Who’s American?

1. Who’s American? A presentation of Gish Jen’s “Who’s Irish” by Don Ishler November 17, 2004

2. Lillian (Gish) Jen • Born in Scarsdale, New York 1955 as a second generation Chinese American • Scarsdale was populated heavily with Jewish Immigrants • Graduate of Harvard in English • Began writing in undergraduate composition class that included a study of Robert Fitzgerald

3. Jen’s Writing • Prior to publishing work in magazines like The New Yorker and The American, Jen had a fellowship at the Bunting Institute • Published booksTypical American (1991) and Mona In The Promised Land (1996) • Typical American is about Ralph Chang immigrating to America • Mona is about Ralph’s daughter in the midst of converting to Judiasm

4. Influences on Writing • Jen grew up as a second generation Chinese American living in an area with people from many different ethnic backgrounds • Much of her writing reflects childhood expirences • Immigration, assimilation, ethnic tension major themes in her work • Mona In The Promised Land has been compared to Robert Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

5. “Who’s Irish?” • Who’s Irish is a collection of short stories named for the short story in the collection, “Who’s Irish?” • Discussing Points • Cultural Differences • Generational Gap • Americanization

6. Questions Raised by “Who’s Irish?” • What is the reason for using broken English? • Throughout the story the Grandmother seems at odds with her daughter and the American culture in general. She cannot understand why spanking a misbehaving child is not a good idea and thinks that the old baby sitter is crazy for letting the daughter run around the house barefoot. This, combined with her difficulty with the English language makes her very confused and frustrated with the country that the is in.

7. Questions Raised by “Who’s Irish?” • The Grandmother calls her daughter’s husband Irish at the beginning of the story. The Labels of Irish and Chinese seem to stand for certain traits. What are these traits and why is this significant? • Chinese: discipline, loyalty to person and society • Irish: Willfulness, unorthodox thinking • These two labels put value sets into two distinct categories that are often warring factions for immigrants

8. Questions Raised by “Who’s Irish?” • Ethnic labels have a tendency to be overly broad, why then are they used so much in this story? • The broadness of labels are a way of easily putting into categories human traits. • Labels reflect a level of ignorance • Sterotypes

9. Questions Raised by “Who’s Irish?” • There are disagreements between the Mother and Grandmother in the story. To what degree are these differences a result of culture, generation, and personality • Personality is forged through culture and generation. Corporal versus verbal punishment is generational, strict discipline versus soul searching is cultural

10. Conclusion • Gish Jen dealt with cultural differences in herself and around her while growing up • Her writing reflects the inner war that immigrants feel when trying to make peace between their two cultures. • Immigrants are not Americanized until this peace is made. • “There's a quest in writing fiction, a religious aspect of searching for truth, that makes it meaningful for me .” ~Gish Jen

11. Bibliography • The Health Anthology of American Literature Newsletter. 2004. <http://searcht.aimhome.netscape.com/aim/boomframe.jsp?query=Gish+Jen&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3De8d550c236a85565%26clickedItemRank%3D4%26userQuery%3DGish%2BJen%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Ffalcon.jmu.edu%252F%257Eramseyil%252Fjen.htm%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DAIMHome%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Ffalcon.jmu.edu%2F%7Eramseyil%2Fjen.htm> 17 Nov 2004. • Jen, Gish. “Who’s Irish?” 1999. • Powells.com Interviews. 2004. <http://www.powells.com/authors/jen.html> 17 Nov 2004. • Voices from the Gaps. 2004. Netscape. <http://searcht.aimhome.netscape.com/aim/boomframe.jsp?query=Gish+Jen&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3Dcd4595c664db9854%26clickedItemRank%3D5%26userQuery%3DGish%2BJen%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fvoices.cla.umn.edu%252Fnewsite%252Fauthors%252FJENgish.htm%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DAIMHome%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fvoices.cla.umn.edu%2Fnewsite%2Fauthors%2FJENgish.htm> 17 Nov 2004.