Rude am I in My Speech

Besides being an English professor at Yale University, Caryl Phillips is a credible author because he has written numerous essays, novels, and screenplays and has won many awards.  Phillips’ family are immigrants, and being a second-generation immigrant, Phillips has managed to assimilate himself into the English culture much better than his father.  In Rude am I in My Speech, Phillips describes a personal narrative of when he met his father for lunch after not having seen him for a few years.  This lunch has caused Phillips to evaluate the lives of first-generation migrants and how they differentiate from those of the second generation.  As a result, his purpose has become to encourage people of the second generation to record information about the lives of the first generation.  That way,  heritages will not be lost and there will be a better understanding of past struggles as well as better communication between the generations.  He accomplishes his purpose mainly by using Othello from Shakespeare’s Othello in an analogy with first-generation migrants to logically explain how important it is for people to conform to their societies.  Othello was an outsider who believed that he was above the rules and ways of the culture around him.  Since he got away with things that others of the society could not, such as having a secret marriage, he thought he was accepted into society.  Therefore, he did not realize until it was too late that he was not assimilated.  Phillips’ father however, did try to fit into society.  Phillips’ wrote, “My father is no Othello.  He may have polished up a few words and phrases here and there, and done a little studying of the dictionary, but to this day he remains admirably rude in speech” (144).  While trying to fit into society, Phillips’ father tried to also keep a sense of identity by going to clubs and behaving like himself at home.  As a second-generation migrant, Phillips’ did not understand his father’s ways and would get frustrated.  However, he later understood that he could incorporate more of his father’s views into his own mindset.  

Othello and First-Generation Immigrants are Black Sheep

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