Immigration Lit Circle Reading Response

Quote #1:
“The one I had over and over was where I sailed in to New York Harbor awed by the skyscrapers before me. I’d tell my brothers and they’d envy me for having spent a night in America till they began to claim they’d had that dream too.” –Frank, Page: 11 (Prologue)
Response #1:
This quote is the roots to the tree; the tree is the dream of coming to America. To Frank the dream of coming to America was a constant, like he says “The one I had over and over”. It was also a common dream in his family. Because it was a dream of his own and his brothers thought the same way about the dream it gave him a little push to accomplishing it and making it a reality. It was a childhood dream that everyone knew he had and he wouldn’t feel satisfied until it happened. He was also driven to go to America because he wanted to survive and have a better life. He wanted to send money back home to his family too.
I think Frank and I have the same ideas on stuff like this and can be pushed by the similar motives. For me if there is something that I want to do and my friends and people I am around all the time think it’s really cool and want to do that themselves, it drives me a bit more to do it. I see that happening here, it’s something that people wanted to do and he wanted to have that feeling of being the 1st to do it in his family.
Question #1:
Do you agree with Frank’s actions, leaving his family and starting over?
Quote #2:
Priest: “They’ll think you just got off Ellis Island. Get briefs. You know what briefs are?” Frank: “I don’t” Priest: Get ‘em anyway. Kid like you should be wearing briefs. You’re in the U.S.A now.
-Frank talking to his new Priest friend, Page: 21
Response #2:
This quote gives you a taste of what Frank had to go through. He was born in America. However he spent all of his childhood in Ireland so his experience in America was similar to any other Irish immigrant. He knew he was missing out on something. He was with the people physically but not with them culturally. Later on in the story he is around some college students but has no way of communicating or talking to them. He had to overcome a language and culture barrier.
I can see this happening to me when I go back to Switzerland. I will be there among the people and standing at the landmarks but I will always be at a certain level of isolation. I will have no idea what the people around me are doing or how to communicate with them. I will also have no idea how be like them or live like them.
Question #2:
Have you ever been in a place where you felt completely different from the people around you and you had no idea how to communicate with them?