1-How does Hyppolite’s define who she is?

Moving from a country to another permanently is something fascinating, yet

complicated. We can read in Dyaspora that Hyppolite is going through what I will call a

“metamorphosis”. I have personally been through the same situation, although I have

come to America at an older age than she did. In Hyppolite’s article, we can see that she

defines herself as Haitian trying to “blend in”, in a way where she is trying to dress, act

and speak like an American. However, this does not mean that she is not embracing her

heritage. In fact, by reading the article and the vocabulary used in it, we can feel her

pride about being from Haiti. In such statements as the opening paragraph of the

article, we can sense the presence of blues and pride. Even though she is embracing her

heritage, she had to learn to adapt to the cultural standard of a country that she came to

live in. This makes her situation of embracing her heritage a little bit more complicated

because as kid, she has to live between cultures and traditions in her house, which she

called “The Island” and the outside world of Boston, Massachusetts, which she refers to

as American Waters. We can say that her family has a great role in her keeping grasp on

her heritage by their way of life, which is not unusual for any immigrant family in

America. Although she is trying to adapt, she is still keeping her traditions and language

at heart. In one passage, we can read where she becomes the pronoun police of her

mother. I have to add on a personal point that it is extremely frequent to see families in

the Detroit Metro area that are in Hyppolite’s situation, and my family included, even

after so many years living in America, the feeling of living like we do overseas never goes

away.
 2-Does she refer to her native country or does she ignore it?

We can read in the article that the author constantly mentions her native country

at every occasion she gets. In fact, when she was in middle school, she was asked where

she is from, and mentioned it, she would be happy. However, when she got into high

school, she would say she is from Haiti and people would dislike it. That is when she

realized it was never going to be the same anymore. At most part of the article, she

mentioned the cultural and life differences between America and Haiti, and showed her

emotions toward them.

3-How does her family define her? How do her neighbors and schoolmate define

her and how is she influenced by that?

By reading the article, we are definitely persuaded that the author’s family has

strong ties to their home country, Haiti, therefore the way they define her is that of one

of their own, which she is. In fact, during the greater first part of the article, Hyppolite is

describing their family gatherings, lifestyles and cultural and ritual history, in which she

has a place too. When it comes to her neighbors and schoolmates, we can say that they

were first appreciating and enjoying her being from Haiti, and at a later point in her life,

those people became hesitant and unsettled of the fact that she is from Haiti (“That’s

where people have tuberculosis and eat cats”). We can say that it had a mixed of positive

and negative impact on the author as where she had to be one person at home, and

become what the American standards wants her to become outside of her house.
 4-Does this change over time? How?

Like we mentioned in the previous question, schoolmates and neighbors’ views

will change with time as Hippolyte grows older. One reason I would see is because the

article is written as a chronological event, from her younger age up. When she was

young, she was surrounded by other young friends who did not have much knowledge

and stereotypes in them. As she grew older, so did her surroundings.

Locate a story of an individual with experiences like Hyppolite’s. Describe the

similarities and differences between the two.

Because I immigrated to America a few years ago, I have decided to compare

Hyppolite’s story to the one of my own kind, Lebanese Muslims living in Dearborn.

However, I will not use my own story as I am not sure if I can do that, but have decided

to bring in the Television Network’s TLC show “All American Muslim”. In fact, the show

was very descriptive and informative about how Muslim Immigrants, First generation

and more Lebanese are living and adapting to the American environment and culture. It

was a show so good that the author of the Time Magazine article said “it was a rare slice-

of-life reality show, produced without a lot of melodrama or characters cast for

outrageousness.” (Time, 2012). However, as a person from this community, I can back

the acting shown in the series, and everything that was done in it. To compare to

Hyppolite’s story, we live in a culturally controlled house, even as first or second

generations, we try to blend in by socializing and act “American”, we love our food, our

morning Turkish coffee, and above all, a young middle eastern is cute but an older one is

stereotype as offending and accusing terms.

 References:

Poniewozik, J. (2016). Was All-American Muslim Too Controversial, Too Boring, or

Too Good to Survive? | TIME.com. TIME.com. Retrieved 13 July 2016, from

http://entertainment.time.com/2012/03/08/was-all-american-muslim-too-

controversial-too-boring-or-too-good-to-survive/

Hyppolite, J. (2011). Dyaspora. In Perspectives on Human Differences. Boston,

MA: Pearson Education. (Original work published 2001)