Identity

1. Identity Margarita Martinez HCOM 322 Qun Wang

2. Table of contents • Introduction • Theory • Come see Paradise • No-No-Boy • M.Butterfly • Gran Torino • Asian American Poems • Drown • The Namesake

3. Theory • Identity plays a big role in the texts/novels I read. In addition, s0me characters come confuse for their true identity. It is more likely do to culture influence that the characters come confuse for their true identity.

4. HOW DOES THE CHARACTERS COME CONFUSE FOR THEIR TRUE IDENTITY?

5. COME SEE PARADISE • Come See Paradise is a 1990 film directed by Alan Parker. Set before and during World War II, the film portrays the treatment of Japanese people in America following the attack of Pearl Harbor, and the succeeding loss of civil liberties within the framework of a love story.

6. Lily and Jack • Jack McGurn comes from Los Angeles and gets a job in the movie theater of Lily’s dad. He falls in love with Lily and wants to marry her. However, Lily’s fathers reluctantly to accept their relationship fires Jack and tries to have an arrange marriage for Lily with an old Japanese man.

7. COME SEE PARADISE • Lily and Jack run away and get married on Seattle.

8. How does Lily come confuse for her true identity? • After the World War II, the authorities separate the Japanese people from the rest of the other people. The Japanese were place in camps and live their like prisoners. • Lily does not really speaks a lot of Japanese but after the war she realize that she is Japanese even though she had consider herself as an American because she was born and raise in America. • Moreover, she embraces to her Japanese culture and we see this because she starts speaking more Japanese and eats Japanese rice.

9. No-No-Boy • No-No Boy was published by John Okada, the only Japanese-American writer.

10. No-No-Boy • This novel is about Ichiro Yamada who spends two years in prison because he refuses to go to the World War II. He was born in America and was picked to go to the war to fight against Japanese. His parents were Japanese, he considered to be an American but he could not go fight his own people Japanese because his parents were Japanese so he belong also to the Japanese nationality.

11. No-No-Boy • IchiroYamada tries to identify why there was a lot of hate among each other, those people who refuse to go to the war were called “no-no boys”, and they detested by their Japanese-American community. • Yamada realizes that it was his mother the one who had made him to refuse to go to the war. In his very inside he hated his mother because of the decision that he made. He regrets from not going to the war, because he sees his friends who did went to the war. One of them is missing one of his legs and Ichiro feels like a coward because he waste two years of his life doing nothing, and people make fun of telling him calling him a “no-no boy.” Ichiro resents her mother because she is loyal to Japan and resist believing that Japan lost the war.

12. No-No-Boy • Ichiro feels that he should had fought for his country America, and now he feels like he does not belong to America. He considers himself to be an American but feels that he let down his country and thinks that now he doesn’t fit in America. • Ichiro is struggling with himself because he feels that he doesn’t fit in America anymore, and because he feels no one accepts him for his decision, even thou he spend two years in jail for his wrong decision. • He can’t continue living a normal life because he himself doesn’t accept things how they are now. He confuse with what path to take form now on with his life, he is lost and comes confuse for his true identity.

13. M.Butterfly • M.Butterfly is a play by David Henry Hwang (1988). It is about the relationship between the French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a male opera singer, who pretend to be a female. It was directed by John Dexter. • Plot: it was motivated by the Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly

14. M.Butterfly • Rene Gallimard falls in love with the Chinese opera, Song Liling. Song is a diva she looks beautiful and Rene is impressed with the diva’s beauty. But in reality Song is not a woman, it’s a male hidden as a woman.

15. M.Butterfly • He comes confuse for his identity because the woman who he thought to be the “perfect woman” had lie to him for more than 20 years. He didn’t want to believe that Song was a man. He was so hurt that I feel he committed suicide because he felt he had no identity with out her. He has lost his identity when the truth was revealed, therefore he felt like his life wasn’t worth anymore with out her perfect woman.

