Organic and Multicultural Ways of Reading Bulosan

Abstract

This essay argues that students in introductory classes read America Is in theHeart more perceptively than most professional “multicultural” critics. Students’indifference to the book’s genre, for example, allows them to see clearly the meaningand value of its Part One, and to read the closing paragraph not as a postmodernrefusal of closure but as a step on the way toward reconciling “America” with thework of “becoming Filipino.” Such engagement with the book is an example of“organic” reading.