Once an immigrant’s arduous journey to arrive in America is accomplished, the new issue that arises is how well that immigrant adjusts to a totally new environment. Either the immigrant retains his or her identity and religion as Gitl did or entirely leaves behind his or her old life to adapt to a new way of living like Jack did in Hester Street. America may be a place abounding with opportunities and spectacular sights for many. However, not every immigrant that comes here will experience the glorious life he or she originally imagined. Economic hardships and racist attitudes are inevitable for these newly arrived immigrants. These immigrants must cope with the difficult times they confront and work hard to achieve what we call the “American Dream.” The films The Brother from Another Planet and The West Side Story (1961) are quintessential examples of an immigrant’s struggle to adjust to the new lifestyle in America.
What I found very interesting was how the bounty hunters in the movie The Brother from Another Planet were white, whereas the Brother was African American. We already witness the racial tensions between the two cultural groups here. I mean why did the director choose to make the bounty hunters in pursuit of the “black” brother white? Why couldn’t the director have made the bounty hunters Hispanic or African American, as well? The fact that the bounty hunters were white and the Brother (alien) was black is a good example of how the blacks and whites perceived one another. In addition, in the movie there was this specific scene in which the Brother and a cop were sitting on the porch. When the cop was trying to commence a conversation with the Brother, the Brother seemed like he was uninterested in what the “white” cop had to say. I understand that the Brother lacked the ability to speak, but he could have at least made a gesture to the cop indicating so. Instead of even trying to make an effort to communicate with the cop, the Brother simply walks away from him.
Moreover, I did not understand the significance of why the Brother took out his eye and placed it into the soil of the plant after he walked away from the cop. Essentially, the moment where the cop attempts to speak to the Brother illustrates to us the difficulty the Brother had talking with someone who was white. It’s like he wasn’t comfortable speaking to him and this indicates the racial tensions between the Africans and Americans. I may be digressing, but how amusing was it when the two bounty hunters meowed like cats? I almost fell to the floor laughing. Two strong men screaming like cats definitely emasculates them. I also observed how the Brother was comfortable to associate with his own kind, especially with that singer he admired and the people situated in the bar. Overall, this movie revealed to me how the Brother was able to assimilate with his own group rather easily, instead of the whites and the racial overtones between the African Americans and Whites.
The film The West Side Story (1961) demonstrated the obvious hatred the Jets (Whites) and Sharks (Puerto Ricans) had for one another. Alberto Sanchez’s commentary on the movie The West Side Story further exemplifies this manifest abhorrence the “PRs” and Whites possessed for each other. For example, Sanchez explains how the image of the shark drawn on the wall in the beginning of the film “emphasizes the criminal and barbaric potential of all Puerto Ricans.” From here we can see the Jets contempt for the Sharks because one of the Jets says “The Sharks bite hard and…we must stop them now.” In simplest terms, the Jets are referring to the Sharks (PR’s) as uncivilized like barbarians are. Furthermore, the acrimony between the two groups is witnessed when they keep throwing pejoratives at one another. For instance, the Jets call the Puerto Ricans “Spics,” a derisive and contemptuous term for Spanish-speaking people from Central America and the Caribbean. Also, the intense will each group has to overpower the other show the opposing group “who’s boss” exposes to us the racist attitudes between the groups.
While we can observe that Maria has finally fully assimilated into the American culture, Anita undergoes a drastic change and decides to stick to her culture. Initially, Anita felt that America was wonderful and that she considers herself to be American. However, the specific scene at the Soda/Candy shop with Anita and the Jets causes Anita to have an epiphany. For example, in this particular scene Anita tried to help the Jets and was simply fulfilling a request made to her by Maria. In return, Anita was greatly disrespected and derided by the Jets. The Jets toyed around with her and insulted her by saying “Por favor.” The Jets barely gave Anita a chance to speak and they just misbehaved with her and made her cry. This scene showed the Jets aversion to the Puerto Ricans. But this scene was also an important one in the film because Anita finally realized she wasn’t like “these” Americans and that Benardo was right about them. In fact, she even said if one of the Jets was lying on the ground in pain, she would literally walk by them and spit on them. Hence, Anita knew she was a Puerto Rican and not an American.
In my opinion, both of these films showed the rough experiences immigrants had to suffer while they remained in America and the troubles of assimilating into a new cultural background. While some immigrants were able to achieve that American dream, the others lacked the chance to improve the quality of their lives. The predominantly racial attitudes many Americans had toward the immigrants just made the lives of immigrants even harder. Going back to the reading of “Slaves, Monsters, and Others,” we can see some harsh racism when the African Americans were being compared to creatures, like the Gremlins. Unfortunately, even today racism of some form still exists in certain areas today and some individuals are so entrenched in their racist attitudes it’s impossible to remove them from it. America may emblematize opportunity and glamor, but for some people it serves as a symbol of economic hardships and suffering racial remarks.
