For this assignment, I chose to read “In the Elementary School Choir” by Gregory Djanikian from his collection Falling Deeply into America. This poem highlights the experience of a young speaker who has recently immigrated to America from Egypt. The speaker explains his confusion amid his young years learning about American culture, sometimes through song as the title suggests. But the speaker adopts the American experience as his own in some ways, and at other times compares this American culture to that of his home country. I truly love poetry and this poem by Djanikian is striking both in its content and in its style.
Writing for different audiences is something that Djanikian was likely trying to do with this poem. By writing from the perspective of a child, he is inviting people to resonate with the innocence that comes with the speaker being a child. And that is one thing that everyone can relate to regardless of their ethnicity, status, or experience. Djanikian invites all kinds of reactions as a result. Those reactions that come from fellow immigrants, as well as those who may have been ignorant to the hardships of immigration. And although I may not be able to relate to the experience of the speaker, I still felt strong emotions towards the young boy in the poem.
My Experience
As I read this poem, it seemed innocent at first. It was a young boy telling the audience how it felt to be foreign to American culture and how he adapted to those challenges. But I began to feel a little sad when the assimilation aspect came to mind, through song he follows the lead of his American peers and sings as if this country is his. It also made me think about my own experience as someone who has been born a white woman into America. It makes me feel privileged but also sad that I cannot relate or fully understand the experiences of the immigrant characters that I have read so much about.
Classifying My Experience
I felt some sort of self reflection when it came to this poem. Which is perhaps what I love about poetry so much, it challenges you to think deeper. The two main experiences that I had with this novel were suspended judgement and self-acceptance. This may seem to be an interesting choice, when understanding that we are reading about the life of a young boy in a new place for the first time. But I shall explain myself.
The Features Prompting my Experience
I think that two notable experiences came to mind while I was reading this poem. The first being suspended judgement, which is defined as “being unsure how to evaluate something that is unfamiliar”. While this definition may not be exactly what I am feeling, it must be the closest.
“But now it was “My country ’tis of thee” / And I sang it out with all my heart / And now with Linda Deemer in mind. “Land where my fathers died,” I bellowed / And it was not too hard to imagine.”
I found myself a little judging during this stanza. I think it is because the young boy is denying his own culture to replace it with American culture in some sense. But how could I judge this young boy, he is merely in elementary school and it must be hard enough to fit in at school. God forbid he sings a song about the glory of America. I had this sort of inner monologue while I was reading and I think suspended judgement fits this well. Immigration and assimilation is something that is unfamiliar to me and my experience, so who am I to judge the speaker?
“How could anyone not think America / Was exotic when it had Massachusetts / And the long tables of thanksgiving? And how could it not be home / If it were the place where love first struck?”
This gave me that same sense of suspended judgement. But this time it was more like: How could people think this country is so great? Again though, I found myself unable to evaluate it because I have no idea what its like to come to America for the first time, and to freshly call it home. It is all I’ve ever known, and if only the speaker knew the true horrors of Thanksgiving and the plainness of Massachusetts. It seems trivial but it is how I felt.
The next kind of experience I felt while reading ties into my suspended judgement which is self-acceptance; defined as “accepting yourself without shame or disgust”. I felt kind of disgusted at myself for the way in which I judged the speaker of the poem. I was feeling: How dare I judge the experience of a young immigrant? And I came to terms with that judgement and accepted that I am truly just someone who is privileged and perhaps a little naive.
“We had finished singing. / The sun was shining through large windows / On the beatified faces of all / Who had sung well and with feeling.”
He remains isolated in his thoughts, he knows that he did not sing with feeling. And therefore perhaps he isn’t trying to erase his past or his culture. He is acknowledging the experience and trying to cope with that. I needed to accept that I have no right to judge the poor speaker who is just trying to fit in. I know that this sounds perhaps a little wrong in some sense, I really did not want to admit these experiences. But it is important that I did, so that I can grow.
Narrative Technologies at Work
One of the technologies at work in this poem is perhaps double alien, defined as “A narration technology that shows a narrator making mistakes in judgment while encountering a new culture, but then struggling to decide which culture is best”. I think that this applies to the poem because he constantly compares Egypt and America. Describing the scents, the creatures, the people of both countries tells us that he is somewhat struggling to chose an identity. But at the same time, in his actions, he is fully immersed into American life and does not seem to resent that. Perhaps the image of Egypt lies peacefully in his mind, while he tries to adapt to this new environment. He does make mistakes in pronunciation as seen in the poem, but seems indifferent. Maybe double alien isn’t the best way to describe the speaker’s experience, but the underlying themes point to it.
Another technology that fits this poem is partial dopamine + perspective of a child. This is defined as “dissonance that isn’t resolved into full harmony narrated by a child”. I feel that this is fitting for the poem because the speaker (who is a child) is still navigating his feelings. He feels at times ashamed and at other times grateful. So I would say the lack of harmony or dissonance is the emotions that the speaker feels towards America. There is the sense that it will be resolved into full harmony eventually, but as of now, the speaker remains a little confused and impartial to his immigrant status in America.
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Cover for Falling Deeply into America. Classic Contemporary Issue. All Rights Reserved.
