Thesis advisor: Sarah Babb / Thesis advisor: Elizabeth Rhodes / This paper, "Free in the Land of Freedom? The Experience of Latin American Immigrants in the United States," examines the situation of Latin American immigrants living in the United States. Looking at the issue from the fields of Sociology and Hispanic Studies, this thesis tries to understand the causes and effects of immigration on a personal level. In the sociological section, I use fourteen in-depth interviews to study the lives of undocumented immigrants in Austin, TX, who emigrated from a town in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. I examine their reasons for coming to the United States, their border-crossing experiences, their current daily lives, and their personal reflections. In the Hispanic Studies section of my thesis, I analyze the novels Esperanza's Box of Saints, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and the movie El Norte. Although each piece portrays a distinct immigrant experience, presenting immigrants who come from different countries and life situations, a common theme runs throughout the works. This section emphasizes the notion that immigration to another country demands an examination of one's self in an attempt to better understand one's place in the world. Studying immigration from the perspectives of sociology and fictional literature suggests that immigrants create and maintain personal connections in order to reach a sense of comfort in their new surroundings. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Romance Languages and Literature. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers and Abraham Cahan's The Rise of David Levinsky share many similarities: they both feature young Jewish protagonists who immigrate to America in search of the better life they believe America can provide. Though their novels have similar trajectories, each author answers the still relevant question of how immigrants might successfully assimilate into American culture in contrasting lights. Cahan's protagonist, in a superficial sense, achieves the "American dream," while Yezierska's Sara achieves a more modest success. However, Sara ultimately navigates the trials of cultural assimilation and identity formation more successfully. Levinsky gains monetary wealth by adapting to American values of independence and class mobility, but Sara achieves the much more valuable goal of a confident identity by tempering her embrace of these traditional American values and not rejecting her cultural origins.

This dissertation seeks to capture immigrant experiences reflected by Iranian authors living in the USA. The main objective of this literary-historical work is to explore the literary devices used by chosen authors to capture immigrants' memories in selected works of prose. The central theme is the issue of identity, particularly the authors' attitude towards Iran and the USA, and the reflection of individual and collective immigrant identity in the works. Another aim is to show whether the tendency to preserve the Iranian, American or Iranian-American identity prevails. Other tasks also include an identification of bilingual specifics in selected works and consideration of its impact on comprehensiveness of the text. To achieve the purpose of this dissertation, mostly autobiographical or semi-autobiographical literary works were selected, analyzed and interpreted. Relations in the Iranian Diaspora and interaction of Iranian characters with Americans were also scrutinized. Literary and linguistic analysis of selected works from Taqi Modarressi indicates that a mother tongue used by bilingual author can be an important device to confirm and reinforce the collective and individual identity in the Diaspora. Analysis of autobiographical, semi-autobiographical and some works of fiction revealed, that...