Us As One
From Manhattan, New York to Toronto, Canada, communities all across the world have a diversity of people. Each of these individuals’ matter. According to Merriam-Webster, an individual is a particular being or thing as distinguished from a class, species, or collection. With that being said, we each as individuals embody something unique. It’s become our choice to accept our individualism to be a part of our own communities.
In the memoir, Catfish and Mandala, Andrew Pham overall theme was an individual finding a sense of belonging to any community. The main character, An, is the exact representation of Andrew. He never really felt like he belonged anywhere. Andrew was from Vietnam and moved to America in the middle of his childhood. As he grew older, he felt he had so many unanswered questions. He ultimately decided to travel back to Vietnam to understand the missing part of him. Throughout his voyage, he goes back through his memory of what Vietnam was to him. He encountered many people and got treated differently than he expected. He was considered a “Viet-kieu,” a Vietnamese American. He met people who gave him clues that he isn’t the same individual as people in Vietnam. Because of these clues, An illustrated as an individual of a community, he faces reality. They have privileges that others would die to have and ultimately would have to embarrass and accept it. An reaches toward the end of his voyage and learns to accept his privilege. An explains, “Somewhere along the way, my search for roots had become my search for home — a place I known best even through there are those who would have me believe otherwise” (Pham 337). In this exact moment, he went through the realization that he isn’t a part of his once known community anymore in his homeland and now he is a part of the American community, which is his home. By accepting his privilege, he finally felt like he belonged in his community. An ultimately learned lesson that no matter what race or where you originated from, diversity is accepted in communities that help unite together to create an overall stronger community.
Frank Capra’s Its a Beautiful Life remains a classic Christmas story. Its story illustrated a similar theme of belonging, as Catfish and Mandala represented. This story was written from George Bailey’s point of view. Through the audience’s eyes, we can see the same contrast between George Bailey’s story and An’s voyages of belonging in the true nature of their town and themselves. In the film, George always wanted to leave his well known town and create a new life. He wanted to make a name for himself elsewhere. However, through all the mishaps in his life, he ended up never leaving because of his “drive to do the right thing.” Unlike An, George wanted to make a difference in his community and became the center of his own community that he has built as he grew into a well aged man. He wanted to help his community as much as he could. His willingness to do as much as he can caused him to not get as much effort in return. This made him frustrated with his community, however, George remained optimistic with his community. George had “a change of heart and perspective” that knew he could never abandon his community because it will no longer have that connection of being a wholesome place filled with loved friends and families. He became the main focus of his community in contrast to An. They both “saw the light” through their communities that they do belong and are needed.
Richard Rodriguez’s essay, “Aria” (A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood) talks about a similar struggle within his own community. He felt different, out of place from his community because he grew up differently. His family are a Spanish speaking immigrants, who moved to an English speaking country. Throughout the essay, he incorporated both perspectives of his private and public life through his bilingual education. Some may argue that bilingual students will match the process of English speaking students within the first month of school. However, some may also argue that students who used their family’s main language in school would “retain a sense of their eithnic heritage and their family ties’’ (Rodriguez). These two arguments were very different and he acknowledged them through his own experiences. He believes, “while one sufferers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality” (Rodriguez). What does he mean by that? Well, Rodriguez states that he was forced to become part of an English speaking community. He refers to his “private individuality” as his life at home with his family’s Spanish speaking bond. On the other hand, he refers to his “public individuality” as his school life and how he was surrounded by fast English speakers. At the end, Rodriguez realized that his desire for his public individuality cost him his private individuality. He soons adapted to his community and learned English to help him succeed in a community where English was the dominant language.
Coming from a family that fully speaks Vietnamese, I fully understand how Rodriguez felt being a bilingual individual trying to succeed in a community in which English was the dominant language. Growing up, it was hard for me to understand the outside world because I’ve been surrounded by my people, just speaking Vietnamese. Going into elementary school, I remember struggling to understand everything my second grade teacher was saying. I looked around and saw all of these kids that were so engaged and knew what was going on, then there was me that was trying to understand the first two words she started off with. Mrs. Anderson could tell that I was struggling. She gave me these flashcards with a bunch of basic words that I used to practice everyday. I was so determined to improve to be at the same level as everyone else. The feeling of being an outsider became my motivation. Over the next few months, Mrs. Anderson noticed that I understood everything she said and told my parents in a parent-teacher conference that I’m at the standard of a regular second grade student. Those words were my validations for my own confidence. I finally felt a part of my community of normal students. Looking back, I realized that it wasn’t the community that made me feel alone. In reality, it was myself that brought uncertainty. I just needed to overcome those feelings to be true to myself and understand that I do belong in this community.
All in all, it became clear that a sense of belonging plays a role in uniting as a community. From An to Richard Rodriguez, they all got the validation they needed to view themselves as a part of their community. As George Bailey states, “there will always be an incompleteness to life, but hope is not naive.” He wanted people to understand that there will always be a part of life that we wish we can change, but we just need to embrace our differences and have hope in our own communities. Their communities accepted An and Rodriguez and gave them hope for what their communities have in store for them. Having self-hope and belongingness will eventually lead the entire community to unite in support of one another.
Work Cited
Pham, Andrew X. Catfish and Mandala: a Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam. Flamingo, 2001.
Nerdwriter1. “It’s A Wonderful Life: Individual vs. Community.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Dec. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G3JBKgegGA.
Shea, Renée Hausmann., Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin. Aufses. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. Boston, MA: Bedford / St. Martins, 2008. Print.
