America Is in the Heart

the States Is In the Heart Summary The plot of America is in the Heart parallels its authors individualized experiences. The protagonist, who is also named Carols (though he goes by the nickname Also when In the Philippines and tells new(prenominal)s to call him Carl while in the united States) Is a young boy peeing with his father on their farm in the Philippines at the books opening.After a f downhearted rate of working throughout the is reason of Luzon Carols immigrates to the united States, where he continues to work as a migrant laborer until he realizes he is capable of writing in English and pledges to bring his family members jack to liveliness through the written word. He also often uses literature to bear on with the united States Itself Carols determines classic Ameri ass authors like Whitman and Melville in an contract to discover and understand a side of the united States far removed from the prejudice and painfulness of the American society he found himself in .On one occasion Carols and most acquaintances were attacked by a group of white men for no reason other than their race, only to be greatly aided by the white men and women working in a hospital. Walking down the marble stairway of the hospital, I began to wonder at the paradox of America. Josss tragedy was brought about by railroad detectives, soon enough he had done no harm of any consequence to the company. On the highway, again, motorists had refused to take a dying man. And yet in this hospital, among white people Americans like those who had denied us we had found refuge and tolerance.Why was America so kind and yet so cruel? Was thither no way to simplifying things in this continent so that suffering would be minimized? Was there no common denominator on which we could all meet? I was angry and confused, and wondered if I would ever understand this paradox. (Bulbous 147) The rod paradox perfectly summarizes Carols experiences in the United States. Like Carols searched for America through the works of great American authors, the reader can look through Bullions work and glimpse at an early 20th century America in conflict with itself.The 1 united States, which had Just entered the long years of the Great Depression when Carols arrives In Seattle, is revealed In the novel as consisting of two very divergent halves, and Carols is constantly vexed by the at variance(p) nature of the United States. In America Carols experiences both great kindnesses and great realties, often within the same moment, and this inappropriate combination often drives Carols to tears. He experiences no shortage of prejudice in the united States, and the results of these prejudices range from verbal slights to severe physical and sexual abuse.Yet despite the many hardships and prejudices Carols faces, he comes to think of America in a very positive light?the kindnesses he benefits from in the United States combine with a more impalpable sense of hope in the potential of Ame rica. Within Bullions work the reader finds tropes that should sound familiar to anyone who has taken elementary school American history classes there is assurance and a faint tint of pride in the possibilities of America by the end of the novel Carols has faith that this is a nation where great things can and do happen, and he ends the novel by stating that secret code volition ever take this faith from him again.By recognizing the two halves of this paradox and forgiving the united States for its comes to with his various inconsistent childishness and adult perceptions of America. His ability to not only make these understandings just now allow them to evolve throughout his condemnation in the United States makes Bulbous a credible and fascinating source of information on the America that he lived within and further complicates the already tangled and wide-ranging mentations of what the word American should soaked at all.By allowing his audience to peek into his experience s through his protagonist and namesake, Carols Bulbous shows how America both defines and is defined by the masses who venture onto its shore in an attempt to find the lives they were meant to live. The crushed Key Summary The Small Key is a beautiful account of the feeling of a man, whose scratch wife died, ND his sanction wife. As the story opens Lateran describes in a few lines the rural setting of the story. The man and his wife live far from any neighbors. Their house is surrounded by wild bamboo.Her maintain is a very hard working prosperous farmer. They are having lunch and the man cannot linger as the fields need plowing. His wife is not feeling well so as he leaves he tells her he will ask Tia Maria, an aunt or a neighbor, to give up by. Once the husband is gone the wife begins to fold his coat. A gauzy primaeval falls to the floor and the woman, in her late twenties, looks almost old. She tries to throw herself into her work on the laundry but her eyes keep going t oo puny trunk in the corner of the room. She knows in that trunk are the vestments of her husbands late first wife.She tries to tell her self what does it matter if her husband keeps the clothes of his first wife, after all she is dead. She begins to wonder why her husband feels he has to admit to primordial to the chest with him in his coat when he leaves the house. When the husband arrives home happy that the plowing is completed, Tia Maria meets him at the gate and tells him his wife is sick. The Small Key is a short story by Philippine author Pas Lateran. It is about a woman named Solaced who is married to a man named Pedro Bubby. They live on a farm.One morning Solaced finds herself knowing that the farm will produce plenty but that she appease had some inner feeling of discontent. She planned to mend some of her husbands shirts, which were in a locked trunk. Pedro took out from his pocket a string which held two keys, one large and shiny and one small and rusty. He gave S olaced the large key to his trunk and specify the small key back in his Jacket pocket. Since