Extra Credit

In ''Two Ways to Belong in America'' by Bharati Mukherjee compares and contrasts the two different ways you can belong in America, and how immigrants have different experiences in a new environment. I personally liked this essay and how she showed the two differing experiences her and her sister had. She starts off her essay describing her and her sister's similarities and all the things they had in common but introduces a turning point by how they changed since in America stating ''In one family, from two sisters alike as peas in a pod, there would not be a wider divergence of immigrant experience. She retained them all. Which of us is the freak?'' (274). I generally liked the idea of introducing herself as a ''freak'' because it shows how each perspective could be viewed at so differently. She also doesn't just state that she's right and that her sister is a freak, but instead she shows her own confusion, of who could be right. She focuses on the black and white of new immigrants in America, but merely touches upon the grey area in between. I think it would've been a stronger essay if she explained how neither of them are correct, but that there is an in between where some people adapt yet stay rooted. You don't have to stay 100% dedicated to either your own culture or American traditions but you can learn to balance both. It would be great to still have a sense of your own cultures, but also adapt to American customs since it is your new home as well.

Shelia Jasonoff responds to Bharati Mukherjee's essay with a personal defense. She shares her own personal narrative; being a new American immigrant from South Asia and explains how there definitely is a gray area. You don't necessarily have to drop all your cultures and just adapt to American cultures nor do you have to reject all American habits and stay soley rooted to your own traditions. Instead, Jasonoff argues that you can surely balance both and be just as happy. There is no right or wrong answer in this situation, and no one is necessarily a ''freak''. We're all freaks, we need to embrace it.