The Crucible

Thousand Pieces of Gold

In the story, "Thousand Pieces of Gold" by RuthAnne Lum McCunn, I feel the story symbolizes the immigrant experience and how horrible Americans can be towards people who come to this country, where they're supposed to be welcomed with open arms, but instead they are shunned and told to get the hell out. I think this is what the author was thinking when she wrote this book. An example of this is when America was just starting to accept immigrants. The Irish were coming over and everyone who was already here decided that the Irish were diseased, drunkards that didn't deserve a life where they could be free, so people started putting up signs that told the Irish where they weren't welcome, such as the acronym N.I.N.A. Meaning "No Irish Need Apply."

I think another problem immigrants have, is that no matter where they're from, when they come to America they have nothing and we don't help them much in that respect. I mean when they come to America "The Land of The Free." we don't realize that they know nothing about our country and have no one to help them make it. When they get here they have no money, family or friends, they're just like lost little kids and eventually they start to lose all their morals and start behaving like Americans and then we get angry at them for acting so socially unacceptable and then we automatically assume that the entire race is like those few immigrants who have lost it.

Also yet another problem for immigrants is cultural identity. Most Americans in this society have no respect for the culture and experience immigrants bring with them. All most Americans really see is someone else with a different color of skin, that speaks a different language and usually doesn't know English. So I guess what I'm getting at is that we as Americans