The Old Man Isn't There Any More by Kellie Schmitt

A good man is hard to find is a short story written by, Flannery O’Connor, in which the she describes the story of a family going out for a trip to Florida. The grandmother in the family seems to be apparently the main character in the story and the main one who tries to convince the family that is dangerous to go out when there’s a man named the Misfit who is ready to attack and kill anyone in his way. No one in the family seemed to believe her, and yet; they all decided to travel. In their way to Florida, the family had a road car accident, in which luckily no one seemed to be killed. While waiting for the family’s car to work back again after the accident, there were three men who came along to ‘help’. One of those three men, was the Misfit. The grandmother suddenly recognizes him, and instead for the grandmother to implore mercy for the life of her family members, she decides to do whatever it takes to save her life. In order to save her live, she tries to brain wash the Misfit by trying to make him believe that he is a good man and he wouldn’t dare to kill her. At the end of the story, the Misfit ends up killing the grandmother.

I find myself connecting on a deep level with the author, Kellie Schmitt, in her short story, “The Old Man isn’t There Anymore.” Schmitt, who is a journalist, frequently, contributes to several travel sites with her articles such as; CNNgo, Marie Claire, and Afar Magazine, just to name a few. Schmitt tell us a story of how she had moved to China and dreamt of neighborly inclusive lifestyle. Schmitt tried several tactics of trying to fit in such as; asking her Chinese teacher if she was saying Hello incorrectly and striking up gossip filled conversations with the all-knowing cleaning lady (Faigley, 107). Only to find out, it was quite the opposite. It so happens that for several months, she is consistently ignored by her neighbors until the day she was invited to one of the elderly neighbors’ funeral. Schmitt had thought she would be attending the funeral of a gentleman that she frequently said hello to in the hallway of her complex in which she lived in. Ultimately, through her comical mishap, her ideal of what it was going to be like in the beginning finally come true. Schmitt chose her words wisely and conveyed her story with wit and humor all the while detailing her experience in the Chinese culture.

In her essay written as a travel journalist, The Old Man Isn’t There Anymore, American journalist Kellie Schmidt does a remarkable job entertaining readers with the awkwardness of her relationship with her Shanghainese neighbors, and describing a subsequent Chinese funeral. The author explains her neighbor’s hesitancy towards having a friendship with her in the shared three story house she had lived in four a year. After she observes some of her neighbors crying in the hallway, she phones her cleaning lady and learns an old man in the house, who she has believed has always said hello to her, has died. In her continued attempt to be neighborly, Kellie takes flowers to the family of her deceased neighbor; while there, she was invited to the

1. Schmitt’s purpose in writing this travel narrative, is to show the differences between the Chinese and American cultures, when it comes to many different things. Main examples in this narrative are; living under the same roof, loss of a loved one, and funeral etiquette. In the Chinese culture it is excepted to come into common areas in your under clothing. Where in America, this would not be appropriate at all. In most places in America, law enforcement would be called on some one outside of their living area in nothing but their underwear and shoes. The narrative shows the many differences in funeral etiquette. One such being, white floors being the

Rather than a life of isolation under her husband’s domain in the New World, she deliberately makes the decision to take on the challenge of learning the new customs of life in order to connect with society. Furthermore, not only does Mrs. Spring Fragrance learn the language of the New World, but she also embraces it and applies it to her everyday life in her relationship with her neighbors and her husband. As her young neighbor Laura struggles with the cultural disparities regarding love and relationships, Mrs. Spring Fragrance exercises New World poetry to soothe problems arising from Old World tradition. Mrs. Spring Fragrance’s neighbors, the Chin Yuens, demonstrate the difficulties that arise from simply ‘looking the part’ of an American, rather than fully understanding the culture. Sin Far writes, “although the Chin Yuen parents lived in a house furnished in American style, and wore American clothes…they religiously observed many Chinese customs, and their ideals of life were the ideals of their Chinese forefathers” (17). This practice ultimately contributes to their daughter Laura’s inner conflict when she cries to Mrs. Spring Fragrance, “Kai Tzu and I so love; but never, ah, never, can we take it together again” (17). In response, Mrs. Spring Fragrance says, “you really must not grieve like that.” “’Tis better to have loved and lost. Than never to have loved at all” (18). This proves how the root of immigrant happiness doesn’t

Waverly had tried to get further away from her Chinese culture and avoid it as much as possible. An example of this is when she was going to go to China for her second honeymoon and was worried that she would blend in. ““What if I blend in so well they think I’m one of them?” Waverly asked me. “What if they don’t let me come back to the United States?””

