Hospitality versus Hostility in the United States: An Exchange Student’s Reflections

Abstract

In this essay, the idea of hospitality and/or hostility is set against, and compared to, the author’s own memories as a high school exchange student during the 1976–1977 academic year and works such as Alex Haley’s Roots (1976), Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony (1977), and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior (1976). Definitions of hospitality in ancient Greece and Derrida’s definition of hospitality and “hostipitality”—the inherent hostility within hospitality—will also be used to explain the unique position of African Americans, Native Americans, and Chinese Americans within the United States. Specifically, this essay will focus on how the aforementioned works portray a negligent, careless, and unfriendly society that is hostile toward ethnic groups: slave traders capture Africans, separate family members, and sell them for their labor; settler colonials do not respect Native American land and treat indigenous populations as unwanted others; and Chinese immigrants experience communication difficulties because of language barriers. The friendly welcome of the American host family towards the exchange student is juxtaposed with the idea of inhospitality as conveyed by select mainstream works published during the same period, thereby presenting the multifaceted nature of host-guest binary in the United States.