Analysis Of Be American By Carlos Bulosan

In “Be American,” Carlos Bulosan reveals the lack of choice a Filipino had at the time through the story of someone’s cousin, Consorcio, and his struggle to gain citizenship in America. Bulosan’s short story shares this idea of no choice with a political cartoon known as “What Will He Do,” which depicts President McKinley deciding whether or not to keep the Philippines or “send them to Spain” while the globe watches for his decision. Through the visual of President McKinley making a decision for the Philippines, the political cartoon “What Will He Do,” argues the Philippines are deprived of choice. “Be American” mirrors this argument by linking the Consorcio and his cousin to the idea of lack of choice. In Bulosan’s short story, the choice …show more content…
Because his choice was to become an American citizen the fact that he was unable to do so reflects the idea of “no choice”. After learning he could not gain citizenship, Consorcio is physically described as “aged and the peasant naiveté was gone from his face. In his eyes was now a hidden fear” (Bulosan 70). The peasant naiveté Bulosan could possibly refer to Consorcio’s lack of knowledge about his choice of becoming an American citizen. Evidence for this being in the first two times he is seen he has the peasant naiveté. Even though much time occurred before the first two encounters he still did not know the truth so he is seen with the naiveté. With it being gone the you can assume that he has learned the truth about not being able to earn citizenship. The hidden fear that comes from this could mean a few things but reflect the same idea. Consorcio could have a new hidden fear of how little his actions impact his future or it could be a hidden fear of never earning citizenship. Either way, Consorcio learns he has little choice in the matter of what becomes of him. Another instance, after Consorcio learns the truth, of Consorcio being denied a choice is when he becomes a newspaper article writer and “becomes more belligerent in his editorials and had to go to jail a few times for his ideas about freedom and peace” (Bulosan 71). While Consorcio is safe just writing articles about freedom and peace without a true understanding of American nature, after he learns more about American nature and writes more aggressively they have to persecute him. Consorcio being jailed for radical ideas could be the government seeing him going out of line and having to be put back in place. So Consorcio even writing about freedom has no actual freedom on what he gets to write