Adolescence is the time for humans to find themselves and gain the skills that help guide who they will be in life. It is also when most people struggle with alienation. Two Asian-American boys experienced these feelings in distinctive ways. In Brian Kim’s “Arm Wrestling with Grandfather” and Shanlon Wu’s “In Search for Bruce Lee’s Grave”, themes of loneliness and role models present the reader with a unique basis for comparison and contrast.
In both narratives, Kim and Wu were heavily influenced in their lives by role models, yet Wu was striving to find one and Kim had one without even being aware of it. A role model is a person that influences people around them in positive ways. Kim’s role model was his grandfather who had come to live …show more content…
I’ve always had an abundance of positive influences in my life, to the point I don’t even realize the effect they have on me. Unfortunately, minority kids may even still relate to Kim today in the epidemic of white-washing in today’s media. White-washing is when a film casts a white actor for the role of a minority character. It happened in the 1960s in Breakfast at Tiffany’s where Caucasian Mickey Rooney played the role of an Asian man. Likewise, it happened recently with White Ed Skrein’s casting of Ben Daimio, a Japanese-American man in the recent adaptation of Hellboy. Luckily and uniquely, Skrien declined the role. Russell Boast, the head of Casting Society of America’s diversity committee, commented on Skrein’s choice. “I think [his decision] will resonate with many actors who have never thought about standing up and saying they don’t want to be a part of this whitewashing game that’s being played.” (EW.com) This story brings about hope because white-washing is now understood as being unacceptable, and Hollywood is making strides to end it, which could not could be said for Wu in the 1990s. In calling white-washing out, it could lead to increased diversity in film so that the struggles Wu experienced are not experienced by
In both narratives, Kim and Wu were heavily influenced in their lives by role models, yet Wu was striving to find one and Kim had one without even being aware of it. A role model is a person that influences people around them in positive ways. Kim’s role model was his grandfather who had come to live …show more content…
I’ve always had an abundance of positive influences in my life, to the point I don’t even realize the effect they have on me. Unfortunately, minority kids may even still relate to Kim today in the epidemic of white-washing in today’s media. White-washing is when a film casts a white actor for the role of a minority character. It happened in the 1960s in Breakfast at Tiffany’s where Caucasian Mickey Rooney played the role of an Asian man. Likewise, it happened recently with White Ed Skrein’s casting of Ben Daimio, a Japanese-American man in the recent adaptation of Hellboy. Luckily and uniquely, Skrien declined the role. Russell Boast, the head of Casting Society of America’s diversity committee, commented on Skrein’s choice. “I think [his decision] will resonate with many actors who have never thought about standing up and saying they don’t want to be a part of this whitewashing game that’s being played.” (EW.com) This story brings about hope because white-washing is now understood as being unacceptable, and Hollywood is making strides to end it, which could not could be said for Wu in the 1990s. In calling white-washing out, it could lead to increased diversity in film so that the struggles Wu experienced are not experienced by