Preservation vs Assimilation
Moving to different places around the world always expresses tension between the individual’s culture and upbringing, to the new one. There will always be a conflict with immigrants as to what customs they should keep, and which ones they should assimilate to. A great example of this is “My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears” by Mohja Kahf.
In this poem it describes about a Muslim grandmother that is washing her feet at Sears, with her grand daughter. The grandmother is washing her feet in the sink that is used for washing her hands, as she is about to pray. The daughter takes note of her surroundings and her internal feelings. Then an American walked into the bathroom and saw what was going on and stated that she shouldn’t be doing that, the daughter is commanded to translate it to the grandmother. The grandmother then returns that she should mind her own business. The granddaughter is conflicted by this statement.
These sorts of conflicts within their personal upbringing is a central theme to many migrating stories. For example, in the book “Catfish and Mandala” by Andrew X. Pham, and how he and the relationship between him and his parents adapt to the American culture. It later recalled that later in the book, his sibling became transgender, and the parents are distraught by this and ponder their mistakes. They note that the way they learned to raise kids is nothing like the American way, but that is all they knew.
In “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, it recalls a few midwesterners moving to California, and when they move to California, they suffer a great deal of racism as they are called Okies. What all these pieces of literature have in common, is the conflict between the present culture and the culture the people grew up in. People naturally want to preserve their identity from where they came from, as moving to a new place can not only produce unheard of fruits of opportunity, but can create unknown struggles. In the end, in my opinion, there is no one solution to this. In general the balance between assimilation and preservation can vary by person to person, and their own personal experiences.
From this experience what I gathered was that in general it is necessary to assimilate to new cultures when we move to new places, in order to fulfill the purpose you arrived at the new place for, put to keep the sense of identity and self-fulfillment, we must keep the practices of where we came from.
