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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper discusses the book "The Shock of Arrival" by Meena Alexander, a chronicle of the immigrant experience. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVShkArr.rtf
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distressing decisions anyone can make. This brief paper discusses the book and some of the issues Alexander describes in it. Discussion A book like The shock of arrival is a
very personal work, relying for its impact on the authors skill in sharing her personal experiences with the reader. It is also very unusual, being a combination of prose and
poetry. As we read a book like this, we may find ourselves translating our own experiences into it; that is, we tend to identify with what the author has been
through (Joshi, 1996). One critic says, quite rightly, that there is a "fairy tale quality to memoirs and autobiographies," because we look at our past through the lens of memory,
which is both subjective and tricky. These fairy tales are important to us, because they are "built upon archetypal perceptions ...on the fear of evil parents or siblings, on the
good brother or kind grandparent who rescues the situation - on the helpful fate or destiny that reassures that the world is not hostile" (Joshi, 1996). These tales give us
something to hang onto in a world that sometimes makes little or no sense. Joshi quotes Thomas Butler on memory: "Memory is not only what we personally experience, refine, and
retain, but also what we inherit from preceding generations, and pass on to the next" (Joshi, 1996). These two qualities, giving us a way to understand the world, and tools
to pass on memories, are vital to the immigrant experience. People who come to a new country have only the memories of their old life to sustain them; these memories
"serve to anchor the immigrant as they embark on a new life in a foreign land. It is through such memories that immigrants and their families can remain connected not
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