Personal Narrative: American Immigrant Literature

For centuries, people have arrived on American shores with little more than a suitcase and a dream of a better life. The promise of freedom and opportunity continues to lure foreigners to the United States, even though stories of hardship and isolation comprise the bulk of American immigrant literature. Having reached the promised land, immigrants find themselves faced with unimaginable obstacles. My family came to America to pursue a better life. Both of my parents came from middle class family in Dalian, China. In 1991, my parents with my brother who was 9 years old then decided to take the opportunity that only a few people were given in China to come to America. They came to America to seek the American Dream but there were times that made my parents doubt their choices because hard work and determination could not always lead to success due to that opportunities are not equal among individuals. Looking at the choices we made lead us to who we are today which made me realized one’s environment tends to play as a factor in the way we go about …show more content…
From http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/, my high school was ranked 8 out of 10 being 10 the highest. This shows that there are ample resources for a high quality public education along with a healthy, productive lifestyle. My high school has a gate program which separates students into different levels. This produces tracking. “Tracking is the process whereby students are divided into categories so that they can be assigned in groups to various kinds of classes” (Oakes, 2005: 3). Since I have no records of my prior educations in the US I was assigned to the normal classes. I am at a disadvantaged due to not being placed in the advanced or honors program which limit my resources. Not being able to be in the honors classes limited me to apply to a UC. I was not prepared in the regular classes to succeed in higher