Who Is Irish? By Gish Irish

“Who’s Irish” by Gish Jen is a story of an elderly Chinese woman, the narrator, who lives in America and tries to help raise her granddaughter Sophie. The grandmother cultural background causes tension in her relationship with her daughter, Natalie, who was born in America and is now married into an Irish-American family. The elderly Chinese woman struggles to adapt to her daughter’s lifestyle and After spanking her granddaughter, the Chinese woman is asked to move out of Natalie’s house. The elderly

Gish Jen’s “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

In the short story Who’s Irish by Gish Jen and Everyday Use written by Alice Walker, both authors address generational conflicts between mothers and daughters, as well as struggles to coexist while living in very different cultural mindsets. The moral of both stories is that cross-cultural issues exist in every family tree and we often find comfort in unlikely places. While a mother may not agree with her daughter’s choices she never loses love, and while a daughter may not like decisions that

length and came to the conclusion that “spirited give and take within the home… may teach the child how to express aggression in self-serving and prosocial causes,” however, Sophie’s household has not quite mastered this “give and take”. Gish Jen’s “Who’s Irish?” highlights the adverse effects of early exposure to conflicting parenting styles through a detailed narrative of the daily life of a young girl named Sophie and her mother, father, and grandmother.  The interpersonal relationship between

In Gish Jen's "Who's Irish?" the witness, and amusement as well as the seriousness, and sadness really make the reader think about different cultures. The story is about an old Chinese grandmother who is widowed and trying to fit in and adapt to her way of life in New York with her daughter Natalie. She speaks in a Chinese immigrant voice while telling her story. She does not agree with a lot of the ways Natalie tries to do things with her Irish husband John. She explains her background in an amusing

cultural difficulties. “One Out of Many” by V.S. Naipaul, Who’s Irish? By Gish Jen and “The son from America by Isaacs Bashevis Singer, are stories about different immigrants and how their life changed once they moved to the United State. From there we can see all the challenges they had to face in a strange environment where everything seems upside and no place of acceptance. “One Out of Many” by Naipaul is a story about a named Santosh who moved from Bombay to Washington. Santosh was really happy with

Chinese and American Cultures Chinese-Americans authors Amy Tan and Gish Jen have both grappled with the idea of mixed identity in America. For them, a generational problem develops over time, and cultural displacement occurs as family lines expand. While this is not the problem in and of itself, indeed, it is natural for current culture to gain foothold over distant culture, it serves as the backdrop for the disorientation that occurs between generations. In their novels, Tan and Jen pinpoint

parents and children. However, as time goes on and generations drift apart, different methods of behavior develop. The tensions between parent and child define the conflict in Amy Tan’s Two Kinds, Anzia Yezierska’s Children of Loneliness, and Gish Jen’s Who’s Irish. These conflicts explore the cultural gap between the two--the way they act differently, their behavioral differences, and their different thought processes are all conflicts found in the short stories. Although there is always love and unity

Ethnic Differences Across Generations      Gish Jen’s “Who’s Irish?” explores a Chinese grandmother’s thoughts and beliefs about her ethnically integrated family. The grandmother tells the story as though she is looking back on past events and thinking about how they have affected her present life. As her tale begins, she identifies her granddaughter, Sophie, as a wild three-year-old (161). Perhaps the grandmother associates with Sophie’s strong will, because she reveals

“You’re Chinese. You’re Chinese!” His face is already white and frowning with suffering. It does not matter that his “skin is fair, and his features mixed, people see his straight black hair and ‘know’ who he is.” In An Ethnic Trump, Gish Jen, a Chinese mother, describes her son Luke, a half Chinese half Irish boy, and his experiences as he encounters bullies as a biracial child. Why does he, one of millions of biracial or mixed race population, end up with the same racism as other minorities? The answer