Tenly Connor

 

Historical Fiction Improves Readers Ability to Critically Think of How Past Immigrants' Issues, Dilemmas, and Struggles Still Confront us Today �Annotated Bibliography

 

 

The Statue of Liberty

 

�The New Colossus� is a poem that American poet Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) wrote in 1883 for the Statue of Liberty, New York.

 

 

The plaque at the Statue of Liberty

 

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

 

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

 

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

 

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

 

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

 

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

 

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

 

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

 

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

 

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

 

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

 

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

 

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

 

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

 

The title of the sonnet, and the first two lines, refer to the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The poem talks about the millions of immigrants that came to the United States, many of them through Ellis Island at the port of New York.

 

A plaque with the text of the poem was mounted in 1903 on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

 

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Colossus"

 

The Statue of Liberty and the plaque at her base, with the words of Emma Lazarus, define the American ideal on the topic of immigration. Today, there are many, who suggest that Lady Liberty's torch should be extinguished and immigration should come to a halt or that many immigrants are "undesirables" and not beneficial to America. However, this contradiction between American ideals and American beliefs and actions regarding immigration is nothing new. Teachers can help make students aware of past immigrants issues, dilemmas and struggles and can create greater tolerance for today's immigrants.

 

According to Kenneth L. Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen in Literature for Today's Young Adults, in a chapter on historical fiction for young adults a ".recent trend is for authors to look past the movers and shakers involved in big dramatic events and to focus instead on ordinary people and show how their lives have been affected by.developments and changes in society" (250). Historical fiction about immigrants focuses on the ordinary person traveling to America, often leaving dire circumstances. Sometimes the immigrants are in search of a better life or in search of ways to change their own country. Immigrant stories often tell the harsh reality of prejudices and mistreatment of immigrants once they arrive in America. They demonstrate the struggle to balance old cultural values with pressure in the New World to assimilate.

 

Young Adults historical fiction about the immigrant experience allows students to enter into the historical settings and live with the characters. According to Rodney M. White in an article entitled, "Teaching History Using the Short Story," "As the events of a story unfold, students experience the drama and the excitement of the tale and are able to see that many issues, dilemmas, and struggles of an earlier time still confront us today." Nowadays, the same biased discrimination against immigrants is in the news, which was seen in the past. It is important for students to learn that America is a nation filled with people, who are descendants of people from around the world. America is a nation of nations. Whether people came to prosper economically, to escape war torn countries or were forced to come here against their will; all groups have brought their own culture, which has contributed to the greatness of America. Historical novels about immigration show the contributions that immigrants have made to the landscape of America and should make us wonder what the next group of immigrants will add to the mix. Kathy Nawrot states in "Making Connections with Historical Fiction" that historical fiction has tremendous value in the study of literature: "Because it focuses on the human consequences of events and on the implications of human behavior, it leads students into an examination of cause and effect, gives them the opportunity to explore human problems and human relationships, makes students aware that outside events force personal choices, and provides them with a safe context to explore extremes of human behavior." Students get to understand the events, which led people to immigrate to America. Students can explore the problems immigrants encounter such as language barriers or exploitation. Students can learn the affects of discrimination and racism against immigrants. They can learn how their own actions and behavior might affect others. Stories about immigration can help immigrants by letting them know that others have had similar experiences in the past, as well as the present.

 

I have put together a collection of books, a film and some newspaper articles from past and present, which will allow students to compare and contrast past and present stories about immigration. This collection will allow students to understand the commonality of experiences that different ethnic groups have undergone as immigrants in America. The aim of the curriculum is to get the student to ".make connections between past and the present, to follow issues over time to see their development, and to begin to see their world in context and to understand that the past has helped shape the present. That knowledge can lead students to understand that decisions made in the present will determine the future" (Nawrot, Kathy). Students will learn to have empathy for the immigrants struggle and will learn that they have more in common with immigrants than difference. Understanding the significant contributions of immigrants in the past will provide an appreciation of the current immigrants that flow to America.

