We Need New Names

The narrator describes how immigrants from Africa try and adjust to their lives in America, and how people seem to know about the injustices in African countries but don’t know much of anything else about these countries. Hearing about their countries also causes grief: “And when these words tumbled from their lips like crushed bricks, we exchanged glances again and the water in our eyes broke” (240). Because of opportunity, however, and the abundance of food, people begin to think again of hope and God, beliefs that had been thrown away back in their homeland because there was never any hope. Moreover, it was hard for immigrants to communicate in English, and they often said what they didn’t mean and didn’t say what they truly wanted. Those who left prayed to their old gods, but their old gods, too, were famished. These gods were critical of America, and of a journey that would take their sons and daughters away from their homelands. But people left anyway, and though they had dreams of being students or doctors, they ended up working illegally just to survive: “And because we were breaking the law, we dropped our heads in shame; we had never broken any laws before.