American Identity in Literature Essay Example

American identity is when multicultural individuals who act with similar values, ideas, beliefs, and personal freedom to Americans rather than being defined by race, ethnic identity, and religion. This theme is shown in two different literary pieces. These two pieces are “Mericans” by Sandra Cisneros and “In Response to Executive Order 9066: All Americans of Japanese Descent Must Report to Relocation Centers” by Dwight Okita. In both Okita’s poem and Cisneros’s story a common theme of American identity is shown through the narrator’s own personal heritage, observations, and experiences not the appearance or the country's cultural heritage.

The first work I’m going to discuss is “Mericans” by Sandra Cisneros. This work is a story about children who are waiting for their grandmother outside of church while observing the people around them. The story mainly focuses on a little girl who is longing to do normal kid activities but is stopped by her grandmothers rule so she instead observes and compares the people around her to her own family as well as different cultures. Doing this she observes the theme of American identity by showing how different the cultures are between her own family and other around. The theme shows no matter how different the cultures are and very traditional families want to keep them away there is still an American influence in other countries and is shown by this quote, "We cannot run off and have our picture taken on the wooden ponies. We must not climb the steps up the hill behind the church and chase each other through the cemetery. We have promised to stay right where the awful grandmother left us until she returns." This is similar to many other stories showing how people from all over the world observe American identity and try to keep it away, but others embrace it.

The next work is a poem called “In Response to Executive Order 9066: All Americans of Japanese Descent Must Report to Relocation Centers” by Dwight Okita. In this story a Japanese girl is being "relocated" and is talking about some American cultures she experienced as well as talking about a friend she met. Near the end of the poem she starts to talk about how her friend started to change and be harsher to her because of her appearance and culture. This relates to the theme of American identity because it shows how even though the Japanese girl acted American and experienced American culture her appearance and culture background changed people’s perspective of her and her family. This is shown by this quote, "I am a fourteen-year-old girl with bad spelling and a messy room. If it helps any, I will tell you; I have always felt funny using chopsticks; and my favorite food is hot dogs.", it shows how even though she looks Japanese she acts with more of an American culture than a Japanese one. The theme of American Identity is very prominent here showing how it is more of your experiences and personal habits that make you American and not your appearance of background.

These two stories both show a common theme of American identity in some way. The different ways they show it is that in "Mericans" it shows what the little girl is observing around her as well as talking about her family which shows a difference in the cultures.  In the other story executive order, it shows the little girls firsthand experience and her own American identity and how others around her don’t know what it is and judge people only on appearance and assumptions on their culture. Along with the difference in how American identity is shown in the works there are also similarities like how in both works the narration is from a perspective of a little girl. This is shown by these two quotes, "I am a fourteen-year-old girl with bad spelling," Executive order and "“Girl. We can’t play with a girl.” Girl. It’s my brothers’ favorite insult now,” “Mericans". That’s not the only similarity both works also show a negative relationship with someone close to the narrator. The similarities and differences all contribute to the overall theme of American identities in these works.

In conclusion, both stories show what American identity is and how it is shown in literature. As well as showing some Similarities and differences in how they show it. This can be shown through a point of view or a relationship between characters. However, the main examples of American identity that were shown in the stories were about the heritage and appearances of others, and how they relate to different cultures as well as Americans.