Prospective Immigrants Please Note

In the poem Prospective Immigrants Please Note, author Adrienne Rich is sending out a warning to those who desire to immigrate. It seems that, the passage to a new country is one that has been misconstrued in the thoughts and imaginations of foreigners. Rich is saying, the path to immigration is a big risk to take. It is a road to travel that is long and is not always promising. This path is a sacrifice and is indubitably a life changing process. In essence, the message Rich is portraying in this poem is, “Everything that glitters isn’t gold”
What stand out in this poem was who the message was to. Being the child of two immigrant parents has given me culture and understanding of the immigrant life. More specifically, what stands out in this poem is the sixth stanza.
but much will blind you,
much will evade you,
at what cost who knows?
This stanza was particularly interesting to me because the desire for freedom is something that can blind you. When we as human beings desire something we are willing to do anything to get to it. Whether it’s to get that job you’ve always wanted or buy that house you’ve been dreaming of our desires sometimes blind us from reality. We sometimes forget our morals our values and everything that we’ve been grounded on from childhood because of desires that we have in us. In the last line of the sixth stanza, I thought of how many foreigners were willing to steal, lie, cheat and sometimes become selfish in order to gain access a new life.
In addition to the sixth stanza, the second stanza was also very intriguing to me. The line, “there is always the risk of remembering your name”, stands out to me because while searching beyond the literal meaning of that line, it reminded me of my parents. As a child growing up my parents worked very hard to provide above and beyond what we actually needed. They always wanted my siblings and I to enjoy the luxuries of life and they would always say, “Never forget where you came from.” And my parent certainly never did that. Some foreigners who made it to the New World worked hard to enjoy the luxuries and sometimes forget where they came from. It is important that you remember you culture and family history because it is your identity. It gives meaning to the purpose of life; however it is not rare that many immigrants sometimes forget where they came from.
Through this poem I was able to identify with the “door” and the risk that immigrants took and are still taking today. It is a path that had been traveled many times for many years but still runs the same risk.