it was hot that morning, he removed his coat before leaving to work in the field. When he was gone, Solaced began to fold the Jacket and the small key fell to the floor.It is obvious that Pedro values the small key while Solaced fears it. Solaced knows that the small key is a key to a different trunk. She tries to busy herself so that she will not think about what the smaller trunk contains, but she cannot stop thinking about it and reveals that the small trunk contains garments that belonged to Padres first wife. She wonders why it is that he keeps her old clothing and why he seems to eave a special feeling about them. She obviously fears that Pedro still loves his first wife even though she has been dead for many years by now.She reveals that she hates the things in the small trunk and worries that they will destroy the relationship of the small trunk, Solaced opens it. At this transfer , Pedro returns home to find Solaced in bed supposedly with a fever. It turns out she does not. The next morning Pedro discovers a pile of ashes and half burnt clothing in the backyard. He realizes what Solaced has done and rushes to look in the trunk to confirm it. Solaced has indeed, earned his first wifes clothing. Pedro is angry and bitter that this has happened and he expects that Soloed will explain things later on.He thinks to himself that he will forgive her because he loves her but that even if she did it out of love for him, it will always remain a matter of some resentment toward her for doing it. The pass Solstice Summary Summer Solstice is a short story that has received recognition both critical and praising. Written by Nick Joaquin, the story takes place in sass Philippines during the feast days of SST. John. There is a pro-woman feel to the story, which has rendered a lot of debate and attention considering the setting is in a beat where women essential be submi ssive.In this analysis, learn about the setting, the themes and symbolism that this short and interesting story incarnates. The Train, or otherwise known as the Tartaric, was a three day festival that celebrated a ritual of fertility. This was done only by women. Many men frowned upon the extravagant dances and plays surrounding the ritual. Summer Solstice is set during the three days of the SST. Johns festival. Lupine, a Filipino woman who feels closed to her womanhood, is aired to Paean, who is no doubt loyal to her.They behave three small boys and live a somewhat wealthy look as they have a Cambridge driver named Entry and a maid and cook named Mad. Guide is a cousin of Paeans who comes back to the Philippines after studying in Europe. The story starts when the family is enjoying the days of the SST. Johns festival until Guide makes suggestive comments to Lupine, and even bending down to kiss her feet. This makes her leave abruptly and have a discussion with her husband the com ing night. Lupine secretly found herself intrigued by the attention of Guide she felt that he was correct in saying that women should be ravished and men should wonder them.This causes her to participate in the last night of the festival, which is the Train ritual. Paean goes with her and tries to drag her back once the dancing begun, but she runs from him to the women. He tries to take her back but the women in the crowds beat him out, leaving him helpless. As the two return home, Paean says he must whip his wife because he loves her and feels that she needs to be put in her place. To this, she shouts and says she wants to be adored, not respected and orders him to kiss her feet.America Is In The HeartI. Authors Biography Carlos Bulosan is said to be one of the earliest and most important of Asian American writers. 1 He was a Filipino natural on November 2, 1911 in Pangasinan to a rural and peasant family in the village of Mangusmana rigid near the town of Binalonan. His family strived to make both ends meet to make a living and send their children to school like many other Filipinos at that time of economic turmoil brought by the increasing wealth and military force possessed by the elite. Carlos, committed to help support his family, went searching for a better life for himself, continued his education, and make the picking to travel to America with high hopes to reach his ambitions.II. Summary American is in the Heart is the autobiography of Carlos Bulosan, who begins his story by narrating his childhood life in his town Mangusmana. He lives alongside his father in a farm where they both work in. On the other hand, his mother lives in the city with one of his brothers and younger sister. Because of this living arrangement, Carlos has never met some of his older siblings. One of the sons Macario is said to be the hope of the family. They hope that when he graduates he will return home and find a teaching job to help support their family and pay their debts. He attends high school in another village, and because of this their family pawns their land one hectare at a time in order to compensate for his expenses. Unfortunately, things dont go as the family hopes for and Macario loses the teaching job.Due to the harsh economic conditions at that time, children like Carlos were working and doing what they could to help support their families. Carlos, at five years of age eventually moved to Binalonan to work in the fields. His salary goes to his mother for paid the moneylender, and to Macarios schooling. When he isnt working the fields, he is with his mother, assisting her with her barter business that allowed him to travel toneighboring villages with her. In these villages, Carlos observed the middle class and their way of life, and later on he grows a loathing towards them.Whilst in the Philippines, Amando, Macario, and Carlos were do to believe that America stood for equality and justice, and ultimately they all separately make their journey to America. Upon their reach in America, they are faced with the brutal reality of the great exploitation that the Filipinos are subjected to by the Whites. Carlos is amazed