Last Chance To Pass

               The selections "An American Story" by Anthony Lewis and "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez both convey a similar theme . Each selection describes the hardships of immigrants when trying to reach the United States or cope with the different people and surroundings of the United States. In An American Story you follow a family of boat people who take a journey to the United States. In Hunger of Memory a family is already in the United States but struggle with obstacles such as learning English and communicating with "los gringos."

             
               An American story is about a family in Vietnam trying to make their way to the United States. The family wanted to escape Vietnam because the communist took over. They then left Vietnam on a small fishing boat with no more than two hundred dollars in which they needed to spend on used winter coats. Their were nine members of the family but only seven left together a ten year old boy , his four sisters, and his brother. As you can see this family has already had to overcome several obstacles such as leave home and leave behind family but that's not all they would have to face.


               Hunger of Memory is about a Spanish speaking family living in America. This family struggled with interacting with other people because their English wasn't as fluent as the "los Americanos" or "los gringos". A little boy is greatly affected by this because every time he hears Spanish it reminds him of a home he once lived in before moving to the United States. The family copes the best way they can but the boy realizes he's different from everyone else. Because of the fact that most people around him speaks English he assumes that Spanish is a language that only his family speaks.


              When you analyze both selections you can easily see how they compare and how they contrast. Both selections are about immigrants. I could keep pointing out the obvious but lets dig just a little bit deeper. Both families sacrificed in order to move to America. For example, in An American Story the author stated, "Two members of the family were left in Vietnam: Viet Dinh's father, Phong Dinh, and his older sister Van Dinh, who was twenty then." (Lewis page 153). This shows how dedicated this family was to moving to the United States.


             Although both stories have their comparisons they contrast in many ways. An American Story was told in third person while Hunger of Memory was told in first person. Words like "they" "he" and "she were used numerous times in An American Story (Lewis 153). In Hunger of Memory the narrator referred to himself as "I" which right their gives the point of view away in this selection (Rodriguez page 160). Both selections were written about two different places Vietnam and a Spanish speaking country.


             Rodriguez and Lewis show how hard it is to leave home and adapt to new people and surroundings. In fact for some people it's kind of a new start or clean slate. Rodriguez conveyed how he stayed isolated from others because of his lack of fluent English while Lewis tells a story of a family escaping a bad situation to a better one. All in all both selections show that its hard to just up and leave and start a new life . In my opinion these selections really open your eyes to the hardships faced by immigrants.