Survival in Diaspora
Anonymous
Honors English
December 16, 2013
Assimilation and culture do not only shape one’s identity, they alter their mindset and constitute mental illness amongst the dispersed. Culture is the main reason one may want to assimilate and those who choose to, have felt a sense of loss and longing for acceptance. In order to assimilate and find some sort of mental belonging the “1.5 generation”, forced themselves to forget their culture and lose themselves and with this “conscious choice of amnesia” brought an onset of “fragmented self” or “displacement”.
The process of assimilation is because of culture, and since culture plays a huge role in identity, assimilation is what shapes your identity and molds your culture.
In Yauling Hsieh’s ‘From Obsession to Amnesia: Survival in Diaspora’, the professor states that “The fragmentation of one’s personal identity is a serious issue suffered by all four Garcia girls. Their immigration has transformed them into multiple beings, torn between their Dominican and American identities”. What Hsieh is trying to say is when you gain an “obsessive eagerness to fit in and conform to social expectations” you begin to become a sort of “split-self”, developing a second identity which leads to acquiring “some psychological disorders”. Immigrants who find themselves yearning for acceptance and dealing with a “Dual heritage” often struggle amidst two identities; or “Split-selves”. They want to belong to both their native land and their American homeland, which leads them to constantly search for their identity until their breaking point.
Most immigrants who disperse and assimilate choose to forget their past along with their identities, in order to start a new life and mold a new identity. In the event that one goes through where they set aside their past and chooses to move forward, presents an attempt to undergo a “conscious choice of amnesia”. They are choosing to let go of themselves in order to fit in and again
Honors English
December 16, 2013
Assimilation and culture do not only shape one’s identity, they alter their mindset and constitute mental illness amongst the dispersed. Culture is the main reason one may want to assimilate and those who choose to, have felt a sense of loss and longing for acceptance. In order to assimilate and find some sort of mental belonging the “1.5 generation”, forced themselves to forget their culture and lose themselves and with this “conscious choice of amnesia” brought an onset of “fragmented self” or “displacement”.
The process of assimilation is because of culture, and since culture plays a huge role in identity, assimilation is what shapes your identity and molds your culture.
In Yauling Hsieh’s ‘From Obsession to Amnesia: Survival in Diaspora’, the professor states that “The fragmentation of one’s personal identity is a serious issue suffered by all four Garcia girls. Their immigration has transformed them into multiple beings, torn between their Dominican and American identities”. What Hsieh is trying to say is when you gain an “obsessive eagerness to fit in and conform to social expectations” you begin to become a sort of “split-self”, developing a second identity which leads to acquiring “some psychological disorders”. Immigrants who find themselves yearning for acceptance and dealing with a “Dual heritage” often struggle amidst two identities; or “Split-selves”. They want to belong to both their native land and their American homeland, which leads them to constantly search for their identity until their breaking point.
Most immigrants who disperse and assimilate choose to forget their past along with their identities, in order to start a new life and mold a new identity. In the event that one goes through where they set aside their past and chooses to move forward, presents an attempt to undergo a “conscious choice of amnesia”. They are choosing to let go of themselves in order to fit in and again