As is often the case in the literary contributions from within America's multicultural tapestry, Kim Yong Ik's short story They Won't Crack it Open wrestles with problems of self image and an illusion of America which seems prevalent among cultural minorities. Kim Yong Ik's story explores the outcome from feelings of cultural inferiority, a willingness to submit to America's stereotypes about Asian Americans, and their willingness to believe and perpetuate the illusion of America, even in the face of contradictory evidence. In Multicultural American Literature A. Robert Lee discusses the challenges of self image which one cultural minority, the Native American, faces as they struggle against the influences of their trivialized and stereotyped history: "Has not a truly tribal mix of cultures and languages, histories and beliefs, stretching across all the Americas from the Bering Strait to Tierra del Fuego and from the Caribbean to the South Seas, been rendered
Paintings, Prints, and Pottery by Terry Heath