Assimilate means to absorb or take in and incorporate
as one's own as the dictionary says. To break it down assimilate means to
try to be something you’re not, trying to resemble something or trying to fit
in, not only through appearance but through the mind as well. If you think
about it, there are many ways one assimilates, in a sort of way it’s
an influence whether it’s good or bad. For example in the
play A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha is one who worries about assimilation. There
are some ways she shows it without a doubt, like when she mutilates her natural
hair so that it looks more like that of a white women's hair. Also, the way she
talks when not at home; a tongue that lets out words but words of a
Hollywood queen or a queen of the Nile. One can argue whether assimilate is a
good thing or a bad thing, it all depends on the influence a person
is taking in or absorbing. For instance, Beneatha, wanting to have the same
physical attraction like white women had, shows the weakness of confidence
she really has of herself. But that assimilation can become a good thing,
after a while you'll get bored with it and it will give you the
confidence to show who you really are.
I’ve noticed people around me have assimilated or are
assimilating and I as well have assimilated before. Some may come to school
with new designer cloths one day trying to impress the so called "higher
class". Some do it to get attention, the attention
they rarely experience even at home or others may do it because
they were once taunted and don't want to go through that humiliation again. My
assimilation never got to the point where, "I need", was a constant
phrase that would come out of my mouth. The trying to fit in was rarely a
problem to me but it was more like a pusher-upper thing that gave me
the confidence to express who I really was. Notes of a Native
Speaker by Eric Liu, portrays a similar assimilation, the one that
makes you realize who you really are. Eric Liu assimilates with peers around
him because he feels like a stranger. He did things with his peers, the things
he would not do at home but at the same time he would learn new
things Later on in his life he realizes that, that was not who he really
was or should have been. Leaving behind his cultural traditions, he notices
that if he did not assimilate he would have been a total different person then
what he was at that moment. Eric see assimilation as a good but then bad
thing because he was slowly pushed away from his cultural traditions but then
again a good thing because he was successful in life.
