which his suburban town is populated by Koreans,
Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and blacks. His family
has evolved as well, with his wife, Daisy, introduc-
ing a Korean strain into the Battaglia clan. Having
known a number of Asian Americans intimately,
Jerry is resistant to the usual stereotypes, and his
narrating voice resists the stereotypes of working-
class Italian-American men, tough and unsubtle.
Instead, Jerry’s thoughts come in long, musing, po-
etic flights. Though Jerry’s voice is dominant, Lee
slyly nods to his own literary reputation through
the character of Paul, who “writes about The Prob-
lem with Being Sort of Himself—namely, the very
conflicted and complicated state of being Asian
and American and thoughtful and male.”
Bibliography
Kakutani, Michiko. “Flying Instead of Feeling, but the
Fantasy of Motion Is Also Risky.” New York Times,
9 March 2004, late edition, p. E1.
Park, Ed. “Drastic Alterations.” Village Voice, 10–16
March 2004, p. 89.
Scott, A. O. “Above It All.” New York Times, 14 March
2004, late edition, p. 7.
Jaime Cleland
America Is in the Heart Carlos Bulosan
(1946)
Set in the early 20th-century United States, Amer-
ica Is in the Heart tells the tale of a Filipino who
leaves his homeland to move to “America,” a na-
tion inspired by the promise of freedom, equal
opportunity, and justice for all. Based loosely on
CARLOS BULOSAN’s own life and experiences, the
fictional autobiography is narrated by the protago-
nist “Allos,” who opens the story by describing life
in the colonial Philippines, highlighting economic
hardships and the limitations of “free U.S. educa-
tion” in the aftermath of the Philippine-American
War. The remainder of the narrative depicts the
protagonist’s struggles against racism and class-
based obstacles in the United States, where oppor-
tunities were scarce and resources limited.
Allos is an idealistic youth whose fervent belief in
“the American Dream” is repeatedly tested by race
riots, vigilantism, police brutality, and hate crimes.
At one point in the narrative, after having already
experienced countless acts of racial violence, Allos’s
testicles are crushed by vigilantes. Allos’s attempts
to reconcile these difficult struggles with the prom-
ises of democracy constitute the central theme of
the novel. The lengthy text eventually concludes
with an ending that is open to conflicting inter-
pretations. The last chapter, in particular, has been
interpreted quite differently through the years by
critics who disagree on the text’s resolution.
Debates over whether the narrative advocates
or critiques U.S. national mythologies have cen-
tered on the somewhat ambiguous final para-
graphs, wherein the narrator seems to reaffirm his
utopian interpretation of the United States, despite
more than 300 pages of apparent evidence to the
contrary. After experiencing countless acts of bru-
tal racial violence, which prompt him to become a
union organizer and social activist, Allos appears
to conclude his story by simply reaffirming his
faith in “the American dream”: “I knew that no
man could destroy my faith in America that had
sprung from all our hopes and aspirations, ever.”
Allos also cites his “defeats” among the reasons for
his prevailing beliefs. Calling attention to the rich-
ness of the soil, the freedom involved in transcon-
tinental mobility, the feeling of solidarity among
the urban poor who provide “free meals in dingy
gambling houses,” and the transformative power
of education, Allos reiterates the myths of mobil-
ity, democracy, and opportunity.
Critics have struggled to make sense of this
ending, interpreting the ultimate conclusion of
his narrative as, alternately, assimilation or resis-
tance—depending on one’s critical interpretation.
The final paragraphs create an ambiguous space
wherein readers on both sides of the debate are
able to justify either interpretation with multiple
textual examples. Published, significantly, in the
patriotic political climate of the postwar United
States (1946), the text was initially read as an affir-
mation of U.S. democracy, a celebration of equal
opportunity and melting-pot ideology, and a pa-
triotic tome from a racial minority perspective.
Following the book’s original positive reception,
however, its popularity eventually declined until14 America Is in the Heart