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Race Relations in the Lens of Gish Jen’s short story “No More Maybe
Since the time immemorial, scholars and research institutions have studied the concepts social power and social relations in the societies. Some of the renowned works have actually explored both explicit and implicit impacts on the thoughts of people, their feelings and behavior towards each other with regards to group membership (Faigley 14). Others have come out extremely explicit on the subject of aversive racism, a contemporary subtle form of prejudice and even on the various approaches for reducing conscious and unconscious biases. This paper’s point of departure is an interrogation of the thematic subject of race relation in consideration of Gish Jen’s short story “No More Maybe.”
The story “No More Maybe” revolves around Chinese couple who moved into United States of America but is hosting the parents of the husband, while waiting the birth of their first child. For a number of times I have read about Gish Jen, I have come to appreciate the fact that her short fiction, “No More Maybe” has been the basis of various anthologies been awarded year in year out (Jen 3). In the 21st century, the author has been touted as a refreshing heir to the old guard not only in the American Fiction but also elsewhere in the world. Gin Jen was the epitome of much public attention in the 90’s and has since corroborated a critical platform as an ethnic writer in the realm of Asian America (Faigley 12). Gish Jen manages to bring forth his judgment on race relation by encircling the harsh paternal judgement on the perceived failure of a successful son. This suggests the challenges of faced by contemporary immigrants with regards to their adoption and adaptation of the foreign language and the alien culture amidst the worries and pride over a first poignancy, fears of the strangers, government and the emotional decline of a once fearsomely intelligent woman (Jen 23). The characters in Jen’s story and their situation are somewhat familiar and believable and, perhaps too much so. However, with his correlated humor, pathos and various layers, the story is as striking and enjoyable as possible.
It has presented some thematic problems well laid with much of the words devoted to library visit and the mother-in law’s menu planning. The themes of racism are somewhat something very hard to content with especially when it provokes your cognition on the structure of our society. In the relationship between child and parent, it is quite not easy to point out whether racism is present or not. The author holds that, the ulterior family in Asian-American culture has made it quite challenging to approach issues, which is in my opinion very difficult for communities that do not herald from Asian-American.
Furthermore, I suppose Jen intentionally provokes the readers’ thoughts by curving a racial relation narrative around the characters. He assessed whether Wuji’s father’s interaction with Jeff was considered racist, and perhaps the parsing divergences in meaning between poignancy, overly sentimental, gushing sentimentality among others are racially definitive.
However, in that very light, it can be strongly held that racial relation is the resultant cumulative of interactions overtime. It is inherently functional –in defining the relationships and orientation of one another and the environment in ways that are perceptually beneficial to all of us (Jen 47). In retrospect, the world would be chaotic suppose our attitude changes towards others and environment too easily. Therefore, racial relations are a gradually evolving phenomenon and sometimes become extremely complex and nuanced overtime. In the American society, those who initially embodied limited interracial experiences will now recognize an Asian man on a daily basis. As such, the Asian will be seen to represent America and all its diversity (Jen 123).
So, the power of intergroup links is bound to transform people’s thoughts and change their hearts thereby reflecting on the improving racial relations (Silva 5). However, this interracial contact does not have to be quick and face to face to bring the very transformation on attitude, but it is gradual process that gathers well modelled approach overtime.
For example, the concept aversive racism framework has suggested various numbers of normal processes that has led to the establishment of intergroup biases. Supposedly, as humanity, we can always have a generalized perception of people in our groups in a more positive light than those in other groups (Zembe 65). So, our society will provoke an automatic classification of people by race. Additionally, in American culture, whites have been linked with positive qualities both in social, economic or political realms, while at the same time the media has sponsored and fostered negative associations with other races like the Black or Asian race linking them to crime and poverty. Consequently, various white Americans have overtime developed more negative feelings and beliefs about other races.
Interlocked with the growth pattern in our society which demands that we are all created equal and have equality in fairness as a core value, the confusion redoubles into real physical conflicts. However, it is not good at all to be prejudiced or to practice it in that case.
Work Cited
Faigley, Lester. The little penguin handbook. Pearson Australia, 2014.
Jen, Gish. Typical American. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.
Zembe, Christopher Roy. "Constructing Post-colonial Ethnic and Racial Relations." Zimbabwean Communities in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 65-95.