16. M.Butterfly • He was so obsesses with her that he ends up killing himself.

17. Gran Torino • Walt come confuse for his true identity but finds a purpose to do what he thinks is right confronting this gang that would not do any good in their neighborhood. • Walt comes to appreciate his Asian American neighbors, Sue and Thao. Thao tried to steal his Gran Torino sport car, but Walt was able to stop him by pointing a rifle in Thao’s head.

18. Gran Torino • Thao is a good kid but his cousin who belongs to a gang has influence him to do it so he could become part of the gang. • As the days passed and do to the circumstances Walt becomes a hero in their neighborhood. Walt saved Thao’s life from his gang cousin. Walt gets to know Thao and learns to like him. Walt helps him get a job, and since his cousin gang does not leave him alone Walt decides to confront the gang.

19. Gran Torino • After Sue gets raped by his cousin and his gang Walt decide to put a stop to them. Walt knows that with that gang around their neighborhood they aren’t going to live at peace. Walt knows that by confronting this gang he is risking his life, and before he does all this he goes and talks to the priest who had insisted on him to go to confession. When he goes and confesses himself. When he locks Thao in the garage and talks to him I feel that he confesses all his sins to Thao instead of to the priest. It seems that he finds his true identity getting to know Thao and his family, and that’s why he believes it’s the best thing to go and put a stop to the gang.

20. ASIAN AMERICAN POEMS In these three poems I feel like the writers are all in search of an identity.

21. ASIAN AMERICAN POEMS • In the first one “A rose of Sharon” the girl is looking for her true identity, she has come confuse of her identity because the kids don’t want to play with her because she looks different them all of them.

22. ASIAN AMERICAN POEMS • In “My Sweetest Lesbia” it seems that she doesn’t want that “ever-during night” to end because after that she would have to face her true reality. This makes me think that she is confuse for her true identity because of people criticism she hasn’t find her true identity.

23. ASIAN AMERICAN POEMS • On the last poem “On Such a Day” the writer seems to be reflecting in his/her past therefore he is looking for his/her true identity. The authors of the poems I feel like through their poems they find their true identity. The authors express their feelings through their writing. For me poetry is the feelings of the soul and therefore the writers write to identify their true identity. And it’s through their writing that they find who they truly are.

24. Drown • Drown is book of fiction by the Dominican American, Junot Diaz. He is primarily a writer of poetry and prose fiction but his work is more based on autobiographical.

25. Drown • Junior the main character is confused for his true identity do to the environment he lives in. He grew up in a machismo environment, and lives in a male dominant society. He does not have a professional job because he can careless about his life, and his future. • He sometimes thinks it is right how his macho father treats her mother and sometimes it’s against machismo. He does not anything at all to change his lifestyle for good, so that he can define his true identity

26. Drown • He sometimes thinks it is right how his macho father treats her mother and sometimes it’s against machismo. He does not anything at all to change his lifestyle for good, so that he can define his true identity

27. The Namesake • Jhumpa Lahiri, show us in the “The Namesake,” how Gogol come confuse for his true identity. He is from Bengalese’s parents and was born in America so he identifies himself as an America, but at the end he realizes that Bengali is his true identity and culture and he identifies as Bengali too.

28. The Namesake • Gogol was born and raise in America by Bengalese parents, he fall in love with an American girl, and spends more time with his girlfriend and her family, than with his. I had a feeling that he was almost ashamed to be Bengali because he didn’t care about his parent’s culture. He never identified with anything Bengali, but when his father past away, he realizes that he was confuse for his true identity and was able to identify himself as a Bengali.

29. The Namesake • He illustrates his true identity when he shaves his head in respect of his father’s death, which is was a Bengali tradition to shave the son head in memory of his father death. Gogol has identified his true identity and now considers himself part of the Bengali’s culture.

