Discuss the impact that race, class and gender played in Bulosans life Essay

Discuss the impact that race, class and gender played in Bulosans life in American and which had the greatest consequence in shaping his life. Then compared an - Essay Example Today, he is best remembered for his semi-autobiographical work, America is in the Heart, which is credited for giving a 'Third World' perspective to the labor movement in America and for vividly showcasing the experiences of Filipinos during the 30s and 40s. Bulosan left for America on July 22, 1930 at the tender age of seventeen like most Filipinos during the early twentieth century. Being highly influenced by the American style of education during his high school, young Bulosan was led to believe that equality existed among all classes and individuals in the United States. America, he had hoped would help him escape his troubles and find salvation from the poverty and economic depression of his home country. However, as soon as he arrived in San Francisco, he was faced with the hostility of racism. Consequently, he was forced to work in low paying jobs-serving hotels, harvesting in the fields, and even working in the Alaskan canneries. As a result, his dreams were soon shattered and for years he encountered discrimination, starvation and sickness, later undergoing surgery for tuberculosis in Los Angeles. In the meantime, Bulosan took time out to self-educate himself, transforming himself later into the spokesman of the trials and trib ulations of the Filipinos in United States. In his own words, 'Writing is a pleasure and a passion to me'. Not only was he a protective voice of the immigrant Filipinos but also a prolific writer. Race, class and gender all exerted an influence on Bulosan's life and writings, but according to me the most prominent factor was race discrimination. There has been a lot of talk revolving around the racism faced by the African Americans in the United States. Bulosan through his work and writings brings to focus the rampant racism suffered by the other minority races like Filipinos in the proverbial 'land of oppurtunities'. Once while in Washington, the whites torched a bunkhouse where he slept. The treatment metted out to him by the whites left him feeling bitter, and isolated. His sums up his sentiments in the following lines: I know deep down in my heart that I am an exile in America. I feel like a criminal running away from a crime I didn't commit. And this crime is that I am a Filipino in America. Bulosan's angst and sense of alienation poured out in his writings. His major theme in his work is exile and return-the effect of leaving home and the need to return to the Philippines in order to make sense of the exile's experience in the United States because of the colonial status of the Philippines. In real life however he could never set foot on his homeland again. His hometown, Binaknan, is also the starting point of his famous semi-autobiographical novel, America is in the Heart. The novel is composed of stories loosely based on his brothers' and friends' experiences, providing a poignant peek into the immigrant Filipino's life during the 1930s and 1940s. America is in the Heart has been since then used as a symbol for the Filipino American identity movement of the 1970s and is also included in many bibliography lists for college courses on Filipino American studies classes, reflecting the importance of this seminal work in Asian American studies. Another important factor in Bulosan's life has been his sense of identification with the working class, having experienced their conditions first-hand