In the short story, Who’s Irish?, by Gish Jen tells a story about an elderly Chinese grandmother in her late 60s living in America. The narrator compares and contrast the Chinese culture to the American and Irish. The author adds a hick accent to the narrator which is distinguished and persistent throughout the story. This addition of her thick accent gives a very vivid image of her judgemental and disapproving personality. Her daughter, Natalie, is married to John who the narrator criticizes him and his culture all the time. She says, “Plain boiled food, plain boiled thinking. Even his name is plain boiled: John...”(page 2). She also criticizes how John doesn’t have a job and claims that he is depressed. She compares how in America, a mother needs to do everything she can do to help her daughter, while in China the daughter needs to take care of her mother and not the other way. She also talks about how in China, a Chinese child would never show any type of out of control or not well mannered like her granddaughter, Sophie who takes her clothes off and does whatever she wants to do. This is where everything goes downhill, when the old Chinese lady disciplines Sophie by spanking her and is told to leave the house because she is being abusive, but she …show more content…
In my experience, I was born and raised in American culture, but I was also embedded by the customs of my parents culture. For example, they chose an American name instead of the usual Guatemalan names like Maynor or Ines. Guatemalan culture consist of discipline, respect towards elders, close minded, catholicism, and is family oriented. In contrast, American culture is involved with open minded people, creative minds, free expression, and liberals. As one can see how differences of cultures can lead to disagreements and problems in a