Reflection: Growing up Ethnic in America (Other (Not Listed) Sample)

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Reflection: Growing up Ethnic in America Upon reading a couple of stories in the piece “Growing Up Ethnic in America,” we get to identify with some of the challenges experienced by some of the narrators. The experiences may be different, but in a general sense, they revolve around the problematical terrain of ethnic identities in the United States of America. In the Cossacks of Connecticut, as a Jew, Danny Rose grows up embarrassed, confused, and suffers low self-esteem. In the Bluest Eye, the admiration the blue-eyed doll and the white girls received made the narrator so insecure. Also, in the New Negro, the narrator cannot help but notice how people distanced from him at the movies and restaurants. On that note, this piece will seek to reflect on the challenges faced by these narrators. The ideas, concepts, and prejudices will help to establish how the plight faced by the narrators in “The Bluest Eye and in the New Negro” compares to Daniel Asa Rose's "The Cossacks of Connecticut.” In “The Cossacks of Connecticut,” Danny Rose recounts his experiences growing up as a Jew in Connecticut town (WASP town). Danny was well-liked by his peers and never had to worry about being subjected to virulent anti-Semitism. However, the beginning of the novel sells the impression that being Jewish felt more like being the "elephant in the room. " In other words, the idea here was that everyone notices some difference but it goes unspoken about CITATION Mar99 \p 207 \l 1033 (Maria and Jeniffer 207). As if mentioning the word Jew had a bad connotation, the topic of Jewish origin was indirectly talked about. Sometimes, the word ‘Jew’ was replaced with the term ‘Hebrew.’ Such tactics were used in a bid to protect Danny from embarrassment, unfortunately, it still made him suffer from low self-esteem (207). Danny had a rough time growing up since he was constantly comparing himself to others. He saw his difference as a flaw and a source of embarrassment. In one instance, Danny sends a message about embarrassment when he compares himself to a sabra. “A sabra is hard on the outside but sweet on the inside.” Danny goes ahead to stress that he was a little embarrassed on the outside but very embarrassed on the inside (208). Growing up was challenging because he wanted to feel accepted. Instead of leading a carefree childhood, Danny felt pressured to change who he was in order to belong. Van (9) denotes that a smooth transition into adulthood is based on everyday encounters at schools, neighborhoods, and places of work. Based on the experiences of ethnic profiling, the likes of Danny Rose are likely to experience a rough transitioning into adulthood. Danny's situation is comparable to the narrator's in “The Bluest Eye.” Their situations are comparable in that they both face insecurity. The narrator of the story The Bluest Eye receives a blue-eyed doll for Christmas. She was intrigued by the doll but yet felt insecure around it. She was curious as to what it was about the doll that drew so much attention. She became upset and thought less of herself when she discovered she did not receive the same recognition as the doll or white girls. Jewish origin and Christmas made Danny feel insecure in the same way that the doll made the narrator in “The Bluest Eye” feel. Danny was embarrassed to be a Jew when he heard about Christmas. To Danny, the Hanukkah was inferior to Christmas (213). Additionally, their challenges were also comparable in that neither parents instilled in their children a sense of pride in their heritage. Even the parents in both stories appeared to be caught up in society's conventional viewpoint CITATION Som18 \p 21 \l 1033 (Somaye 21). In “The Bluest Eye” the parents seemed to adore this doll in the same way that the rest of society did. “The grown people frowned and fussed: You-don’t-know-how-to-take-care-of-nothing (162).” On the other hand, in “The Cossacks of Connecticut,” uncharacteristic of the Jews, the parents drank and partied like the rest of the society. Danny's challenges are also similar to the narrator's problems in “The New Negro.” The narrators of both stories appear to have grown up prejudiced. The narrator in the “New Negro was a victim of segregation. At movies or the table at the Indianapolis Airport restaurant, “The New Negro” narrator noted how people moved to distant seats (100). Danny also encounters prejudices in The Cossacks of Connecticut. One of the encounters is when Danny reaches the bus stop, the people cannot stop staring at him in a strange way. According to Danny, the people did that because they perceive him as an outsider, which made him uncomfortable. Obviously, as they grew up, such experiences proved challenging for the narrators. In some cases, they were able to get beyond these tough situations by ignoring them. The narrators were aware that being kind and polite would somewhat fix the issue. Ideally, the three stories revolve around ethnic identity. The three narrators were subjected to situations or experiences that affected how they perceived themselves. Finally, this perspective leads the narrators to the conclusion that you can either embrace who you are or blend in with society. These narrators end up getting a firsthand experience of racism and why they are treated that way. That said, in my opinion, Danny should have regarded himself highly instead of trying so hard to...