Summary of Gish Jens Whos Irish Essay - 547 Words

Gish Jen’s â€Å"Who’s Irish† tells the story of a sixty-eight-year-old Chinese immigrant and her struggle to accept other cultures different from her own. The protagonist has been living in the United States for a while but she is still critical of other cultures and ethnicities, such as her son-in-law’s Irish family and the American values in which her daughter insists on applying while raising the protagonist’s granddaughter. The main character finds it very hard to accept the American way of disciplining and decides to implement her own measures when babysitting her granddaughter Sophie. When the main character’s daughter finds out that she has been spanking Sophie she asks her mother to move out of the house and breaks any further contact†¦show more content†¦Her stubbornness and strict discipline is evident when she pokes Sophie with a stick, trying to make Sophie come out of a foxhole in which she hid herself in, not giving up on the idea of the punishment. The character is round, as we are introduced to her most inner thoughts and personality traits while she narrates the story. At the same time, the protagonist is a static character, since her critical behavior of other cultures does not change throughout the story. In the end, the main character still displays her intolerance when she says, â€Å"Of course, I shouldn’t say Irish this, Irish that, especially now I am become honorary Irish myself, according to Bess. Me! Who’s Irish? I say†. The protagonist represents someone who despite being herself an immigrant sees other cultures and ethnicities as outsiders and is critical of others such as her son-in-law’s family and the previous American babysitter. The story has an external conflict between the main character and her daughter in regarding best way of disciplining Sophie but this conflict is based on the internal one. The main conflict of the story is the internal conflict of the Chinese immigrant who decides to live in the United States but carries the values of her native country with her and therefore, finds it difficult to accept other types of behavior, such as the actions of the Irish family. Her internal conflict is evident when she