Reflection on my Final Project

Looking back at my four examples of Asian-American literature I found several common and persistent themes. The first consistency dealt with expressing the struggles people belonging to this culture feel when they relocate their lives in America. These struggles included learning and mastering a new language, understanding America’s strange customs, and finding an identity in American communities. For the most part all of my books accurately portrayed this aspect of Asian American culture. Kira-Kira represented this theme when the main character Katie was concerned about understanding strong southern accents and finding a place in her new community. Moon Shadow, the main character from Dragonwings had to worry about learning a whole new and complicated language. I know these representations are accurate because the families I tutor for have expressed these same concerns when moving from Korea to the United States.

Another common theme in these stories was the power of having a close-knit family. I have certainly observed this characteristic in my experiences tutoring children from Asian-American families. I was happy to see this closeness expressed in the literature I chose to review for our final project. It is obvious that family is truly cherished and special to people from Asian American upbringings. Dragonwings emphasized a young boy getting to know his father after eight years while Allen Say’s picture book Grandfather’s Journey focused on this same topic with a young boy and his traveling grandfather. Coolies was structured around the commitment of two brothers living in an unfamiliar land and the strength they drew from one another. My last novel Kira-Kira especially centered on the idea of family being able to endure the struggles of a new, scary, and unfamiliar home.

The last theme I noticed throughout my examples was the unfortunate presence of stereotyping from outsiders to this culture. This was especially evident in Coolies and Kira-Kira. In Coolies, Chinese-American workers were stereotyped as weak, thus they were discriminated against and paid less than other workers. Kira-Kira provided several instances where her physical features led to others treating her unkindly. Even Katie’s entire family was often treated very unfairly based solely on their identity as Japanese-Americans. This is certainly a honest reality and problem experienced by Asian-Americans throughout the United States.

Overall I believe all four pieces of my Asian-American literature set work as positive examples of this culture. They all address and portray accurate aspects of life for both Chinese and Japanese Americans living in the United States. Even with the stereotypes present, these stories manage to have uplifting messages and give hope to their readers. I will definitely include all these pieces of literature in my future classroom library. I will also encourage students to explore and examine each example and perhaps find relations with the stories to their own lives.