In five pages Black Picket Fences by Mary Patillo McCoy, Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie, and Wait Till Next Year by Doris Goodwin are examined as they represent the problems of forcing assimilation of cultures. There are no other sources cited.
Name of Research Paper File: AM2_PPassimi.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Cultural assimilation can have a number of impacts both on the culture which is assimilating and on the receiving culture. Cultural assimilation has been an expected component
of the American dream since the very beginnings of this country. We pride ourselves, after all on a melting pot concept, a concept in which diversity in turned into
sameness. Mainstream Americans, along with the United States government itself, has gathered an array of weapons which are designed to forcefully assimilate, or else to annihilate, those who are
already the most deprived or who simply differ from the status quo. This attack has not consisted of guns and bombs but of the withholding of opportunity, the failure
to allow for decent schools, jobs, housing, or even the most basic of human necessities such as food and health care. The forced process of cultural assimilation will be
discussed in this paper from the pages of three books which illustrate the problems it can entail. Doris Goodwins "Wait Till Next Year"
on first consideration seems a rather odd choice to include in a discussion of the potential problems of forced assimilation. The family depicted in this book after all represents
a rather blas? view of America. On closer consideration, however, it becomes apparent that this is the very reason that this book is important to include in a discussion
of the problems of assimilation. The main theme of this book centers around a run of the mill family of the Cold War era. There is a father,
a mother, and a daughter. The father, of course, is the head of the household. The mother works in the home and the daughter is an intelligent well-mannered