Bharati Mukherjee’s “American Dreamer” covers issues about the difference between the United States and America, cultural identity, and citizenship. Mukherjee discusses her transition from India to the United States, and then from Canada back to the United States. Mukherjee proclaims her ideas about mosaic or melting pot countries and their effect on a nation’s identity. Multicultural mosaics negativity effects a nation’s identity. Cultural mosaics affect multicultural countries. A cultural mosaic consists of different ideologies, physical appearances, and religions. The individual pieces represent different people illustrated by the shards of glass formed into different sizes and shapes. Spaces in between the pieces symbolize that the individual …show more content…
Allowing different cultures and individuals into a country does not mean they make a significant impact on a country. A nation must allow them to affect it otherwise, their role in society will not change the nation. Mukherjee states, “Our national identity is so fragile that it can absorb diverse and immigrant cultures only by recontextualizing them as deficient” (Mukherjee, 1997, para.19). Mukherjee implies that a nation will only recognize other diverse cultures and individuals by considering them deficient. This reasoning comes from the idea that a ‘nation’s identity is fragile’; and without the ability to state whether a culture or individual is correct, a country loses its control. Mukherjee mentions, “All countries view themselves by their ideals” (Mukherjee, 1997, para.18). A country determines their culture and values based the generations before them. Their ideas and ideals stay true to what their ancestors believed because it has always functioned this way. The idea ‘to change’ puts fear in countries because it has operated properly for several generations without problems. In their eyes no reason justifies changing their