by ruthlessness and inhuman treatment that the Whites have shown toward Filipinos, and is forced to move place to place due to one misfortunate event after another. Carlos struggles to sustain a job with a close to nothing salary and with unsanitary living conditions, but his job and stay is always immediately cut short when conflict stirs between Filipinos and Whites forcing him to flee to another town. To gibe to his pitiful state, many times he is beaten and assaulted because of the discrimination the Americans have toward the Filipinos.Ultimately Carlos and his companions coach a sense of activism, and fought for the Filipinos and their rights in Filipino labor and rights movements. Their effort to tag on the workers brought them right into the conflict involving agricultural interests. Th eir labor movement ultimately became associated with revolutionary units. In the succeeding events of his life, Carlos is diagnosed with tuberculosis, and was said to been confined in the hospital for a occlusive of two years.Once he was released, he and his friends grew to be greatly involved in the movement for Filipino civil rights. They thus assembled a group of Filipinos with the ambition of achieving American citizenship for Filipinos in America. Unfortunately their efforts were not enough and they loose the fight. When the time came that World War II erupted, Carlos and his fellow Filipinos were prohibited from enlisting in the army. Even to the point where the Philippines was being occupied and seized, they were still disallowed to enlist. Due to this, the Filipinos where forced to start a movement fighting for their desire to join the armed forces, which eventually resulted with the United States president giving a special proclamation that would allow Filipinos to do so .III. Analysis America Is In the Heart being an autobiography novel, it didnt have that frequently symbolism. It was a straightforward novel and the author Bulosan, narrated the events of his life clearly and vividly. Throughout the story, you cant help but feel sorry for him (Buloson) and all the tragedies and struggles he encountered. To rate this novel, I would say that I have nothing too criticizing to comment about it.The plot is very similar to other stories involving the struggles of Filipinos whilst under the power of oppressors. Overall, the novel was a good reminder and eye opener on the reality of discrimination showed toward Filipinos, which is still very much relevant today. Also, it reminds us of the self-coloured fighting spirits that Filipinos possess. This novel is certainly a good piece of literature that is purely and truly Filipino.IV. Insights The life story of Carlos Bulosan in America In The Heart is something I can greatly empathize with. I like himself, we nt to America at a very young age of nine, with a burnished heart that America was a land of opportunity. In school I was thought that America fought for equality and everyone was given the same opportunities. I thought, I could go see all the places that I saw in movies, and I generally thought my family and I would have a better life. My nave nine-year-old heart was shatter after a few months, when I learned that America isnt all that beautiful, as it seemed, especially for Filipino Migrants.Finding work was hard even with an undergraduate diploma. Filipinos were looked down on because of how uncivilized the Philippines was. And based on observation, some Americans really do tend to show a bias toward Filipinos. At that point, I then missed our comfortable home and lifestyle back in the Philippines. We had time to go out with the family and enjoy the good things in life while in the States my parents rarely were home at the same time due to work, and the main agenda was paying t he bills.Sometimes we Filipinos complain a whole lot about our country. We purport forthe western life, and what it can give to us. I think a big reason why this is so, is because throughout history we have always been so crush by these western nations. We were made to believe that these nations will always be better, but if theres one thing that Ive learned its that we Filipinos are hardworking, loyal, and God fearing people, and possessing these attributes bring us far and past the hardships given to us.America is in the HeartThis work is the authors autobiography. Carlos Bulosan was a Filipino, born and raised to his youth in the largely agricultural province of Pangasinan in the Philippines. His family was of peasant background and together, all of them worked to make the fields productive (p. 4-5). They were uneducated, as first they could not afford it and second, they did not see its need in the backbreaking, manual labor of growing corn.However, as the farm gate prices of farm produce remained low and the price of farm inputs continuously increased together with basic necessities, the family was forced to be at the mercy of moneylenders at exorbitant interests. Unable to pay their balloon debts, they were eventually dispossessed of the land which was their sole means of survival (p. 15-16). Thus, hiring themselves out was the only way to avoid their early demise. The Philippines, from the authors birth (1913) to the time of his writing, was under U.S. colonization. This a period lasted from 1989 to 1946, the latter coinciding with the works first publication. The American governorship did not pursue large-scale industrialization as an economic policy in that country so that the available industries in the urban areas could not absorb the displaced peoples from the countryside. The economic alternative presented by emigration was embraced when all other means of survival in ones own country have failed.It is a choice that espoused both hopes and despa ir hopes for a better fiscal situation and despair at uprooting ones self from family, community and country. Emigration is not a purely individual exercise of freedom of choice but has underlying social factors. For a Filipino, American culture is not something unfamiliar. The