Americanized: Rebel without a Green Card is a memoir written by Sara Saedi about her teenage years growing up as an illegal immigrant in the United States. After her family migrated from Iran in hopes of getting green cards, they get stuck in a decades-long waiting process, and have to continue their normal life in constant fear of being deported. However, being an Iranian immigrant does not stop Saedi from experiencing the everyday-drama of being a teen in America. She crushes on boys, deals with acne, goes to Prom, and has quarrels with her parents. I think that Saedi symbolically sums up the book with this quote: “Iran is not pronounced i-RAN; its pronounced e-RON. Tell all your friends. On behalf of my fellow Iranians (e-RON-ians), we thank you” (Saedi 9). Saedi sprinkles educational material about Iran throughout the book, by addressing some stereotypes about Iranians. However, she does this in a somewhat sarcastic/entertaining tone, so readers don’t feel like they are reading an encyclopedia. I picked up Americanized: Rebel without a Green Card because I thought that the book was going to involve someone going through a completely different experience than me; Sara Saedi had to go through many things that I don’t have to experience. Saedi spends a lot of time writing about high school experiences, such as going to prom or having a boyfriend, that most American-born kids take for granted. Her parents, growing up in Iran, didn’t have these opportunities because of certain laws that prevented gatherings of both genders. Her mother and father also had an arranged marriage, which is something that seems so wrong in America, but is commonplace in Iran. Because of the experiences Saedi’s parents had, she cherishes every moment. She also describes something called “Immigrant Child Guilt Complex.” This is a term for what goes through the mind of immigrant children when they blame themselves for the sacrifices their parents make during immigration. Saedi feels she is responsible for the economic hardships her parents go through, and the stressful process of trying to get green cards. I am lucky to not have this kind of stress go through my mind on a daily basis, but it was really helpful to learn that it exists, so that I can be more empathetic to people who may struggle with similar situations. The most important message I took away from this book is that though we may have many different backgrounds, we all are human. We all go through good and bad experiences, and we all laugh and cry at times. Though Saedi is an Iranian-immigrant, which both come with different baggage than being American-born, I have things in common with her. I love my sister as she loves her siblings, even if both of us have gotten into fights with them before. We’ve both had to deal with lost loved-ones, and had to move to a new house, even though we loved our old one. Even though she has a completely different life than I do, I was able to understand her struggles and conflicts through her way of writing, which kept me engaged while other books have failed to do so. By making the book somewhat informative about Iranian culture and immigration policies, I felt like there was factual and emotional thoughts that I was able to take out of the book. By Noah L.
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AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
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November 2022
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