america is in the heart by carlos bulosan analysis

The right or privilege of receiving an education is acknowledge and how there is little opportunity for the lower working class to obtain an education even as sons of a family where the schools are far away and must pay boarding. We read about the father’s constant battle in maintaining ownership of his land and how the corporations or the church strip away his property. Bulosan’s other siblings were to work at home on the farm or in the market although, dwelling in their fatality, they eventually left their home and family, finding their way through joining the military, marriage, politics or hard labor jobs that followed their pursuits in migrating to America.Īs the reader, we are able to comprehend the experiences of peasantry and farm labor as sources of survival. America provided free education, but with limited sources for acquiring more schools in the poorer areas, many students had to travel long distances or move away from their families which room and board were costly. In the text, it references to American and Spanish influences on education in the Philippines that it only became popular originally for rulers and upper middle class however, America’s influence provided free education allowing some access for the poor class to attend school. We observe the roles of each brother in which the eldest brother, Macario, is the only son that is provided with an education. The representation of manhood in the text conveys a sense of vulnerability and anxiety on Filipino men in which the burden of being the eldest son or a boy in a family represents the idea of escaping and sometimes abandoning their families in order to avoid harsh realities and fate. Transitioning the desire to escape, Bulosan mentions his dreamer-like attitude, exploring his aspirations to one day get an education to a become a doctor or a journalist, featuring his goal in migrating to America. I would go back to give significance to all that was starved and thwarted in my life.” The passages convey a message of his escapism and why he must leave as it is part of his identity and growth as an individual in understanding serious global and societal issues. Through his observations living a life of peasantry in Binalonan, Pangasinan, he expresses that “I was determined to leave that environment and all its crushing forces, and if I were successful in escaping unscathed, I would go back someday to understand what it meant to be born of the peasantry.” He continues, stating that “I would go back because I was a part of it, because I could not really escape from it no matter where I went or what became of me.

In his reflection, Bulosan illustrates his experiences through his tactful imagery of his childhood, describing in detail of his family and home, which serves as symbolic markers of his Filipino identity, shaping his goals and values as a young man.

America is in the heart by carlos bulosan analysis