Anthony Lawrence

English 1101

10/6/14

Homework 5

Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits

In the short story Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits by Suki Kim, was striped of out a life of luxury and put into poverty. Her father was a millionaire and lost everything over night. In a matter of hours what she had known to be her entire life was taken away. The purpose of this story is to show how immigrants struggle in the transition of coming to a new country.

The lifestyle that she had exceeds the lifestyle of many immigrants. Most immigrants do not come from wealth so it would easier for others to adjust to he sudden shift in environment. Her father was suffering through financial struggle and because of this he lost everything and was now on way to becoming bankrupt, so to avoid jail (because going bankrupt was a crime) he had to move. Too young and inadequate enough to truly understand the station, she was left with the minimum observation, which was that she was that her family was broke and had to move to America or face losing her father to the unfair system of Korea. Suki had a hard time fitting in; she looked different and barely spoke English. She was forced to watch as her mother fell from high society lady to having a job as a fish filleter at a market.

AS a child Suki was badly teased. Other kids use to call her F.O.B, which meant fresh off the boat. She was also forced to endure how people called her yellow even though she did not consider her skin tone to be that color. Then she could not relate to others from her country as much before there were different generations of immigrants and they all had a reason not to like each other .The more she tried to fit in the more she suck out. The life styles of many immigrants are very complex because she holds on to her Korean culture while still being able to take in the new culture of America. How would you feel if it was your daughter or son that had to go through this?