30. The Namesake • Since Gogol was influence by American culture he come confuse for his true identity. When his father past away Gogol realizes how much he misses his father and remembers the significance of his name. His father had told him that he was name after his favorite author, Gogol. Gogol’s dad had confessed him that he had an accident where he almost died, and that the only thing he had in his hand when he woke up form accident was the book from his favorite author Gogol. • After this confession Gogol likes his name.

31. Work cited • http://www.google.com/imgres?q=come+see+paradise+film&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=681&tbm=isch&tbnid=c5wsBz9KS4IqUM:&imgrefurl=http://www.amazon.com/Come-See-Paradise-Dennis-Quaid/dp/B000EXDSCK&docid=Lqi1Vbisd2JVMM&imgurl=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZZX9HGFYL._SL500_AA300_.jpg&w=300&h=300&ei=aNe1T-yyJuaeiQL-692mBw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=334&vpy=358&dur=2111&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=118&ty=160&sig=103090521231529805860&page=1&tbnh=147&tbnw=147&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:0,i:105 • http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Gran+Torino+Film&um=1&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=681&tbm=isch&tbnid=cczAjnhyqkpieM:&imgrefurl=http://annaisabel2.wordpress.com/&docid=Ly9sFjjiDB92xM&imgurl=http://annaisabel2.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/gran-tourino.jpg&w=1024&h=768&ei=O9i1T4zvNqXUiAKhqaDpBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=282&vpy=214&dur=2367&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=87&ty=216&sig=103090521231529805860&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=183&start=0&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:76

32. work cited • http://www.google.com/imgres?q=the+namesake+movie&um=1&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=681&tbm=isch&tbnid=Qg5cx0Ug6MKyKM:&imgrefurl=http://videos.smartdesis.com/3576/watch-the-namesake-movie-online/&docid=aV1C_iqyly6XPM&imgurl=http://videos.smartdesis.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/the_namesake-208x300.jpg&w=208&h=300&ei=19i1T-2fDbTbiAKi6JDgBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=866&vpy=302&dur=170&hovh=240&hovw=166&tx=95&ty=79&sig=103090521231529805860&page=1&tbnh=147&tbnw=110&start=0&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:0,i:90 • http://www.google.com/imgres?q=drown+book&num=10&um=1&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=681&tbm=isch&tbnid=7zOy8irNRLoytM:&imgrefurl=http://showsomemercy-63.blogspot.com/2009/11/we-were-on-our-way-to-colmado-for.html&docid=TfbmwBrU-9BLMM&imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LXCtwiPrzwc/Sw1eGD8zqiI/AAAAAAAAABc/3-ZVRLAxrzI/s1600/drown.jpg&w=297&h=475&ei=M9m1T52tEKaQiAKVqKj6Bg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=467&vpy=127&dur=497&hovh=284&hovw=177&tx=106&ty=154&sig=103090521231529805860&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=180&tbnw=113&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:75

33. Work cited • http://www.google.com/imgres?q=no-no-boy&um=1&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=681&tbm=isch&tbnid=WmeL8oXGA_BWoM:&imgrefurl=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129910.No_No_Boy&docid=PTGjO5Kadzt6qM&imgurl=http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171989881l/129910.jpg&w=312&h=500&ei=etm1T6fYIOnOiALO29nZBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=321&vpy=116&dur=556&hovh=284&hovw=177&tx=70&ty=150&sig=103090521231529805860&page=1&tbnh=157&tbnw=98&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:73 • http://mubi.com/films/m-butterfly • http://www.google.com/imgres?q=m.butterfly&um=1&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=681&tbm=isch&tbnid=_mnr3pud3qBRiM:&imgrefurl=http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/m-butterfly.html&docid=pfPfhv5ySrzPuM&imgurl=http://www.dvdactive.com/images/news/screenshot/2009/3/mbutterflyr1artworkpic_copy0.jpg&w=700&h=1017&ei=xNm1T8mRNqKWiAKE5oGYBw&zoom=1&iact=rc&sig=103090521231529805860&page=1&tbnh=137&tbnw=89&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0,i:145&tx=43&ty=67