 

The ideas suggested for this annotated bibliography on immigration can apply to the ninth grade course of study, focusing on American immigration history in literature. Also, it would work well with a range of eighth to tenth grade course of study, focusing on American History. I wanted to give students and the instructors a wide range of sources to examine so I combined historical fiction, contemporary fiction and nonfiction about immigrants. Students can look at various time periods, ethnic groups and stories by male, as well as female characters. I have included, in the collection, immigrant poems, immigrant interviews, and a reference book called Facts about American Immigration.

 

Addams, Jane. "Demand Fair Play For Immigrants: Social Conference Delegates Urge

 

Law to End 'Inhumane Separation of Families." The New York Times 29 May 1926:

 

15. Proquest. Cabrillo College Library, Aptos, CA. 26 Nov. 2004.

 

< http://0-proquest.umi.com.library.cabrillo.edu/login?COPT=SU5UPTAmVk

 

VSPTImREJTPTFBQ0Q@&clientId=23438

 

This is a newspaper article from The New York Times in 1926 about immigrant families being separated by laws, which will not allow wives, children and aged parents into the country because of quotas. Websites like this in school libraries would be  good resources to compare yesterdays immigrants dilemmas, issues and struggles with today's. (Comparison article in New York Times under Bernstein, Nina)

 

 

 

Auch, Mary Jane. Ashes of Roses. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf. 2002.

 

The main protagonist is Rose Nolan a sixteen year old girl from Ireland, who travels with her family to America in search of a better life. Tragedy strikes when her younger brother is marked as having Trachoma and must be deported. Rose's father decides to take his son back to Ireland to live with his mother, while the rest of the family goes on to America. The family is split apart. The uncle and aunt that they were expecting to stay with, did not expect them. Rose's mother decides to leave and go back to Ireland to be with her husband and baby. Rose and her sister Maureen are left to fend for themselves in New York. They find a room to rent with a Russian Jewish immigrant and his daughter. Rose has to deal with scavengers that want to exploit her. She eventually goes to work, with her sister Maureen, at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a sweatshop that exploits young immigrant girls. She gets caught in one of the worst industrial disaster of U.S. history, when a fire breaks out at the factory on March 25, 1911 and many of Rose's friends die. Rose must find the courage to stay in America. In the end of the novel Rose intends to fight back by joining a union. She is determined to survive and states, "I was goin' to reach out and grab this new life in America with all my strength, because I was brought here for a purpose" (245 -246). Rose is determined to expose labor conditions, which led to many of her friends dying. Although this book is an excellent read, some of the images are quite disturbing. After September 11, 2001 the images of girls burning or jumping to their death might be too disturbing for students.

 

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska.

 

Dear America Ser. New York: Scholastic Inc. 2000.

 

The "Dear America" anthology series is being put on HBO as a new series. The series depicts important eras in history as seen through the eyes of young girls. The book is written in the form of a diary. Anetka Kaminska is a polish girl, who is 14 years old. In 1896, Anetka's father arranges for a man in the New World to marry her if he will pay for her passage. Anetka describes her journey to the New World, as well as, the fear and anxiety experienced by immigrants going through medical exams and interrogations to see if they ".will make suitable Americans" (58 ). She becomes a coal miner's wife and the stepmother of three young daughters. Her new husband doesn't love her. Her husband dies in a mining accident a few months after they are married. She is left to take in borders and try to take care of her three small step-daughters. Conditions in the mine are an integral part of the story and so is the labor struggle for change, which culminates in the Lattimer Massacre, where 19 miners are killed. Anetka must deal with the racism in America. Anetka finally meets her true love, Leon Nasevich, who is a union organizer. Some believability must be suspended since the book is written in diary form, yet we are told Anetka has no time because she is working all the time. Overall Bartoletti keeps historical accuracy and she reinforces her story with historical notes at the end with photos.

