Book Report: America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan 1. Setting:
Binalonan, Puzzorobio, San Manuel, Tayug, Mangusmana, Baguio, Lingayen, Seattle, Washington, Cannery in Alaska, Stockton, California, Klamath Falls, Oregon, San Luis Obispo, California, Los Angeles, California, San Diego, California 2. Characters:
Carlos- is called Allos by his family and friends in the Philippines. He is the main character of the book. He described his early life in the Philippines, where children were put to work as soon as they can. He did what he can to help his family to survive. He lived and worked on the farm with his father while his mother lived in the town with his older brother and sister.
The Father - This character is a typical hardworking Filipino peasant who owns four hectares of land that supports the family until he starts to sell it to a moneylender in order to pay for school expenses.
Autilia Sampayan - This character lives in town while her husband works and lives on the farm.
Leon - This is the oldest son who is fighting a war in Europe.
Amado- He’s the youngest among his four brothers. He’s living with her mother and his baby sister.
Luciano-He’s next to Leon, competing his three-year service in the Philippine Scout which is the native detachment of the United States army.
Macario- Next to Carlos, a student in highschool from Lingayen, Pangasinan. It was for him that they’re all working very hard so that he could come back to Binalonan to reach school, and perhaps to support their family.
Irene- She his Allos’ little sister who lived with their mother.
Francisca- Allos’ youngest sibling.
Felix Razon- He’s a fanatical peasant boy which Allos met in America.
Marcelo- the boy who had been playing the guitar that came to Allos’ room and helped him to relieve his discomfort. He’s also from San Manuel, Pangasinan.
Miss Strandon- is the artist who has a house in Baquio and hires Carlos as her houseboy. When she finds that he likes books, she arranges for him to work at the library also.
Conrado Torres- is a journalism student at the University of Oregon who first meets Carlos at the Alaskan cannery. Conrado is interested in organizing the workers and is part of the command group that works for union organization. He is also active in working for the Filipino citizenship bill.
Alfredo- is a friend of Amado. He and Amado work as bootleggers and then as gamblers. Alfredo eventually lives off of prostitutes in the Santa Barbara area.
Nick- is a friend of Macario's who is living in the hotel room with the group when Carlos arrives. He is also Jose's brother. Nick is prominent in the union organization movement and serves as a union official until he is ousted.
Claro- owns a restaurant in Stockton when he first meets Carlos. He feeds Carlos and warns him about the Chinese gambling lords and dance halls. When Claro meets Carlos again, Claro is leading a strike of asparagus workers in Stockton. Carlos has to flee the area since the newspapers described him as a Filipino communist without mentioning his name.
Jose- is Nick's brother and a friend of Macario. He is also a member of the group living in the hotel room with Macario when Carlos arrives. Jose travels around the western area of the U.S. looking for work with Carlos.
Mariano- is also a friend of Macario's and a part of the group living in the hotel room when Carlos arrives. Mariano is also active in the union organization movement and the Filipino citizenship movement.
Pascual- is a San Luis Obispo Filipino lawyer and newspaper publisher. He is also a socialist. He gives Carlos the name of Carl and has him write for his paper. When he has a stroke Jose and Carlos take over the editorial functions and Gazamen and Pascual's wife, Lucille, perform the business manager functions for the paper.
Lucille- is Pascual's wife. After his death, she moves the newspaper to San Francisco and runs it there.
Gazamen- is also a member of the group that is living in the hotel room when Carlos arrives. Gazamen comes and goes and he also travels around working wherever he finds a job. He works for the Filipino paper owned by Pascual and helps Lucille with the business management functions after Pascual has a stroke.
Alice Odell- Alice meets Carlos after he is diagnosed with tuberculosis. She is a writer who becomes friends with Carlos and visits while he is ill and brings him books. She leaves for a job on the East Coast and has her sister Eileen visit Carlos and bring books. She moves to the Soviet Union.
Eileen Odell- is Alice's sister. Alice asks Eileen to visit Carlos and bring him books when she leaves. Eileen and Carlos become friends with Eileen visiting every week when Carlos is in the hospital for two years and continues for a total of three years.
Victor- is Macario's roommate when Carlos is released from the hospital. He helps care for Carlos after he returns home.
Ronald Patterson- is a poet who Carlos meets at the library and the two become friends. He has a huge collection of magazines that he lends out to Carlos and his friends. Patterson takes Carlos to a meeting of people working for unity among minorities that leads to Carlos' involvement with the communists.

