750 word essay on theme

        Although both of these essays were written by two different authors, they both had the same concept in mind. The first story which is An American Story, was written by Anthony Lewis, a journalist for The New York Times. The second story, which is, Hunger of Memory was written by Richard Rodriguez. Both, An American Story, and Hunger of Memory, have the topic which is based on the struggles that immigrants have to face in order for immigrants to be able to come to America.

         In the first story, Anthony Lewis describes his experience from discussing with, and hearing an immigrant's story. Lewis shares a story of a Vietnamese boy that arrived as a refugee, his name is Viet Dinh. Viet traveled with his mother, four sisters and one of his brothers. The way Lewis tells about Viet's story is in a very compassionate way. "There is no country that has taken so many people from so many places and cultures, and gained so much in the process."(Lewis, p.125). Lewis writes about how he got the first letter from Viet, and how he still receives letters now, keeping Lewis updated on how Viet is continuing to make so much progress, since he arrived from Vietnam. In one of Viet's most recent letters, he mentioned that he had already graduated from Harvard. "I graduated from the Harvard Law in June and am now a law clerk for Judge Lawrence H. Silberman of the U.S Court of Appeals in Washington. Next year I clerk for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at the Supreme Court."(Lewis,p.155). It is inspiring to hear that a person that had to face so many obstacles got so far and is continuing to succeed.

         As for the second story, Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez is talking about how he personally had to face immigration; he based this story off of his life story.

As a boy he saw he’d always see his parents finding difficulties when speaking English because it was a foreign language to them. For Rodriguez living a life with immigrant parents was kind of tough because he wished that his parents would sound like “los gringos”, or fluent when they had to speak the foreign language.