 

Bernstein, Nina. "A Mother Deported and a Child Left Behind." The New York Times

 

24 Nov. 2004. 26 Nov. 2004.

 

<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10914FA3F5A0C778EDDA8

 

0994DC404482&incamp=archive:search>

 

This is a current newspaper article that shows current problem of immigrant families being separated by U.S. laws. It was found by searching online, under news, using the terms "immigrant children." Students could search online newspapers for current articles that coincide with historical information about immigrant issues, dilemmas, and struggles.

 

Bode, Janet. The Colors of Freedom: Immigrant Stories. New York: Grolier

 

Publishing. 1999.

 

In The Colors of Freedom, author Janet Bode looks at the beginning of the United States and its composition of people from many nations. She talks to those whose ancestors were slaves or slave owners, European crafts people, Irish farmers, and many others. Then Bode travels across the United States and talks with high school students who are immigrants themselves. These students talk about their native lands and their new lives. They share photographs, poems, and recipes from their countries. The young immigrants tell us about their fears and worries, and their hopes for the future.

 

Bode includes a U.S. citizenship test as well as an immigration quiz. The Colors of Freedom is an eye-opening book that will make the immigration experience real for everyone. (taken from the back cover of the book). I really liked all the activities this book includes in the back. Bode gives a lot of great ideas to get students personally involved in understanding the immigrant experience. The different recipes add a nice touch, but we are warned that some recipes might be missing a secret ingredient because some are unwilling to completely give family recipes.

 

Brownstone, David M. and Franck, Irene M. Facts About American Immigration.

 

New York: The H. W. Wilson Company. 2001.

 

 

This publication illustrates Wilson's continual focus on editorial quality and provision of thorough, up-to-date reference sources.

 

Beginning with the earliest Americans, who crossed the Bering Land Bridge to Alaska between 12,000 and 15,000 B.C.E., Facts about American Immigration focuses on who came and from where, why they came, the nature of their journeys, where they settled, and the many efforts to stop them. An overview, which includes extensive statistical data, places the process of immigration in a wide historical and global context. The main text delves into immigration experiences, numbers, and motives by region of emigration including Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. Each of these sections contains a brief introduction to the region and a series of articles on specific countries or groups of countries. Articles include tables and graphs as well as lists of additional Internet and print resources. "Annual Immigration Statistics," generated from U.S. government records, are presented in a section of tables. Six appendixes provide information on general immigration resources, legislation, estimates of emigration and illegals, tips on genealogical research, and two guides on using the National Archives and Records Administration. A detailed index completes the volume.

 

This informative and practical guide is recommended in particular for public libraries. Facts about American Immigration will be useful in high-school and undergraduate libraries as well. RBB

Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved (taken from Amazon editorial reviews).

 

This book covers a lot of information. Students could use this as a resource to find more information on specific ethnic groups that immigrated to America. It includes information about the Indigenous peoples of America and the taking of their land. This book is a great resource for instructors and students. It gives pages of internet and print resources in the back.

 

 

 

 

 

Carlson, Lori ed. Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994.

 

This book is an anthology of contemporary poetry from Latino American writers. The poems were selected to reflect the experiences of teenagers. Oscar Hijuelos gives a personal introduction when he talks about his own experiences as a Cuban American, whose parents immigrated to America in the 1940's. Hijuelos states that his parents immigrated ".in a spirit of adventure, to find--as is often documented, beaten into the ground--'a new life'" (xv).

 

Product Description:

"Poetry with a distinct flavor: a skillfully mixed appetizer."

--Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Here are the sights, sounds, and smells of Latino culture in America in thirty-six vibrant, moving, angry, beautiful and varied voices, including Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Luis J. Rodr�guez, Gary Soto, and Mart�n Espada.

Presented in both English and Spanish, each poem helps us to discover the stories behind the mangoes and memories, prejudice and fear, love and life--how it was and is to grow up Hispanic in America....

"The subtle but singing lyrics frequently have a colloquial tone that will speak to many young readers."

