Assimilation Narratives

The most basic similarity I found between the two narratives was that each girl was ostracized for not fitting the mold of a typical American - that is, being of European descent. It's especially ironic in the case of Zitkala-Sa, considering Native Americans were here before the European settlers. The most fundamental difference I found in the narratives, was that Sui Sin Far had at least one parent that passed as American, whereas Zitkala-Sa did not. However, Sui Sin Far was in the catch-22 of not being American enough to satisfy her American peers, but not Chinese enough to be fully accepted by that group either. Another difference was the extent of acceptance they received from their mothers. Zitkala-Sa's mother seemed to pretty much disown her, but Sui Sin Far's mother was more tolerant of her daughter's rebellion. Although I think both suffered dramatically because of the inability or unwillingness of their parents to realize how awful their situations were. You can account for some of the differences simply by looking at the American attitude toward a particular ethnicity at the time. You could argue that if they had been raised at a different time, neither would have received the amount of unacceptance that they did.