2 For 1! America Is In The Heart AND The Life and Times of Carlos Crisostomo
It’s probably just me (i’m usually off the mark), but i thought that in America Is In The Heart, our friend Carlos Bulosan consistently revisits (bwaha, pun intended) the notion of homecoming.
The fact that Bulosan’s family must constantly relocate takes a sledgehammer to the sentimental notion that home is a specific location—a house, a property, contained neatly within fences and defined by boundaries. In the childhood memories he shares with us, Bulosan never describes a moment when his entire family is united. Social and financial forces push the family to divide so that they might survive, if not together, then at least apart. Again, I’m always off-mark, but I think that the circumstances under which Bulosan’s family survived are a testament to the integrity and the strength of the ties that bind a family together—although the family is never together under one roof, they are united in their labor and their efforts to ensure their survival. For example, Carlos works with his father and Amado in the province, while his mother and his sisters remain in the village to sell vegetables, and the entire family labors to finance Macario’s education. Then again, I might just be misconstruing their circumstances by analyzing them from a Western understanding of family. BUT I am Filipino (gosh darnit) and I can see how, in my own family, my aunties and uncles have scattered themselves about the globe and pool their resources for the sake of the clan.
Aaaaanyhoot, back to the book. As a consequence of the family’s constant migration, Bulosan’s Philippine memories are scattered throughout the province, or throughout the Northern island of Luzon, for what it’s worth.
Also in regards to homecoming, I liked when each of his brothers came home. Wow, that sounded really Reading Rainbow (somewhere, Levar Burton shakes his fist). Anyways, when Leon, Luciano, and Macario come home (or reunite with the family), it’s never for very long. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that this intimates that home for them is not the same once they have left and are returning to it. This concept might foreshadow the feelings about “home” that Carlos will develop once he is in America. Such feelings are detailed in the short story “The Life and Times of Carlos Crisostomo.” Relevant quotes:
“The tragedy of our life in America…is that we are flotsam—purposeless wanderers, misguided, hedonistic birds of passage. And we are these because when we came to this country we came as migrants; we did not come as immigrants, for we had no intention to live here permanently, to settle down, to establish roots” (81) .
“The second myth is that when we go home we will going home for good...There must be thousands of Old-Timers roaming around the country…’Home’ is no longer in their vocabulary” (82).
The Filipino “really cannot go back home for good anymore for a number of reasons, among which are his failure to obtain what he came to America for” (83).
And just a little tidbit:
Is that foreshadowing I smell? Macario reads to Carlos from the book Robinson Crusoe, a story about “the struggle of this ingenious man who had lived alone for years in inclement weathers and had survived loneliness and returned safely to his native land” (32). True, I don’t think Bulosan ever returned to the Philippines, but when Macario says “Someday you may be left alone somewhere in the world and you will have to depend on your own ingenuity,” it’s like he’s playing Miss Cleo and cursing his brother’s fate.
And a nice little quote about leaving home and the dream of coming home:
“I knew that I was going away from everything I had loved and known. I knew that if I ever returned the first sight of that horizon would be the most beautiful sight in the world” (93).
The fact that Bulosan’s family must constantly relocate takes a sledgehammer to the sentimental notion that home is a specific location—a house, a property, contained neatly within fences and defined by boundaries. In the childhood memories he shares with us, Bulosan never describes a moment when his entire family is united. Social and financial forces push the family to divide so that they might survive, if not together, then at least apart. Again, I’m always off-mark, but I think that the circumstances under which Bulosan’s family survived are a testament to the integrity and the strength of the ties that bind a family together—although the family is never together under one roof, they are united in their labor and their efforts to ensure their survival. For example, Carlos works with his father and Amado in the province, while his mother and his sisters remain in the village to sell vegetables, and the entire family labors to finance Macario’s education. Then again, I might just be misconstruing their circumstances by analyzing them from a Western understanding of family. BUT I am Filipino (gosh darnit) and I can see how, in my own family, my aunties and uncles have scattered themselves about the globe and pool their resources for the sake of the clan.
Aaaaanyhoot, back to the book. As a consequence of the family’s constant migration, Bulosan’s Philippine memories are scattered throughout the province, or throughout the Northern island of Luzon, for what it’s worth.
Also in regards to homecoming, I liked when each of his brothers came home. Wow, that sounded really Reading Rainbow (somewhere, Levar Burton shakes his fist). Anyways, when Leon, Luciano, and Macario come home (or reunite with the family), it’s never for very long. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that this intimates that home for them is not the same once they have left and are returning to it. This concept might foreshadow the feelings about “home” that Carlos will develop once he is in America. Such feelings are detailed in the short story “The Life and Times of Carlos Crisostomo.” Relevant quotes:
“The tragedy of our life in America…is that we are flotsam—purposeless wanderers, misguided, hedonistic birds of passage. And we are these because when we came to this country we came as migrants; we did not come as immigrants, for we had no intention to live here permanently, to settle down, to establish roots” (81) .
“The second myth is that when we go home we will going home for good...There must be thousands of Old-Timers roaming around the country…’Home’ is no longer in their vocabulary” (82).
The Filipino “really cannot go back home for good anymore for a number of reasons, among which are his failure to obtain what he came to America for” (83).
And just a little tidbit:
Is that foreshadowing I smell? Macario reads to Carlos from the book Robinson Crusoe, a story about “the struggle of this ingenious man who had lived alone for years in inclement weathers and had survived loneliness and returned safely to his native land” (32). True, I don’t think Bulosan ever returned to the Philippines, but when Macario says “Someday you may be left alone somewhere in the world and you will have to depend on your own ingenuity,” it’s like he’s playing Miss Cleo and cursing his brother’s fate.
And a nice little quote about leaving home and the dream of coming home:
“I knew that I was going away from everything I had loved and known. I knew that if I ever returned the first sight of that horizon would be the most beautiful sight in the world” (93).
posted by The Kenneth @ 9:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home