Typical American by Gish Jen
The book Typical American by Gish Jen is a detailed account of a one, Ralph Chang’s life before he comes to America to chase his dream and after his arrival, the friends he makes and his struggles and achievements. Ralph and Grover are two main characters in the book and they are seen to have many differences but they have one main and major similarity which is their greed for money and their selfless desire to achieve the American dream. Ralph was a person who believed in hard work and always doing the right thing before he meets with Grover. Grover has a huge influence on Ralph’s life “He was a man with a mission; what mattered was that he registers for the right courses, that he attend the right classes, that he buy the right books” (17). The author manages to depict the inclinations the American dream imposes on all individuals regardless of their initial belief systems as exemplified by the two main characters Ralph and Grover.
From the book, the reader is able to see the difference in beliefs and practices between two major characters, Ralph and Grover. For instance Ralph believes in studying then getting employed so as to earn a living”. On the way to America, Yifeng studied” (26). Grover on the other hand is business minded and thinks of ways to make money quickly through business projects. A good example where this is seen is where Grover convinces Ralph to leave school so that they can open a hotel business that they would name ‘Chicken Palace’ with an aim of generating a substantial amount of income. Despite Grover’s optimism, the project fails miserably and Ralph considers going back to his studies. Sure enough, joins school once more, where he pursues and completes his Doctorate and gets...
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...acters compared above. The book is successful in the narration of the life stories of the three young Chinese immigrants that live in America seeking education to mature their careers and build their lives. The author is also clear in explaining how after the Second World War, during the post war period of economic hardships, how this young man Ralph makes his way to America, a land where his sister went to, to seek his destiny. The book outlines how he met Grover and how this young man greatly influences his life, decisions and way of thinking. We also understand from the book that Ralph gets married and begets two children. We are told of his married life and how he struggles to please five people who have the most influence over his life or we can say control his life. The people are his parents, his wife, his children, his friend and his sister let alone himself.
Ralph grew up in Shanghai, China, where he had a distant and non-loving relationship with his father. Ralph took the opportunity to come to America in hopes of achieving his degree and eventually PhD. While this is a relatively simple goal for most people in America, it became more than a bourdon for Ralph; often getting sidetracked to pursue bigger and better things.
Ralph has an idealistic view of the world and he always strives for righteousness and perfection in himself and in others. I think that because he expects perfection in this world, he is disappointed with the imperfections in himself and in others as well as the unfairness in the world. Facing difficult situations, one after another in his life, has affected him deeply because of his idealistic view of the world.
Many immigrating to the United States develop ideas of themselves and their own identity in order to fit the form of America they have been coaxed into believing. In “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers”, Mr.Shi displays these expectations and false prophecies of character when he naively concludes, “America is worth taking a look at; more than that, America makes him a new person, a rocket scientist, a good conversationalist, a loving father, a happy man”(189). Mr.Shi not only perceives America as a place of pure prosperity and freedom, but also anticipates a society where he can recreate himself. Arguably, these limited ideas of America can foster one 's desire to improve as an individual, however this often results in a further loss of identity because they are unwilling to accept their true self. He longs to exist within the form of American society he fantasizes because he envisions himself as a more developed and well rounded person that he feels communist China has kept him from
When Ralph is confronted with adversity his character develops. He loses his sense of civilization and the savagery within him grows after killing his friend Simon. Ralph faces the inevitable loss of innocence on the island when discovering what was humanity is capable of. This novel will forever remain popular as it shows human nature in its truest form.
People from all around the world have dreamed of coming to America and building a successful life for themselves. The "American Dream" is the idea that, through hard work and perseverance, the sky is the limit in terms of financial success and a reliable future. While everyone has a different interpretation of the "American Dream," some people use it as an excuse to justify their own greed and selfish desires. Two respected works of modern American literature, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, give us insight into how the individual interpretation and pursuit of the "American Dream" can produce tragic results.