3. Plot

a. Exposition
America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan is the autobiography of the Filipino poet. He begins by describing his early life in the Philippines, describing to the reader what his life was like as a child. He lives on the farm with his father while his mother lives in the city of Banalonan with his brother and little sister. Carlos is the fourth oldest son in the family and he has never met some of his brothers since they departed from the village before he was born. The hope of the family is brother Macario who is attending high school in a neighboring village. They pawn their land and sell what they can to pay his expenses. When he graduates he will be able to help them and their lives will be better. However, it doesn't work out that way after Macario loses the teaching job.

b. Suspense
Carlos returns to Binalonan to say good-bye to his brother and family. He has made up his mind to go to Manila and then on to America. His brother tells him to never return to Binalonan as he, Luciano, did. Luciano feels trapped and doesn't want Carlos to have the same kind of life. Carlos says his good-byes, boards a train to Manila and sails for America. When Carlos and Marcelo arrive in the United States things don't go the way they had planned. They lose their money in a card game, can't pay the hotel bill and are sold to work in a fish cannery in Alaska. Filipino peasants face the same kind of exploitation in the United States that they faced in the Philippines. At the cannery, obviously, there is the same kind of exploitation. When Paulo agrees to marry the Indian girl and stay in Alaska for seven years, he says he has problems in Los Angeles. He must have been in some kind of trouble in L.A. to want to stay at the cannery.

c. Conflict
America is not as Carlos thought. He is still young and naive, but nobody really tells him that, as indicated by Macario's friend's reaction to Carlos saying he thought he would buy a house in Los Angles. Carlos does not understand his brother's reaction and does not understand why they can't talk as they used to. Carlos does not understand the discrimination they face as Filipino immigrants.

d. Climax
Carlos is bedridden with his disease. While he is bedridden, he writes poetry, some of which is published. People from the literary world begin to contact him. He does not tell them of his illness. He becomes friends with Alice Odell who brings him books so he can read and expand his horizons. Carlos' illness eventually requires hospitalization and he is moved by ambulance to the county hospital. Alice still comes to visit until she relocates to the East Coast for a job. Carlos undergoes surgery, which is successful. Now totally removed from the labor movement, Carlos is a part of the literary world. e. Resolution
Carlos begins to have success in his writing career, being published in Manila. He also starts to be paid for his writing. When he attends a dinner for a Filipino educator, police interrupt and search all attendees. Carlos is outraged by the incident and once again becomes physically violent when confronted with discrimination. His brother has to take a gun away from him. He goes on a drinking binge and is found by Ganzo in San Francisco. Ganzo tells him he must write because it is the best way he can help their people. He has to succeed in telling their story. He is their only hope.

f. Conclusion
Carlos finally has his first book published. He finds his brother Amado to show it to him. They have an incident with one of the girls with Amado. Within a few days, both of Carlos's brothers enlist in the armed forces. Amado leaves for the Navy and Macario leaves for the Army. Carlos is now alone. He feels as if his family has ended. If they ever meet again, it will not be the same. The day after Macario leaves, Carlos departs for Portland. His faith in America is restored and he knows that it can never be destroyed. Carlos feels that he belongs.

4. Point of view
The book is an autobiography, written in the first person. The reader views everything through Carlos' eyes and sees everything from his perspective. This allows the reader to understand Carlos better and to understand what he experienced. When the book opens at the farm in the barrio, the reader sees a five year old trying to find out if the man approaching them is his brother, a brother he has only seen pictures of and has never met. The reader watches as Carlos becomes aware of his mother and her living conditions when he sees her admiring the fancy clothing of the middle class, knowing that she and her children will never have anything like that.

5. Theme
Racism, Immigration or emigration, Poverty, Tradition
Conditions in the rural Philippines are harsh for the peasants. There is hardship, exploitation and subsistence existence. The peasant children have no childhood because they are working in the fields or in the market or home with the parents at an early age. The boys leave their parents' home in their early teens to find work and a better life, trying to escape the harsh and hopeless environment. Their families know and expect this. Carlos' mother tells him several times that he can go and that they are poor. They go from menial job to menial job trying to eke out a living. The parents can't give them a better life in a subsistence farming environment and the parents and children know this. Bulosan's America Is in the Heart is one of the few books that detail the migrant workers' struggles in the United States during the 1930s through the 1940s, a time when signs like "Dogs and Filipinos not allowed" were common. The struggles included "beatings, threats, and ill health".

6. Style
Language and Meaning
The book is written in the first person in clear language that is easy to understand and quick and easy to read. There is no jargon of any kind and very few foreign terms used. When they are used, they are defined very well so the reader does not wonder what the term means. The book does not contain any vulgar language. There is emotionality and the reader can sense Carlos' rage at the treatment the Filipinos receive. Carlos has faith in America and the reader sees this come through several times, even though one wonders how, at times, given the treatment the Filipinos received. His purpose in writing the book is to tell their story.
Structure
The structure of America is in the Heart is straightforward and simple. The book is divided into four parts and consists of 49 chapters. The chapters are short, some only two or three pages, but each covers an event in a particular place or are transitional as he travels from place to place and meets people on buses and trains. There are no pictures in the book. For the most part, the chapters are chronological. There is no firm grasp of time in the book since he never mentions a year or any dates. The end of the book when Pearl Harbor is bombed is the only firm indication of a year. The only other indication was the beginning of World War I. There is no mention of age except for the children in the Philippines. In spite of this, the book still moves in a linear fashion without any backtracking. The only backtracking the reader has to do is to check on characters or places. There are so many people that Carlos meets as he travels and works in different places, that there are times when a character has to be searched for to see what his background is. There is no index or Table of Contents.
Genre
Bildungsroman
A bildungsroman is a novel that traces the development of a character from childhood to adulthood, through a quest for identity that leads him or her to maturity. The term bildungsroman comes from the German for "formation novel," or "education novel."
Also Known As: education novel, formation novel, coming of age novel.