17 pages • 34-minute read
Ellis Island
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Immigrant Blues” by Li-Young Lee (2008)
In this poem, the poem’s speaker attempts to explain the challenges immigration poses for them. At the poem’s beginning, readers encounter a man explaining to his son why it is important to know two languages. The father explains that the world is dangerous. Throughout the poem, the speaker emphasizes the importance of silence, and the poem’s structure allows readers to pause and contemplate its importance as they progress through the poem. The poem speaker also does not force his views onto the reader. Instead, he invites readers into the conversation. Throughout the poem, the speaker challenges his father’s advice, since it seems that the father’s life has been anything but easy and the father hasn’t been spared any suffering.
“ICE Agents Storm My Porch” by Maria Melendez Kelson (2014)
This poem fuses themes of nature, Earth, and even outer space to engage readers with the poem. The poem offers a variety of perspectives which allow readers to feel the fear and entrapment many immigrants experience in a new country due to government policies. The speaker expresses hate in order to help readers understand the distress many immigrant families experience. The poem explicates what it means to be labeled “other” in the modern world, and it directly connects readers to the immigrants’ rights conversation happening in countries across the globe.
“Conversation with an Immigration Officer” by AE Hee Lee (2019)
In this poem, a speaker answers an immigration officer’s intrusive and probing questions about the speaker’s life and background. In response to the immigration officer’s cold, objective questions, the speaker provides poetic, personalized, and philosophical responses knowing that the answers will not appease the immigration officer. The process makes the speaker uncomfortable, and their discomfort is obvious. The poem concludes with the speaker being dismissed and the speaker’s husband being called in for questioning.
Further Literary Resources
Interview with Joseph Bruchac by Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (2009)
In this unique interview, Joseph Bruchac discusses how his own family history inspires his writing. Bruchac also discusses how extensive research combines with his family’s history in his works. Bruchac highlights the role of Native Americans in the American Civil War, and how the people of the First Nations often helped runaway slaves. The author also discusses the role of humor in his work, and he discusses contemporary Abenaki perspectives about history.
“Third World Writing Today” by Joseph Bruchac (1976)
In this Negro American Literature Forum article, Bruchac examines the perpetuated Western narrative that frequently silences African American, Asian American, and Indigenous voices. Bruchac asserts that in order to combat traditional Western narratives in literature, society as a whole must recognize the diversity that comprises it. The article examines the various approaches traditional Western and white narratives take in relation to indigenous ones. It also explores the problematic concept of “protest” literature, and it highlights the role of mythology in Third World literature. The article approaches the topic of colonialism from both a personal view and a well-researched one, and it incorporates thoughts on a variety of oppressed voices, including African-American, Maori, and other Native traditions.
“Ellis Island: The Immigrants’ Experience” by Rita G. Koman (1999)
In this article, readers encounter a simulation of the Ellis Island experience which millions of immigrants endured as they faced a new life in America. Through careful analysis, readers experience the fear and exhilaration experienced by immigrants. The article also highlights the background to Ellis Island’s conception. The article is interactive and allows readers to choose an Ellis Island character and “go through” Ellis Island as that character. The article also has a glossary and interactive worksheets that mimic the documents the United States required at that time.
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