American Values

1. Give a summary of “Coming to America’ to clean” (100 Words)
The story “Coming to America’ to Clean” by Ana Maria Corona, is about a young girl from a town called Sinaloa in Mexico, this girl wants to go to America to for- fill her dreams, with financial help from her uncle she gets enough money to go there. Together with her cousin Bianca they travel to America, even though the trip is very dangerous, they manage to get there and to find a job with the help of a smuggler named Javi, which was very expensive. But luckily enough, they get help from their new employers, so they can pay for it.

2. Compare and contrast "Coming to America, to clean" with Neil DIamond's "America".

a) How easy it is to get into the U.S. according to the two texts?
Both texts tell us how it is easy to get into the U.S. In Ana Maria Corona’s text she tells us how the main character and her cousin buys a ticket for a bus to get there without any struggle and In Neil DIamond's "America", it is said that many people go by boats and planes.
The two texts do have some contrasts as in "Coming to America, to clean", we are told that it is a very dangerous trip; meanwhile “America” doesn’t focus on the risk of traveling to America.

b) Are they slaves in the U.S. or are they "free"?
In “America” it tells us that the people feel liberated and it talks about the freedom that one meets when they come to the U.S. meanwhile the text “Coming to America’s” main character is scared and very nervous about her new home, she doesn’t talk about feeling free nor about feeling as a slave.

c) In what way(s) do both texts display America as a dream?
In both texts it is told that America is a place of opportunities and a place where people hope to find the American dream. In “coming to America to clean”, the main character’s friends tell her that she should go someplace nicer, as if her own country is not good enough, and in “America” it also talks about the dream and the “new and shiny place”

3. Characterize the narrator

When the narrator decides to leave her home Sinola she was very young. She doesn’t specifically say that she wants to leave her home, but her friends and uncle recommend her to leave in hope of a better future. In the text she says that she is happy enough in her hometown Sinola, but when the pressure from her friends whom talked her into leaving, because they thought she should find a more exciting place, she ends up leaving.

4. Interpret this quotation
Javi took the money from the man, counted it, the told me, "get in, go with them. They just brought you a month, a year, who knows how long. "... I felt like I'd jumped off a bridge and was washing down the river.
What I think is meant with the quotation, is that the main character feels anxious, she doesn’t know what the future will bring her, and she knows that she must abandon her future and her friends.
She say’s that she feels like she has jumped of a bridge, which gives me an idea of regret. Maybe she regrets going to America?