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24/02/2026 11:58 am
In Phuc Tran’s book, Sigh, Gone, he discusses the difficulty of figuring out his identity as an immigrant in a mostly American neighborhood. From questioning his name to determining where he fits in the social structure of his high school, Tran has to navigate learning who he is with an additional barrier to the average teenager, having a whole other culture as a large part of his life. One way that Tran finds ways to carve out his place is to read, not just to improve his vocabulary, but so he can have the same cultural references as the typical white guy, using Clifton Fadiman’s The Lifetime Reading Plan as a guide.
Early in the story, Tran talks about his family’s relocation to the United States after fleeing Vietnam. After being bounced between multiple camps and multiple countries, they finally started to settle in Pennsylvania, “We needed to blend, adopt our new country as it had adopted us. My parents were navigating all the straits and inlets of living in America, holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, driving in the snow, the difference between ketchup and catsup.” (Tran 20).
Based on this idea and the ideas from your book, how quickly are immigrants pressured to assimilate? What aspects of culture do they need to assimilate too early, and what aspects can be avoided or pushed until later?
For participants:
-Never use a peer’s real name, only use their username
-Respond to the question based on your book, not your personal opinion
-If the question doesn’t directly apply to something that appears in your book, be clear about what you’re seeing instead
-Make sure to include a summary of your book so far
-Include a quote with the proper citation to give context to your answer
-Acknowledge your lead’s reply to your response with a comment that clarifies information, offer a question to them about their book, or simply give a thumbs up
To exceed: Incorporate a quote from a different Ted Talk or a different CommonLit text that has not yet been discussed in your group
03/03/2026 2:09 pm
My Response : My book is not able to answer this question. My book “The Burning Tigris” is about the Armenian Genocide. The book is both a history on the genocide, a history of the world’s response to the genocide (America and Europe at this time) and how the genocide affects world human rights and humanitarian issues today. Each chapter details the historical events and the situation leading up to it. The Armenians of the 19th century lived in the Ottoman Empire, which was increasingly hostile to them. “The Armenian Question” was what to do about the Armenian people. The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire sought to eliminate the Armenian people, therefore, “solving the question”. The book details the massacres and increasing destruction of the Armenians and their culture. The United States and Great Britain both exposed the tragedies of the Armenians to their populations through newspapers and gathering. The first Red Cross mission to go international was to help the ravaged Armenians. The Armenian Genocide did not start until 1915, but terrible violence was brought on the Armenians through the 1890s. My book is not about the immigration of people, but instead about their elimination. The complete destruction of their culture, and sense of the Armenian people was purposely tried to be eradicated from the Ottoman Empire. “It was this complexly layered Christian culture situated across the empire from Constantinople to to Van, from Tabzon to Adana that Sultan Abdul Hamid II would begin to destroy openly now with his tactic of planned massacre." (Balakian 52).
04/03/2026 11:53 am
In my book The Only Road by Alexander Diez there is a boy named Jamie who struggles with the loss of his cousin Miguel. He lives in a small town in Guatemala. There’s a group called the Alphas who are considered bad. Anyone who refuses to work with them is hurt or killed. Like Maguel. Jamie lives in fear of her being the next one to be killed. My character might need to adapt language potentially because he is thinking about moving to the U.S to go live with his brother. Another thing he might struggle with may be adapting to different cultures. A quote that supports this states, “It was bad luck to cry or make a scene at a child's funeral. The spirit would get confused, thinking he needed to stay on earth, instead of making his assent straight into God's arms, where he belonged.” (Diaz 14)