Defining the American character is quite difficult because American identity is vaguely founded on shared values and ideologies, more so than a particular creed, race, or culture. In order to describe the American character, we will consider the dominate and distinctive qualities of Americans as interpreted by J. Hector St. Jon De Crèvecoeur and Thomas Paine. First, we will examine how Crèvecoeur illustrates Americans as industrious, prideful, and political in “Letters from an American Farmer.” Then, we will analyze from Thomas Paine's “Common Sense” how he depicts the prevalent qualities of Americans to be driven by justice, liberty, emotions, and individualism. Also, because both authors consider the American character and culture different
...This shows that the values of the two leaders, Ralph and Jack, impact a lot on the societies civilization and differ from one another.
Ralph’s society was based on everyone having a say in the government. Ralph was kind and good to the people of his society. He let them have freedom and liberties which was not go for his society because they abused their freedom and became lazy and irresponsible. His society did not have their priorities in order because Ralph did not stress that the rescue fire and the ...
The symbols that encompass the novel underscore the theme that the American Dream, corrupt and unjust, eventually concludes in anguish. Money, greed, and lust overtake everything in their lives to the point of nothing else being of importance. The characters in this novel lost themselves to a fruitless dream that eventually brought and end to the “holocaust” that embodied their lives (162).
The American Dream seems almost non-existent to those who haven’t already achieved it. Every character in the novel has moments of feeling happy and endures a moment where they believe that they are about to achieve their dreams. Naturally everyone dreams of being a better person, having better things and in 1920’s America, the scheme of getting rich is quick. However, each character had their dreams crushed in the novel mainly because of social and economic situations and their dream of happiness becomes a ‘dead dream’ leading them back to their ‘shallow lives’ or no life at all.
It’s not easy to build an ideal family. In the article “The American Family” by Stephanie Coontz, she argued that during this century families succeed more when they discuss problems openly, and when social institutions are flexible in meeting families’ needs. When women have more choices to make their own decisions. She also argued that to have an ideal family women can expect a lot from men especially when it comes to his involvement in the house. Raymond Carver, the author of “Where He Was: Memories of My Father”, argued how his upbringing and lack of social institutions prevented him from building an ideal family. He showed the readers that his mother hide all the problems instead of solving them. She also didn’t have any choice but to stay with his drunk father, who was barely involved in the house. Carvers’ memoir is relevant to Coontz argument about what is needed to have an ideal family.
For some, simply having infinite wealth and popularity is enough for them to be happy. For others, they need something that money can’t buy. Two books that express these qualities are: The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both of these books describe the life of a wealthy man but each of them have different ideas of the American dream. Examples from these books will show how the American dream differs from person to person.
Ralph, in some ways, parallels a school teacher. He always tries to do what is in the best interest of the community, but sometimes is over powered by the majority and gives in. In over words, he does his best to keep order and peace, but of course can’t all the time because of disagreements, stubbornness and rebellion.
In conclusion The American Dream for Hanneh and Joe were both plagued by the one thing they didn’t have, money. Money stands in the way of many things for many people. You have to have money to make money, and you need to be someone to know someone. Hanneh and Joe had many more similarities than differences “in my opinion”. They both wanted to be rich and have things that only the upper class can have. The American dream for both of them was to be something that they were not; I used these two characters from these two stories because I believe that they got cheated in the same way. They both wanted so bad for people to respect them and to maybe get a piece of that dream pie. In the end the American dream is not a dream, it is a classification of the wealthy the higher class. This dream will always be sought after by the little man, and will always be true for the rich man. Hanneh and Joe are prime examples of the outcome of dreaming. I guess if you want money you have to dream.
The American Dream provides a uniformed idea of a goal that is seldomly achieved. It includes having a successful job, a healthy family, and happiness achieved through hard work and determination. Those born and raised well with strict parents often attain the American Dream, but those raised with abusive parents that live separately often find the American Dream extremely difficult to achieve. However, this idealistic stereotype can be false. Surprisingly, in the book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote the American Dream poses as a difficulty to maintain and achieve by the Clutter family, Perry Smith, Dick Hickock, and Floyd Wells.