--The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred)

"Excellent enrichment...Whether discussing the immigrant's frustration at not being able to speak English...the familiar adolescent desire to belong, or celebrating the simple joys of life, these fine poems are incisive and photographic in their depiction of a moment."

--School Library Journal (starred) (taken from Amazon editorial reviews).

 

I liked this books innovative blending of Spanish and English, which really gives the feeling of what it means to grow up Latino in America. It demonstrates how immigrant children learn two languages, live two lives and learn the rules of two cultures.

 

 

 

 

Coan, Peter Morton. Ellis Island Interviews: In Their Own Words. New York:

 

Facts on File, Inc. 1997.

 

In a perplexing and maddening manifestation of selective amnesia, most Americans manage to forget that their family trees are rooted in faraway lands, believing instead that they are "true" Americans. This attitude ensures that today's Asian, Latino, and Caribbean immigrants must face the same hostility and prejudice Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigrants, to name just a few, suffered on their arrival here earlier this century. Ellis Island, the entry point for 12 million immigrants in its active years, has now been made into a national park and museum in an effort to celebrate and preserve our immigrant heritage, and the Ellis Island Oral History Project has been established so that the last surviving immigrants who passed through Ellis Island can record their stories. This vast archive is the source of the 140 interviews collected here in this illuminating and provocative volume. Coan provides a brisk but effective history of Ellis Island, then yields the stage to these brave travelers whose memories of their arduous journeys remain so sharp, so precious. --Donna Seaman (American Library Association).

 

Crew, Linda. Children of the River. New York: Dell Publishing. 1989.

 

This book is contemporary fiction about a Cambodian immigrant teen. I included it because it gives a perspective of a Cambodian girl, who is separated from her family when the Khmer Rouge army invades her village. The story gives a Cambodian perspective of American customs and tradition.

 

Grade 7-12-Seventeen-year-old Sundara is torn between her Cambodian family's expectations and her desire to become more American now that she has been forced to relocate along with her aunt's family following the rise to power of the Khmer Rouge. Matters are complicated by her feelings for Jonathan, a popular American boy who has fallen for Sundara and has trouble accepting the custom which forbids Cambodian girls from dating and dictates arranged marriages. The captivating, touching, and sometimes tragic story by Linda Crew (Delacorte, 1989) touches upon issues of culture, history, gender, and race wrapped around an engaging romance. The story is set in 1979 and provides enough details about the situation in Cambodia at the time to set the scene without bogging down the narrative. It is superbly narrated by Christina Moore, who deftly handles Sundara's accent. The novel is included on various bibliographies and as assigned reading in many schools. It will make an excellent teaching aid in classrooms and will appeal to teens who like romances.

Diana Dickerson, White Pigeon Community Schools, MI

Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. (editorial review taken from Library Journal on Amazon).

 

Donelson, Kenneth L. & Nilsen, Alleen Pace. Literature for Today's Young Adults.

 

New York: Pearson Education Inc. 2005.

 

 

The Emigrants. Dir. Jan Troell. Perf. Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann.

 

Titan Productions Inc. 1971.

 

Film based on a novel by Vilhelm Moberg. There are three parts to the film. The Emigrants is the first part in the series of three films. It begins in the immigrants homeland and shows what makes the family decide to leave for America. It is set in the middle of the 19th century, Kristina and Karl-Oskar live in a small rural village in southern Sweden. They get married and try to make a living on a small plot of land. However, the small size of their land, the infertile soil, and some bad harvests make it hard. One of their children even starves to death. Thus, they decide to emigrate to the U.S. They meet a group of farmers with their families planning the emigration under the leadership of a banned priest. They sell everything and embark for the U.S. The journey on the sailing ship is long and tedious. Some of the emigrants will never reach the New World. Nominated for four Academy Awards. Dubbed in English. 151 minutes. (1-World Festival of Foreign Films http://www.1worldfilms.com/Sweden/emigrants.htm). This film is really great for conveying the risk that immigrants took when crossing the ocean. It shows the discrimination that foreigners experienced once in America and the problems between new immigrants and indigenous peoples of America.

