Book Of Unknown American Analysis

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Most Americans have gone into situations with high expectations, but feeling let down if it doesn’t turn out satisfactory. On the other hand, some americans have a rough experience at first glance, but when looked back upon resulted in an exceptional experience. Within The Book of Unknown Americans by Henriquez, Arturo ventures through a dramatic course of events which causes the emergences of multiple realizations. When Arturo and his family were getting ready for the move, Arturo had decently high expectations for the move to the U.S. After being in the U.S. for a few days Arturo had a realization about how his expectation seemed completely wrong. Jumping forward, regardless of the hardships, Arturo realized that overall this experience has …show more content…
for a few days Arturo had a realization about how his expectation seemed completely wrong. One of the first things that they saw was their new house, walking in with smiles on their faces that quickly fell to frown, “The linoleum floors were dingy and worn. Every wall was painted a dark mustard yellow. There were two windows - a large one at the front and a smaller one at the back in the only bedroom - both covered by plastic sheets held in place with tape, the wood casings warped and splintered” (5). This was one of the realizations that they first faced it was the first thing that they walked into, thinking that they would have an alright American house. Nothing too fancy, but something better than the worn down shelter. After they made it through the night in their new house, they went to get some food at the gas station. “Twenty-two dollars! He said when he saw me. Can you believe that? DO you think they took advantage of us?” (11) Not only their first experience, but now their second one of being in the U.S. and they feel cheated out of what they came for. Feeling like their privileges were just a joke for the Americans. Anyhow after they made it through these initial hardships it became much easier to make it through the later years that they lived

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