Molly McLaughlin CAPS #4

       
          Growing up with 2 young parents, I was surrounded by excellent 80's movies.  Coming to America was one of my favorites as a kid, and fortunately comedy central played it a lot.  Coming to America is a comedy featuring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall.  In this movie the two main characters are from an african village, Eddie Murphy's character the Prince of this village, Prince Akeem.  Arsenio's character, Semmi, is his helper. Prince Akeem does not like any of the women in his village and thinks if he goes to America he will find a wife that is more intelligent and interesting than those in his country.  Prince Akeem and Semmi move to New York, and quickly learn that life in America will be so different from living in Africa.  One night while out at a club, just as Prince Akeem thinks he will not find love, he meets Lisa. Shortly after meeting Lisa, Prince Akeem and Semmi take a job working for Lisa's father at a McDowell's (McDonalds rip off).  After several failed attempts to woo Lisa, she ends up getting engaged to another man.  Prince Akeems family comes and takes him back to Africa, only for Lisa to finally come to her senses and marry Prince Akeem.
        When Prince Akeem and Semmi move to New York there are a million and one different things they must get used to.  Not only do they have to get used to certain things but they must change themselves in many ways as well, or assimilate.  Assimilation is defined as "a type of adaptation in which is an individual gives up his or her own cultural heritage and adopts the mainstream cultural identify" (Martin and Nakayama, 2013).  Assimilation is a large part of how cultures collied and mix together.  A culture really does consist of people all from different cultures meshing together and assimilating to one and creating another.

    There are many examples of how Prince Akeem and Semmi must become assimilated to American culture.  One would be when they decide their clothing was not of the New York culture and loose the suits and large fur coats and buy wind breakers, stocking caps and trucker hats.  Another would be their living situation. In Africa Prince Akeem was living in a palace, weighted on hand and foot, but in New York he rented a regular apartment, which they shortly find out is dirty and almost unlivable.  There are several instances where they also have to assimilate to what Americans talk about and how they talk. An example of this attempt would be when Prince Akeem is talking about a football game and refers to the teams as the "giants of New York" and the "packers of Green bay".  This isn't like many actual cases of assimilation, but an over the top and for a laugh situation, but it does give insight on how assimilation works.