 

 

 

Gallo, Donald R. ed. First Crossing: Stories About Teen Immigrants. Massachusetts:

 

Candlewick Press. 2004

 

This book is considered contemporary fiction, but in order to create a wider perspective for students, I have included it. First Crossing: Stories About Teen Immigrants is an anthology of various authors short fictional stories about immigrating to America. It gives ten stories of current immigrants struggles. All stories are told from a teen perspective. After each story, there are a few pages devoted to the author and the true incidents that inspired the story. I will give a few examples of the stories here. The first story "First Crossing" by Pam Munoz Ryan tells about a young boy crossing the border to the United States illegally with his father so they can work and send money home. We learn the dangerous risk that illegal immigrants take in trying to reach a land, where they might make enough wages to care for their families. Marco, the young boy, tells us of his father only making nine dollars a day in Mexico, whereas if he comes to the United states he can make anywhere from thirty to fifty dollars a day. The money pays their rent, food and for extra's like television and clothes. They are exploited by people, Marco terms "coyotes," who charge large sums to smuggle Mexicans over the border. Marco and his father risk their lives, when they agree to a dangerous ride lying above the engine of a truck, on a built in shelf. They breathe in fumes and risk falling on to the engine, where they could be horribly burned.

 

In the story "My Favorite Chaperone" Maya is living in Kazakhstan after it broke away from the Soviet Union. When things get very hard, her Aunt Madina Zhamejakova decides to put her picture in an international dating magazine so that she can meet an American and leave. Maya's aunt meets an American and marries him six months later. When Maya's mother and father lose their teaching jobs, they decide to immigrate to America to live with Aunt Madina. Maya's brother gets into trouble when he fights with another boy at the school. A Hungarian janitor sympathizes with the brother because he saw the altercation and heard the other boy telling Maya's brother ".he would never be a real American and was making fun of the way he talked" (53). The story is titled "My Favorite Chaperone" because Maya cannot go to the school dance without a chaperone because her parents think she is too young by customary standards, but in America the age for dating is much younger. Maya's little brother offers to go with her to the dance as her chaperone.

 

Other stories included in this anthology are a Korean, who was adopted by Americans, but is desperate to know her birth parents. A Romanian, whose new American friends have some spooky and hilarious misconceptions about his Romanian origins. A Hatian fighting proud of her Haitian roots and a Cambodian, who embraces her Cambodian heritage. The stories are written by acclaimed, award-winning authors for young adults. The stories reflect diversity and they illustrate the same struggles of past immigrants remain today. Students could easily compare and contrast these stories with historical fiction stories about immigrants in previous generations in American history.

 

Lai, Him Mark & Lim, Genny & Yung, Judy. Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island 1910-1940. Seattle: U of W Press. 1980.

 

Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 would be classified as nonfiction or poetry, but it is an asset to a collection on historical fiction about immigration. It is a collection of poetry salvaged from the walls of the barracks on Angel Island, where Chinese immigrants were detained between 1910 and 1940. It was by accident that the poems survived. Three offspring of Angel Island "inmates, plunged into the project of translation and historical documentation as a personal hobby, which later evolved into this book" (8). Poems are provided in both English and Chinese. In addition, the authors have an introduction giving a brief history of Chinese immigration. The task to preserve the words and history of these Chinese immigrants was made urgent by the fact that most of the elderly, who had passed through Angel Island had already died. Interviews of immigrants are included in the compilation. Pages of quotes from various immigrants are given on various subjects including: memories of the voyage to America, the first impressions of westerners and the daily life on Angel Island. This is a wonderful collection.

 

Nawrot, Kathy. "Making Connections with Historical Fiction." Clearing House 69

 

(1996) : 343 - 345. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Cabrillo College

 

Library, Aptos, CA. 26 November 2004

 

<http://0-web15.epnet.com.library.cabrillo.edu>

 

 

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Bantam Books. 1981.