She strived for academic success, refused to cook and made herself clumsy and distasteful (Kingston, 47). When questioned for her behavior, she responded by comparing how a “bad girl” is almost similar to a boy. Yet her resistance was proven difficult because not only did she have to manage the repressiveness of her Chinese heritage but also manage the different and contradicting repressiveness of American femininity.

When a fourteen year old falls in love with someone, they are increasingly susceptible to embarrassment. In “Fish Cheeks”, a short story by Amy Tan, the author talks about her own experience when she has the unfortunate experience of having Christmas dinner with her crush and his family. Tan describes her teenage struggle to reconcile her conflicting feelings toward mainstream and Chinese cultures, revealing her difficulty in establishing her identity as an American.

In the 1999 novel “Chinese Cinderella”, author Adeline Yen Mah explores the theme of acceptance and belonging throughout the novel, as a result of her tragic childhood. The autobiography reveals the experiences of a young Chinese girl called Adeline, and her sense of isolation. The young girl is neglected by her family because she is being held liable for the death of her mother, who died during childbirth and leaving the family in poverty. As a result of this his heart-wrenching story, the author challenges the idea of belonging in an unkind family, to ultimately depict a sense of loneliness

According to Lee Chew, a Chinese immigrant who arrived in the 1870’s , Chinese people had minimalistic life styles. They were unpretentious because they had an

The minute I logged into the computer, I opened up a Google page and typed in: “Colored letters and numbers.” The page returned about a million hits of colored refrigerator magnets.

The piece is classified as Aboriginal Australian literature. It was published in the 1960’s. The purpose of the text is to give hope in a new beginning after the events involving the racial tension between the Aboriginals and the white settlers. The poem is directed to the Aboriginal people of Australia who suffered from these events

Let’s rewind back in time to 1996, Peter Hessler’s River Town is a graphic account of his experiences as a waiguoren (foreigner) in an ancient country. His crisp, content-rich and attention to detail style of writing keeps the reader mesmerized. Peter Hessler, a.k.a Ho Wei, volunteers as a Peace Corps officer who spends 2 years of his life in a city called Fuling, a Yangtze River town in China. The Peace Corps have assigned him to teach English and Literature in class to students who have never seen a foreigner let alone spoke English. This classroom becomes the portal from which Peter enters the Chinese culture and traditions. It combines his personal development as a recent college graduate with the development of China into the outer world. To understand the complicated Chinese languages and its ancient culture, it proves to be more daunting then to teach them about American culture. It’s a journey into history and a difficult one. Peter must cope with China’s centuries-old isolationism and distrust of an outsider.

Zhu, C. (2010, November 10). From china to aermica: culture shock (food, manner) –living in a new country. Retrieved from

The streets are suddenly flooded with people spitting everywhere, the shopping district inundated by the noise of the crowds, mediocrity has at last replaced the elegance of simplicity. In the short story The Destination Chen Xin goes back to Shanghai, ten years later after having left for Xinjiang on account of the Rustication Movement. Rewarded at first by the warm of his family, he learns not before long how to cope with a deeper understanding. There is no room left for him, a bed must be arranged for him in the hut they had built in the courtyard; already white haired he has passed the marriageable age, and when he could, years back in the countryside, he let her go thousands of time for his mind was set on going back to Shanghai. Regardless private affection and sentimental connection the countryside represents a moment, more or less protracted, of transaction, the city is the place where everyone has to return to. Now that he finally reached the destination, the city, he is overtaken by the feeling that in his destination something is missing, the river is not blue as he remembered it but muddy and stinking, the landscape is oppressive with its department stores, the latest fashion, the big cinemas where everyone is compressed inside, the bus where he has to fight his way to squeeze in, inevitably he revives the immensity of the grassland, the silence of the