Thursday, 6 September: “Model Minorities”: Asian American Immigrant Literature Sui Sin Far, "In the Land of the Free" (IA 3-11); Gish Jen, “In the American Society” (IA 158-171); Maxine Hong Kingston, from The Woman Warrior (VA 195-200) [handout]; Carlos Bulosan, from American is in the Heart [handout]

·        Text-objective discussion leader: Mary Caraway

Objective 2

Charting dynamics, variations, and stages of assimilation in the immigrant narrative

1. In the American Society, by Gish Jen, one can see overlapping degrees of assimilation in the characters of the mother and father.

“My mother bought a station wagon with air conditioning, my father an oversized, red vinyl recliner for the back room; and as time went on and the business continued to thrive…” (IA 158).

The father and mother are both are first generation immigrants and the assimilation process has already begun.

2. The parents do not move toward assimilation at the same rate, nor in a continuous straight line. 

When two of the father’s illegal immigrants were arrested…

“My mother didn’t see that there was anything to do.

‘I like to talking to the judge,’ said my father.

‘This is not China,’ said my mother.

‘I’m only talking to him.  I’m not give him money unless he wants it.’

‘You’re going to land up in jail.’

‘So what else I should do?’ My father threw up his hands.  ‘Those are my boys.’  ‘Your boys!’ exploded my mother.  ‘What about your family?  What about your wife?’  My father took a long sip of tea.  ‘You know,’ he said finally.  ‘In the war my father sent our cook to the soldiers to use.  He always said it – the province comes before the town, the town comes before the family.’ 

‘A restaurant is not a town,’ said my mother” (IA165).

Notice:  The wife reminds her husband that they are not in China anymore.  And she yelled at her husband.

3. “He (the father) told us about his grandfather and the village he had reigned over in China … about the bags of rice his family would give out to the poor on New Year’s, and about the people who came to beg, on their hands and knees, for his grandfather to intercede for the more wayward of their relatives.  ‘Like that Godfather in the movie,’ he would tell us as, his feet up, he distributed paychecks.  Sometimes an employee would get two green envelopes instead of one, which meant that Jimmy needed a tooth pulled, say, or that Tiffany’s husband was in the clinker again.  ‘It’s nothing, nothing,’ he would insist, sinking back into his chair. ‘Who else is going to take care of you people?’” (IA 158).

Contradiction with the father’s behavior.  He is acting like his grandfather in the old country – while his “throne” is a fancy American recliner.

4. “…whom he treated more like servants than employees…cooks and busboys complained that he asked them to fix radiators and trim hedges, not only at the restaurant, but at our house; the waitresses that he sent them on errands and made them chauffeur him around…” (IA 160).

The father is reverting back to the old ways of China; treating the employees at the pancake house “that he owns” the same as his Old World family dealt with the villagers they had reign over. And yet…

5. “When my father took over the pancake house, it was to send my little sister Mona and me to college.  We were only in junior high at the time, but my father believed in getting a jump on things.  ‘Those Americans always saying it,’ he told us. ‘Smart guys thinking in advance.’ (IA 158).

We see assimilation.

6. The mother is obviously assimilating much more easily than her husband.

“She (the mother) didn’t work at the supermarket anymore; but she had made it to the rank of manager before she left, and this had given her not only new words and phrases, but new ideas about herself, and about America, and about what was what in general.  She had opinions, now. On how downtown should be zoned; she could pump her own gas and check her own oil; and for all she used to chide Mona and me for being ‘copycats,’ she herself was now interested in espadrilles, wallpaper, and most recently, the town country club” (IA 159).

7. Her traditional Chinese behaviors are still present. 

“… Mona, while over at Annie’s, had let it drop that our mother wanted to join (the country club). 

‘Why, I’d be honored and delighted to write you people a letter, she said.  Her skirt billowed around her.

‘Thank you so much,’ said my mother.  ‘But it’s too much trouble for you, and also my husband is…’

‘I’d be honored and delighted,’ said Mrs. Lardner with a little wave of her hands. ‘Just honored and delighted’” (IA 162).

The mother was not able to speak up when Mrs. Lardner offered to write a letter of recommendation to the country club.  A full-blown Americanized woman would be more likely to stand up for herself and tell her neighbor “No Thank You.”  The mother was still too demure to do such a thing.

8. After Mrs. Lardner left …

“ ‘You know, the Chinese have a saying,’ said my mother. ‘To do nothing is better than to overdo.  You mean well, but you tell me now what will happen’” (IA 162).

The mother is seen in this story to be clearly assimilating faster than her husband, and yet, she still clings to her Chinese heritage.

9. In this story, through the characters of the mother and father, is an example of immigrants who are in overlapping stages of the Immigrant Narrative.  We see Stage 3, shock, resistance, exploitation, and discrimination; Stage 4, assimilation to dominant American culture and loss of ethnic identity; and Stage 5, rediscovery or reassertion of ethnic identity.

10. Discussion