 

The story of young Jurgis Rudkus, a young Lithuanian immigrant, who arrives in America to seek his fortune in the Stockyards of Chicago. He goes to work for the slaughterhouses and meat-packing industry, where work conditions are deplorable. The setting is the turn of the century. We discover with Jurgis Rudkus the astonishing truth about the filthy stockyards, where New World visions and dreams perish in a jungle of human suffering. Upton Sinclair is quoted as stating "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach," because the focus of the book became about the preparation of meat rather than the human story it was meant to be. The Jungle was termed a "muckraking novel," which means Sinclair searched and exposed misconduct in public life through his novel. Sinclair has many critics, as well as admirers for his novel. Critics accused his writing of being too simplistic. They claimed his characters were two dimensional and that he switched from fiction to political rhetoric in the end of his novel. Sinclair spent seven weeks in Chicago immersing himself in the lives of the workers of the slaughter houses and packing plants. He visited the packing plants on official basis and disguised. Sinclair had a passion to expose the unjust treatment of the workers and expose the social realities of the exploitation of immigrant workers. While Jurgis Rudkus is watching the cattle and hogs being driven into the chutes at the packing house, the narrator makes the analogy, "Our friends were not poetical, and the sight suggested to them no metaphors of human destiny; they thought only of the wonderful efficiency of it all. The chutes into which the hogs went climbed high up---to the very top of the distant buildings; and.the hogs went up by the power of their own legs and then their weight carried them back through all the processes necessary to make them into pork" (33).

 

White, Rodney M. "Teaching History Using the Short Story." Clearing House 66

 

(1993) : 305 - 306. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Cabrillo College

 

Library, Aptos, CA. 26 November 2004.

 

<http://0-web33.epnet.com.library.cabrillo.edu>

 

Yep, Laurence. Dragon's Gate. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. 1993.

 

Dragon's Gate is part of a series of books called "The Golden Mountain Chronicles." The books span over 150 years and each one gives a different generation of Chinese immigrating to America or living in America. Laurence Yep spent two decades writing this particular book. The book initially started with the idea of writing a book about a Chinese pilot. Yep realized that in order to write about the Chinese pilot, he was going to have to back track and explain what led up to the Chinese pilot in America. Dragon's Gate is a story about a young Chinese immigrant boy, named Otter, forced to flee to the New World and work on the transcontinental railroad after accidentally killing a Manchu officer. Otter's uncle and father already are working in America and hope to learn about American technology so they can bring it back to China. They think that the technology of America will help free them from the oppression by the Manchu. Otter finds the Chinese are treated like slaves in America, which eventually leads to a strike. The Chinese workers are discriminated against. They work longer hours, get less pay, do the most dangerous jobs and get no provisions. Yep introduces the story by giving the history of what was happening in China in the year 1865. He sets up why the Chinese are immigrating to the United States. The instability of the China, the inability for men to make enough money to take care of their families and the draw of work and money in America. In the afterward, of Yep's novel he gives information on how he came to write the novel. Yep states, "Though the novel is a work of fiction, I did not make up the working conditions and dangers the workers faced" (273). Yep gives credit to those, who helped him with research and gives numerous sources. I looked on websites about the transcontinental railroad and Chinese immigration and found similar stories to Yep's book. Otter's friendship with Sean, a young Irish man, shows the commonality that people in America share. The desire for justice, decent working conditions, a safe home, a place where they can grow and improve their lives. Despite the enormous contributions of the Chinese immigrants to the building of the transcontinental railroad, in 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, banning further immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States for ten years. Congress extended the Act in 1892 and again indefinitely in 1904. What did the Chinese do wrong? Nothing! They were hard working, family men, who saved money to purchase land. The White Europeans were threatened by them. They claimed the Chinese were taking jobs and buying up too much land.