7/26/07

The main similarity I see in the two passages is that both girls don’t want to conform to what others want them to be. They are trying not to steer away from their culture and looks. It seems like in other texts we’ve read as a class, the author or main character wanted desperately to conform to society and blend in. For example, in “When I Was Growing Up” directly contrasted with “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian.” In the first short story, the author, Nellie Wong, keeps telling the reader she wants to white badly. Wong thinks it would make her life easy and she would be treated equally as a white. In the latter passage, the author, Sui Sin Far, isn’t really in a hurry to get away from her roots, she just accepts them. She gives detailed examples of when she is disrespected, ridiculed, and picked on because of her Chinease connection. However, although she sees and feels all this hate against her, she still stays strong. I think what conflicts her most is that she seems torn between having an English father and a Chinease American. She doesn’t exactly know how to balance each side out. But, she’s never ashamed or ready to get rid of either side, but she’s neutral. The last couple of lines says it all, “After all, I have no nationality and am not anxious to claim any. Individuality is more than nationality” (pg.533).

In terms of differences, “The Schooldays of an Indian Girl” author is defiant on her roots and wants to keep them at all costs. Unlike Far, she doesn’t take the fence about where she comes from and resists when the paleface woman tries to cut her hair. It’s a big deal to her, because her hair is part of her nationality and “shingled hair was for cowards” (Barney 515).