colonial mentality which pervaded the educated upper and middle classes, sought to emulate the ideals and lifestyles of America (p. 20). What was American was described as superior or any other superlative.This view eventually diffused to the poor, working class. However, the authors experiences in the 1930s and 40s were quite contradictory with what he expected. The tenets of democracy, equality and economic progress espoused by the U. S. to the whole world were challenged by the brutality of racial discrimination. The dissimulation of ones skin severely limited the availability of economic opportunities. The author and his brothers who left for America found their dreams shattered with the scarcity of lon g marge jobs. They eventually engaged in the seasonal harvests in the West.The author has written a life story of his bitter, personal struggles in this book, of working in canneries and fetching on other odd jobs in between harvests just to be able to live and send some money back home to his family. With no legal or organizational means to advance their collective rights, Carlos Bulosan (a. ka. Allos) and other Filipinos were susceptible to exploitative working conditions. As such, Filipinos and other immigrants of color were faced with the enormous challenges of establishing a decent living and security in life.This seemed insurmountable as discrimination is not something that depends on personal beliefs but is a practice actually institutionalized in American society. Labor laws and social norms defined the place of people of color in all spheres of life. Personal rage developed from continually being looked down on and referred to such derisive terms as monkeys and law brea kers. Being a Filipino at that time who merely speaks to a white woman was taboo. The added pressures of perennial unemployment, hunger and disease has caused immigrants during Allos time to engage in excessive drinking and violent acts.This was regarded as the only venue of expressing guard to such inhuman treatments and as a temporary relief to such a painful situation. Although racial discrimination was rampant during his time, the author overcame his subjective opinion that all Americans were racists. This was because he encountered many Americans who were humanitarian and even advocates of immigrant, labor and racial discrimination issues. Thus, his hopelessness was replaced with a conscious determination to change current situations.He conjugate a labor union and became active as one of its leaders in the fight for job security, better labor remunerations and benefits and equal treatment of cannery workers. His efforts were made not just for the present or for himself but fo r all other Filipino-American workers in the cannery. This consciousness shows how, despite his negative experiences, he has come to see himself as part of American society and to contribute to the creation of better living conditions in it.In a sense, this constituted a form of nationalism, of finally identifying ones self with a country that was originally not your own, and cultivating a love for it despite its flaws. It has also opened to him the availability of other tools of expression writing. The books title, America is in the Heart, captures the experience of an immigrant becoming a citizen that race and country of origin does not preclude you to be an American, you only have to develop a heart for it. EvaluationUsing in poetic prose, Carlos Bulosans work is a clearly written, direct-to-the-point, tell-it-like-it-is account of the horrors in his immigrant experience. Valid in this case, the author does not seize it to be typical of Filipino-American experience. His eventu al reunification with his family also constituted such a happy ending that may not be a humdrum experience during his time because of distance and financial constraints. Although the book conveys the authors honesty, a downside of it is its lack of complexity.The presence of consistent historical, time and place references could have made it a more useful source for Filipino immigrant studies. These references enable us to put into proper context such personal experience, contributing to our further understanding of it. Because experience is removed from its social context, we can not judge it to be vox of the immigrant, colored or Filipino experience and much less representative of the sectors experience during the early to mid 1900s.Its value is appreciated through a deeper understanding of the Philippine social context, early American laws and norms with regards to immigrants and that period characterized by the Great Depression. It complements existing studies and researches o n the plight of Filipino-American immigrants by providing an actual experience to theoretical frameworks. It also serves as a concretization of concepts of race and ethnicity which may be unfamiliar to many Americans.Because of his background as a union organizer, the work as expected, espouses Marxist or Socialist ideas characteristic of the labor movement. Still, the strongly worded concretization of an immigrants experience serves to remind every American about our disregard, misconceptions or denial of the existence of racial discrimination. It challenges us to search for the causes of our prejudice and to develop our society to line up to our ideals. This work is central to the theme of multi-culturalism and the need for acceptance and tolerance. ConclusionThis book is for those who wish to understand foremost the Filipino-American experience and complements existing knowledge on racial, ethnic, immigrant and labor issues. At a time when anti-immigrant sentiments seem to be on the rise in our society and our economic stability seems uncertain, America is in the Heart an easy read so that we may have an objective view of why this is happening. This we can accomplish without falling into the pit of prejudice ourselves. List of References Bulosan, C. (1974). America is in the Heart. capital of the United States University of Washington Press.