due to their huge influx, Italian immigrants also occupied a variety of jobs, including but not limited to: sanitation, police, barbers, shoeshiners, masons, etc. The Italians were known for being diligent in their work, willing to accept lower wages, and spread commission between all workers (140-141). In terms of gender, Italian women very rarely immigrated to the United States by themselves, instead crossing over with their husbands and families, performing mainly domestic tasks such as caretaking, housekeeping, and maintaining the household. That being said, as the New York economy expanded, more and more Italian women chose to venture into the garment industry, often working as seamstresses and factory workers, although mostly in sweatshop conditions (141). Second-generation immigrants had better luck with their job prospects, as the end of World War I and their proficiency in English allowed for broader access to higher education and white-collar jobs (142). Due to their involvement in the American job industry, there was also an increase in unionizing between Italian immigrants as a means of preserving workers’ rights, as seen with the collective strike of 1909 against the garment industry (143). In addition, there was a formation of an Italian middle-class at the end of WWI as more and more immigrants became bankers, real estate promoters, and newspaper editors.

From the political side of things, Italians were mostly ostracized from the political background of New York. Since Irish-Americans dominated political offices, Italians were largely ignored by Tammany Hall due to their lack of interest in political affairs and their general interest in returning to Italy. For most Italian immigrants, moving to America only served as a means to an end: earning money to provide for families back in Europe. The major exception was Fiorello La Gaurdia, who earned a seat in the House of Representatives by a narrow margin (144). Italian immigrants felt both Republicans and Democrats did not meet their needs to combat poverty and the working class, thus moving towards the Socialist party as an alternative. Different social organizations sprouted to accommodate the needs of Italian communities, such as programs to help immigrants adjust to the newfound life of American as well as mutual aid societies that provide death benefits and health insurance (145).

Similar to Irish immigrants, religion was a major component of Italian-immigrant life, with a small community of Italian priests serving as spiritual aides to the impoverished population. However, because of the predominantly Irish-run church system, there was an established tension between Irish and Italian priests over discrepancies in worship. For example, Italian beliefs in the “evil eye” and magic were considered “paganistic” by Irish priests and were consequentially looked down upon (146). Moreover, Italian Catholics noted American Catholicism as a minority religion that was in constant competition with larger, more developed religious groups. The apparent difference in both religious practice and fervor instantiated a movement to include more Italian churches, Catholic schools, and nunneries within New York, though less successful with the latter two (147).

Nevertheless, the Italian immigrant community in New York City remained fairly secure within the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries, as a respect to the ethnic connections that tied their roots together (148).