Thematic and Literacy Device Analysis of Who's Irish? By Gish Jen

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Thematic and Literacy Device Analysis of Who's Irish? By Gish Jen
Who's Irish? is a short story by Gish Jen, published in 1999. It tells the story of a Chinese immigrant family in the United States. The protagonist is a Chinese grandmother living with her daughter Natalie, who married John, an Irish man in New York. John and Natalie have a daughter, Sophie, who is half-Chinese and half-Irish. The grandmother and Sophie's parents clash on appropriate parenting styles, with the grandmother strictly following the traditional Chinese parenting styles. She argues that spanking is good for instilling discipline, but Sophie's parents, who advocate for the hands-off parenting method, are against it. One day, the narrator spanks Sophie while in the park, and she hides in a hole. The parents convince the narrator to move out of their house when they realize this. She goes and lives with Natalie's mother-in-law, Bess. The primary theme in this short story is cultural differences. Jen develops this theme using narration, cultural diction, characterization, and point of view.
The author's choice of words and narration shows the cultural differences in parenting between Chinese and Irish cultures. Diction is the choice of words in a narration. Cultural diction, therefore, refers to the author's specific word choice when writing a story. This word choice is crucial in the development of the narration. In Who's Irish, Jen uses broken English to develop the contrast between the two cultures. First, broken English shows that the speaker is not an Irish person and that they studied English as a second language. This points to a possible miscommunication especially based on cultural values. In the short story, the narrator says, "She wait, and when I come look for her, she throw it at me. All over my nice clean clothes. Did you ever see a Chinese girl act this way? Sophie! I say. Come out of there, say you're sorry. But she does not come out. Instead, she laugh. Naaah, naah- na, naaa-naaa, she say. I am not exaggerate: millions of children in China, not one act like this" (Jen 619). The reader can identify that this is an immigrant after reading this excerpt. A critical eye will also notice that this except is a potential cultural conflict indication, especially when the narrator asks whether one has ever seen a Chinese girl behave like Sophie.
Narration work with cultural diction to complete the theme development in the story. The narrator is an elderly Chinese woman. Jen uses first-person narration to tell the story in Who's Irish and develop the theme of cultural differences. First-person narration is excellent for enhancing pathos. Pathos enhances emotions in storytelling, which Jen achieves through the narrator. The first-person perspective means the speaker is living the actions in the narration (Chen 162). This convinces the reader more than using second or third-person narration. In the short story, Jen uses the grandmother as the narrator giving her story in real-time, and the reader can follow it smoothly. The reader can see how the narrator struggles to fit into the parenting style of the foreign culture she lives in.
The narration enhances pathos appeal as the reader sympathizes with the narrator. Coupled with the first-person narration, pathos makes the readers believe the grandmother's story account. It also makes them sympathize with her. The narrator expresses concerns about culture shock throughout the story. For example, she says, "In China, daughter take care of mother. Here it is the other way around. Mother help daughter, mother ask, Anything else I can do? Otherwise daughter complain mother is not supportive. I tell daughter, We do not have this word in Chinese, supportive" (Jen 615). In this excerpt, the narrator wonders about the difference in gender roles and how they are supposed to behave in society.
More shocking to the narrator, John, the husband of Natalie, is jobless and depends on Natalie to provide for the family. The narrator says (Jen 615). Here, the narrator wonders how Western culture treats a man differently from the Chinese culture. She further wonders how Sophie is stubborn. Sophie disrespects h...