Today the United States are commonly referred to as a melting pot due to people of all different races, customs and beliefs coming together and melting as one. When people come to the United States they generally have a vision for what’s called the American Dream; this dream either consists of hitting it big with wealth and materialistic things, or hitting it big and being able to provide for one’s family. In The Circuit self-written by Francisco Jimenez, the author narrates a story of how he and his family of migrant workers arrived from Mexico to California in search of consistent work to provide for the family. Over a span of years, Francisco comes to terms and reality of what the true American Dream is and how it can only be established
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There are those like Francisco and his family who were able to keep moving around and look for jobs, but there were those like Anjan Bacchu, a computer engineer from India who decided to come to the United States in hopes of making a lot of money to send back to his family (The New Americans). Unfortunately for Anjan, upon losing his job he also lost his work license and eventually had to return to India because the circumstances weren’t working out for him. A lot of people who come to the United States for work don’t realize that they ultimately start at the bottom and most of the time aren’t giving the right to work up. In Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of AmericaI, author Mae Ngai states, “Undocumented immigrants are at once welcome and unwelcome: they are woven into the economic fabric of the nation, but as labor that is cheap and disposable” (Ngai 2). These immigrants with big hopes and aspirations are taken advantage of because they’re so easily replaceable and although they get the opportunity of work, after having to learn a new language, live in poverty and get disappointed all the time, they tend to give up and return home. Even though people might be desperate at first, there’s only so much they can …show more content…
Even in today’s society racism lingers around; in Lillian Rubin’s article Andrew Kwan states, “‘If you’re Chinese, you can’t forget it, even if you want to, because there’s always something that reminds you’” (Rubin 4). Whether someone is Chinese or Indian, if they aren’t the cookie cutter image of being American, they won’t be completely accepted in society’s standards. When Francisco was still in elementary school there was a large focus of his attachment to the butterfly in his class, which readers can assume symbolizes an easy escape freedom (Jimenez 25). Whether he achieved the easy freedom is his own perception, but looking at it from the picture nobody should have to go through so many obstacles to achieve a basic
There are those like Francisco and his family who were able to keep moving around and look for jobs, but there were those like Anjan Bacchu, a computer engineer from India who decided to come to the United States in hopes of making a lot of money to send back to his family (The New Americans). Unfortunately for Anjan, upon losing his job he also lost his work license and eventually had to return to India because the circumstances weren’t working out for him. A lot of people who come to the United States for work don’t realize that they ultimately start at the bottom and most of the time aren’t giving the right to work up. In Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of AmericaI, author Mae Ngai states, “Undocumented immigrants are at once welcome and unwelcome: they are woven into the economic fabric of the nation, but as labor that is cheap and disposable” (Ngai 2). These immigrants with big hopes and aspirations are taken advantage of because they’re so easily replaceable and although they get the opportunity of work, after having to learn a new language, live in poverty and get disappointed all the time, they tend to give up and return home. Even though people might be desperate at first, there’s only so much they can …show more content…
Even in today’s society racism lingers around; in Lillian Rubin’s article Andrew Kwan states, “‘If you’re Chinese, you can’t forget it, even if you want to, because there’s always something that reminds you’” (Rubin 4). Whether someone is Chinese or Indian, if they aren’t the cookie cutter image of being American, they won’t be completely accepted in society’s standards. When Francisco was still in elementary school there was a large focus of his attachment to the butterfly in his class, which readers can assume symbolizes an easy escape freedom (Jimenez 25). Whether he achieved the easy freedom is his own perception, but looking at it from the picture nobody should have to go through so many obstacles to achieve a basic