45 pages • 1 hour read
Carlos BulosanAmerica is in the Heart
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1946A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Importance of Differing Types of Education
Education and knowledge are, in Allos’s mind, the keys to enlightenment and success, both in America and elsewhere. His inquisitive mind is limited only by the amount of questions that it can ask. As he learns, he asks better questions and thus finds better answers, both for himself and in the realm of political theory. From the beginning, education is presented as the way to become financially stable in the Philippines. The family banks everything on Macario’s ability to finish school, become a teacher, and provide for them. All of Allos’s thoughts about education are theoretical, however, until he encounters books and university-educated people in America who encourage him. Moreover, his experiences in America show him that self-education can be just as valuable as formal education, if not more so. Finally, he values the homespun wisdom of local fisherman, many of whom have never gone to school a day in their lives.
Greater access to education is also one benefit offered by the U.S. occupation of the Philippines following the Spanish-American War. Under Spanish rule, only the ruling class enjoyed the fruits of education. The peasants, meanwhile, were denied even elementary education. This helps explain why Allos’s family values education so much that it gives up virtually everything to ensure that Macario remains in school. Even still, the albeit-improved educational opportunities for peasants remain very constrained. Allos learns that this is true for Filipinos even on the U.S. mainland. Thus, Allos relies on informal education and self-taught methods to position himself for literary success. On this point, Allos is ambivalent. On one hand, the U.S. constrains educational opportunities for poor Filipino Americans in a way that is not entirely unlike the situation in the Philippines. On the other hand, it is also a place where a man like Allos with no formal education can become a successful writer.
Nationalism and National Identity for Filipino Americans
Allos finds it absurd that anyone would fight and die in a war on another continent on behalf of strangers. The idea of national pride is fairly alien to him until he goes to America. Once he is there, he begins to see that banging the American drum is not without its difficulties. It is difficult to stay enthused about any country or society which is determined to cast one out. As his challenges mount in America, he grows nostalgic for home, even though opportunities were sorely lacking for him in the Philippines. By the end of the book, Allos strikes a tasteful balance of passionate patriotism without ever venturing into crass jingoism. He feels pride in his heritage while gladly becoming a fixture of his new world.
Part of Allos’s ambivalence toward America stems from the strange cultural identity of Filipino American immigrants. Because the Philippines is at this time an American colony, Filipinos are considered American nationals. At the same time, Filipinos are barred from the opportunity to become American citizens. This places Filipino Americans in an awkward position with respect to their adopted country.
Violence and Death as a Part of the Immigrant Experience
Death and violence strike haphazardly and suddenly throughout the book. Much of the violence is committed by opportunists or racists, but Allos participates as well. Violence is a fixture in the lives of the persecuted and downtrodden who have few avenues to make real progress by legal means. Allos witnesses multiple shootings and is himself tortured by white men, but not all of the death is violent—far from adequate medical care, Allos’s sister dies of a terrible ailment. Her death scene begins and ends in the span of a page. His father dies, his mother dies, and several of the women in Allos’s life die. Many of their deaths are treated in an offhand manner as if Allos stopped thinking about them as soon as the victims were gone. The fact that death lies underneath the every day—potentially in every gambling house, brothel, or strike that Allos visits—makes it impossible for him to feel secure. Indeed, it almost renders the idea of making future plans a laughable enterprise.
