Change to Be American

Erika Fletcher

4/28/05

Period 7

The Change to be American

The Melting Pot is a short story written by Anna Quidlen. Seventh Grade is written by Gary Soto. The Melting Pot is about a neighborhood of people, all in different cultures fitting together as one culture. Seventh Grade is about Latino boys and girls fitting into American culture, and trying to forget their own culture. Although the Melting Pot and Seventh Grade are different scenarios of culture coming together, they still have the similarity of trying to fit into an American culture.

In the Melting Pot a child is growing up in New York, of one third are Chinese/ Japanese, one third Italians, and one third various race. In this neighborhood of so many cultures, it seems that together they have bonded a new culture. However, in bonding a new culture it seems that some have forgotten their own culture. One thinks this because in the quote,” The father speaks some English, the mother less than that. The two daughters are fluent in both their native and their adopted language, but the youngest child, a son . . . speaks almost no Spanish.” (128) This showing that as the years go by the culture is being lost, and each generation looses a part of their culture.

Seventh Grade is about a group of Latino boys and girls, at a school. Most of them don’t know much about their culture. This means that they don’t know their native language of Spanish, and don’t celebrate their culture. Victor, the main character, and all of his friends, are not only trying to fit in as men, but are trying to forget their culture and fit in as Americans. The way Victor and his friends determine how to become American men is by looking at the magazine GQ. GQ is the ultimate guide to being an American man. One believes that Victor’s friend feels that he needs to change in order to fit into Americanized culture because in the quote,” Michael said his face had changed this summer. He had read