Rethinking America: The Class Politics in Three Novels of Migration
Major
English – Literature
Second Major
Educational Studies
Submission Type
Oral Presentation
Area of Study or Work
English-Literature
Faculty Advisor
Juan Rodríguez Barrera
Location
CNS C102
Start Date
4-12-2025 11:15 AM
End Date
4-12-2025 12:15 PM
Abstract
In America, it has become common knowledge that the primary “pull” factor that draws migrants to America is the open path to wealth and success for everyone, otherwise known as the American Dream. However, as migrants came to this “land of opportunity,” they found that surviving in America was much more challenging, which was widely criticized by many migrants who realistically described their experience in their works of literature. Studies on migration literature have been extensively analyzing migrants’ frustration with the struggle of being either isolated by or assimilated into the New World. In addition, capitalist oppression and exploitation were also the major challenges that migrants contended with, yet unlike the existing economic and sociological research on the issues of poverty, labor, and industry in the context of migration, literary studies have been relatively dismissive of the class politics that inform migrant writers’ thinking. Such a situation is generally caused by the frequent discussions on issues of culture and citizenship that are widely and even tacitly approved to be the major “theme” of migration literature. Besides, the focus on social class can be viewed by literary scholars as dehumanizing migration, reducing migrants to mere victims of the social environment. Nonetheless, in this study on three novels of migration, I intend to prove that a class analysis does not lose sight of the humanity of migrant characters. I argue that writers of migration literature not only express the hardship of identity construction as they interact with American society, but also depict an alternative vision of America as a place driven by class conflicts that serve as the primary contributor to racial and ethnic divisions. All of this ultimately shows that migrants’ frustration with their identity is closely intertwined with their struggle against poverty and oppression under the capitalist system in America.
Rethinking America: The Class Politics in Three Novels of Migration
CNS C102
In America, it has become common knowledge that the primary “pull” factor that draws migrants to America is the open path to wealth and success for everyone, otherwise known as the American Dream. However, as migrants came to this “land of opportunity,” they found that surviving in America was much more challenging, which was widely criticized by many migrants who realistically described their experience in their works of literature. Studies on migration literature have been extensively analyzing migrants’ frustration with the struggle of being either isolated by or assimilated into the New World. In addition, capitalist oppression and exploitation were also the major challenges that migrants contended with, yet unlike the existing economic and sociological research on the issues of poverty, labor, and industry in the context of migration, literary studies have been relatively dismissive of the class politics that inform migrant writers’ thinking. Such a situation is generally caused by the frequent discussions on issues of culture and citizenship that are widely and even tacitly approved to be the major “theme” of migration literature. Besides, the focus on social class can be viewed by literary scholars as dehumanizing migration, reducing migrants to mere victims of the social environment. Nonetheless, in this study on three novels of migration, I intend to prove that a class analysis does not lose sight of the humanity of migrant characters. I argue that writers of migration literature not only express the hardship of identity construction as they interact with American society, but also depict an alternative vision of America as a place driven by class conflicts that serve as the primary contributor to racial and ethnic divisions. All of this ultimately shows that migrants’ frustration with their identity is closely intertwined with their struggle against poverty and oppression under the capitalist system in America.