The Generation Gap

WR 122

April 20, 2014

The Generation Gap

In the essay “Who’s Irish?” author Gish Jen speaks to readers through the main character, the Chinese grandmother. Even though she remains nameless, the grandmother is brought to life through Jen’s use of a wonderful combination of short narrative phrases and writing that emphasize her not-so-perfect English. The grandmother tells us about her granddaughter Sophie, but woven into her tale is the much larger story of the rest of her family. As she tells us about her granddaughter, she introduces us to her daughter, son-in-law, his brothers, and their mother. While she and her daughter are Chinese, the in-laws are Irish, and much is said about the differences between the two families and their cultures. At the same time, she also speaks to their similarities, mostly in the context of comparing each generation. While the cultural differences are a very important part of the story, the conflicts and connections between the main characters can be broken down generationally just as easily as culturally.

The youngest in her family has no peer, but the character of Amy fills that role, since she seems more of Sophie’s generation than of her daughter Natalie’s. Our character assigns similar qualities to both, calling them “wild” and “crazy”. Each girl is depicted as a bit bohemian and neither behaves how our main character thinks they should. She speaks from a generation twice removed, and the things she says could be heard from any grandmother, no matter where they were born. The free-spirited child who is encouraged to express her creativity and explore her world with the natural curiosity of youth is not the child that was to be “seen and not heard” by our depression-era grandparents. The world of their youth was far more conservative, and parents had very different views about child-rearing.

Although the story at first seems to be about Sophie, the reader quickly finds that it is as much about our character’s relationship...