kristinberry

This next section of America is in the Heart continues Bulosan's struggles in the United States. Using images of darkness and light, he conveys the constant paradox of how America can be so cruel, yet at the same time, provide so much opportunity. Also, it is in these chapters that he finally begins to find himself as an advocater for workers' rights. With this new goal that his book has been alluding to, Bulosan can finally find some purpose and continuity in his hectic and nomadic life.
A constant theme has been the sense of brotherhood, and Bulosan finally looks to his brother Amado's life for advice. When Amado opens the restaurant and the hotel, Bulosan primarily scorns his brother for letting his friends take up all the space, depriving local workers from a warm place to sleep. However, he comes to learn that like himself, Amado cares about his friends and just wants to be surrounded by them to make his life more meaningful and subsistent.
Some other themes evident in this section are innocence which is broken, a changing sense of identity and the role of the past which I believe is essential to this book. The past ties Bulosan and other fieldworkers together so that they may eventually unite for a common goal. This book reaches out to anyone who has their own struggle, implying that they should collaborate and form a brotherhood with others in the same situation so the problem can be solved with more power. This is why he mentions all of the places he has been to, jumping around the western United States. Although some may critique this, it is essential to Bulosan's purpose of reaching out to a diverse population. Personally, when an author like Bulosan mentions my hometown of San Jose, I automatically become even more interested in the story line. By doing this, he can convey his values of brotherhood and unity to not only Filipinos but other communities of color, and even whites so that they may understand what people of color must endure to earn equal rights.

The several chapters that begin Carlos Bulosan's life in the United States in his book America is in the Heart, are heart-wrenching. Bulosan is definitely drawing the readers in with sympathy. I was especially pained reading about his difficulties to find somewhere warm and safe to sleep every night. This is something that a lot of us take for granted, yet Bulosan paints such a descriptive picture of the dangerous life in China towns throughout the Western United States that the readers feel similar fear and discomfort for him. Bulosan constantly foreshadows to his success as a leader and as someone who can overcome the great odds that are stacked against him and his people.
This literary device is also combined with the overriding theme of hope that circulates throughout this section of the book. When Bulosan describes his home in the Philippines, there was always a feeling of desperation, and hope to get to another place and start anew. Now that Bulosan is in the new land and experiencing such horrors, hope is still there to make a difference and create a world where he does not have to see his brothers commit crimes to stay alive.
One of the more positive things is that Bulosan begins to connect and reach out to other Filipinos outside his family. In his chapters describing his life in the Philippines, he rarely mentions friends. Now, he has gained access to a whole group of people from whom he can learn and establish a camaraderie with. Perhaps in the future, the many connections he makes will aid him and inspire him.
These recent chapters in America is in the Heart have shed light on the struggles that Asian Americans faced in the United States, and give historical background to the challenges they continue to face today.

The introduction to Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart by Carey McWilliams reflects the stereotypical sentiments of Americans during the early 20th century regarding Filipinos. At first glance, McWilliams’ essay seems thoughtful and concerned about Filipinos’ hardships in the United States; however, as soon as the reader gets a little deeper into the introduction, he realizes McWilliams’ “sympathy” is ridden with racism. Just like the film we watched “Savage Acts,” McWilliams categorizes Bulosan and other Filipinos and helpless children, so naïve to fall into the immoral ways of gambling and prostitution. McWilliams ignores the real reasons people are forced to take on this lifestyle and indirectly blames their acts on cultural aspects.
Bulosan’s original chapters provide insight into the life Filipinos endured in the Philippines. His rhetoric not only appeals to other immigrants who identify with his childhood, but also gains sympathy from outsiders who have acquired a small insight into the life of a peasant farmer. I enjoyed the descriptions of his homeland and how the way he put a positive spin on negative situations to make the story more nostalgic.
I was interested by the American influence that arose early in the story through Bulosan’s brother, Macario, especially regarding education. Bulosan discusses how previously on the elite were able to have an education, and now it is more open to lower class families like his who can only afford to send one son. Obviously, he wants readers to understand that this situation is not that much better – Americans who have occupied is country have used propaganda to tell him and his people that this education is available on all levels when really families go bankrupt trying to pay for a better life for one of their children, so that they may be as wealthy as the Americans taking over their home.

Lopez's "Literature and Society" is an interesting piece of background about writers not only as artists, but as people responsible for bringing worldly issues to those who would not have been otherwise exposed to them. Reading Lopez's theories that authors become somewhat disillusioned with their surrounding societies, and this is reflected in their writings can be applied to almost every document we have read so far in class. There has been either hint or overriding sentiment of pain and sorrow in our selections, and Lopez argues that this is because these writers were going through tough times during the occupation of the Philippines; the writers' art transformed from works of happiness, to reflect the trauma Filipinos experienced in society in this time period.
"Caps and Lowercase" seems much more obvious after reading Lopez's essay. Unlike some works during this time period that were hopeful and full of revolutionary optimisim, the main character in the story was spineless, and not an activist whatsoever. The author paints an appropriate picture of low class life because he has been affected by his surroundings and the disappointments that his people have suffered through even when they did stand up for themselves.
The four poems by Jose Garcia Villa also convey similar emotions. While they are laced with some hope, the overshadowing feeling is one of despair, and mostly helplessness with Villa turning to God most of the time, realizing the situation is out of his mortal hands. However, in Lyric 22, this helplessness gets a little extreme when he calls upon the equivalent of the devil to take control, and make some difference in the world, because it is clear his efforts (probably for the rights of Filipinos) have gone unnoticed.