Bonus Blog # 3

Edith Eaton used the pen name Sui Sin Far as a way of asserting her Chinese identity. Her sister Winifred Eaton on the other hand used the pen name Onoto Watanna assuming a Japanese persona. Both Edith and Winifred assume these pen names to show their readers that they are not just American citizens but more importantly immigrants from other countries.

Mary Antin writes about her experience as an immigrant adjusting to the life of an American. Antin’s family began changing themselves in order to become American citizens.  In Antin’s “The Promise Land” she describes how her families “real names had no pleasing equivalents they ruthlessly discarded,” (The Promise Land, 491). Her family is forced to lose their identities in order to assimilate and become American citizens. Today it is different because diversity is celebrated not discouraged.

In comparison, Sui Sin Far gives readers a surprise twist in “In the Land of the Free”. After many nights Lae Choo is finally reunited with her son after being taken away. Surprisingly the boy is reluctant and clings on to the white woman. The boy tells his mother to go away because he seems to have forgotten her. I believe that this story can be seen as an allegory. The boy’s mother could represent his culture and the white woman could represent his new identity as an American.  And just like in Antin’s story the boy is forced to lose his identity and is forced to forget his culture.

In Onoto Watanna “A Half Caste” the characters are identified by their dialect. For example, Ki-Ku has a dialect that is different from other characters in the story. One example is when Ki-Ku says, “That’d you’ fadder!” Her white father responds by saying, “You must be mistaken!” It can be assumed that Watanna gave her characters are given different dialect in order to show the difference between a foreigner and an American.

These authors are able to show readers how the immigrants were forced to lose their identity in order to become American citizens. The authors all write about the life of an immigrant. The characters in each story deal with “double consciousness” as defined by DuBoise because they will always be Americans that emigrated from other countries.