Sui Sin Far

Fady Keilo
1/30/09
Eng 48B
Sui Sin Far Journal
“But the Little One shrunk shrunk from her and tried to hide himself in the folds of the white woman’s skirt.”
As a narrative of the life of Chinese immigrants, Sui Sin Far’s “In The Land Of The Free” is a very ironic story and in many ways directly reflects the irony of the Chinese experience in North America and in particular in California. The irony, of course, of S.S.F.’s story of a Chinese couple and their “annexed” son is that after having become accustomed to the white people taking care of him, he no longer wished to return to his Chinese parents. This is indicative of the Chinese experience in California because many who came to San Francisco in search of fortunes to take back to China never were able to return to their wives and families. Perhaps due to the alienation of having become in some ways accustomed to Euro-American society, and in many ways due to the shame of returning dishonored (such as having their long hair cut off), these Chinese men who came in search of temporary work never returned to their far-away homes. Yet another parallel to this ironic situation is the manner in which the Chinese and other Asians were treated in America. As cheap labor, the development of the railroads and post-Gold Rush California was heavily dependent on the blood, sweat, and tears of these so-called “coolies”. Yet these very same people, instrumental in the development of western America, were treated like dirt and were not even considered capable of becoming American.
As an immigrant in modern day America, especially as an infant immigrant, I never had to endure the hardships expected of these day laborers. My father, on the other hand, had to work his tail end off just to be able to get his green card as a need employee for the company he worked for. Being put in such an unenviable position, my father had to be willing to do all the dirty work at his support systems company in the hopes that his labors would pay off with a recommendation for a green card due to his skills. He spent years of his life working a low paying job, doing rather difficult work that included both manual labor as well as computer skills, and in the end was awarded with his green card, and eventually citizenship. So in many ways I did not have to endure the difficulties and struggles of naturalization because it was gifted to me by my father who toiled like a “coolie” as well as my mother who was with him every step of the way.

Zitkala-Sa journal

Fady Keilo

1/22/09

Eng 48B

Zitkala Journal

“Bonnin/Zitkala-Sa was born and raised on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota by her mother, Ellen Simmons, whose Yankton-Nakota name was Taté Iyòhiwin (Every Wind or Reaches for the Wind). Her father was a white man named Felker, about who little was known.” (www.wikipedia.org)

As a Native American in the late 19^th century, it must have been extremely difficult for young Zitkala to balance out the duality of her very nature. As a half white and half Native American female, the hardships of watching her Native people die along with the racial ties to the oppressor serves to truly galvanize her later writing style. Having lived a traditional Native American lifestyle up until the age of eight, Zitkala-Sa lived the simple life of a Nakota “Indian” before moving off to school. Writing about this earlier period of her life, Zitkala-Sa always spoke of the love and respect and compassion of her fellow Nakotas. After having been lured into Euro-American culture by the lure of apple orchards, Zitkala-Sa received an education from the missionary Quakers. Having receiver her education, Zitkala felt herself to be in a chaotic state. Alienated by the Euro-American community for her heritage and skin color, Zitkala-Sa also began to feel extremely alienated by her own Nakota people due to her education. Perhaps due to the duality of her very nature and her difficulty in finding a fellow human who is of mixed Nakota and white descent, Zitkala-Sa married Captain Raymond Bonnin, a member of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

As a dual citizen, both American, and Syrian, I find myself to be very compassionate to the works and the very life of Zitkala-Sa. As an American citizen with an open mind and rather peculiar political beliefs, even by American standards, I find myself very much at odds with my conservative middle eastern origins and the society that conforms to these norms. When visiting my family back home, it is not unusual for me to be at great odds with an uncle or a cousin due to my strong disagreement with the prevalent norms and morals of the region. In an area dominated by patriarchy and Islamic fundamentalism (in a country which is not even that fundamentalist by middle eastern standards), it is hard to be heard when deviating from the norms of the body politic. Yet as a Syrian citizen of a diverse and ancient heritage, which even if I find myself at odds with I still highly pride, I find myself frequently alienated by my fellow Americans due to my “hands on experience” relating to middle eastern politics and the stereotypes enclosed within. I find myself to be a stranger in both of my homes, leading me to believe that perhaps I am either far too ahead of my time or far too behind when it comes to my notions of unalienable rights and isolationist politics.