I found Jen's narrator to be inspiring! She was witty, smart, bold, sort of depressing and at times absolutely hilarious! I found the growth that she experienced through telling this story to be surprising. In the beginning of the story, she had little to no respect for the Irish. You can see that the narrator is judgemental of other races. "Four brothers in the family, and not one of them work...even the black people doing better these days" (177). Jen's narrator has a very high view of herself in the beginning of this story. She feels sorry for those Irish who are less fortunate than the Chinese. "Chinese beat Irish" (177). She even feels sorry for the Irish because they don't have good food. She shows little to no respect for her son in law. Not that I blame her because he sounds like a real "winner" but she constantly is putting him down. When she is talking about Sophie, it's as if she had given up on her from the beginning. She saw her "nice Chinese side swallowed up by her wild Shea side" (179). When it finally seems like the narrator is going to work with Sophie to make her a better behaved child or even come to touch with with her Chinese root, Sophie resists and poor ol' grandma is left without any right to discipline or support. John and Natalie are horrible supporters. Neither have any time for their child or their child's well being so basically she sounds like a spoiled rotten brat! I feel bad for the narrator for dealing with a problem-grandchild without any support from the child's parents. I disagree with the narrator in the fact that I do believe in creativity and I do think there is such as depression but I do not think that these things should overtake the need for manners and some level of social standards. At the point when the grandmother is "in trouble" for Sophie having bruises, I am torn. I feel for Sophie and getting poked with a stick for hours but come on. If the little girl would have come out of the hole in the first place it never would have happened. At that point, the grandmother loses all respect and the child takes authority through her parents. I find it hard to believe that at that point of the story, the narrator still does not understand the meaning of the word depressed.
I am also impressed by the relationship that developed between Bess and the narrator. It says a lot about what the narrator learned and the true meaning of family. When her family put her out of their house, Bess, the Irish mom to four lazy boys took her in. She became "honorary Irish." After all the negative things the narrator said in the beginning about the Irish and their work ethic, it was Bess who took her in. Bess even defended her to her boys. I feel happy for the narrator that she finally found some place that she could belong, but I also hope she felt a little salty for judging others the exact way she didn't want to be judged. I like that Jen used Irish as the opposite family instead of a white family. Had Jen used a white family, I don't think it would have had as much of an impact. Irish immigrants are pretty high up there on immigrants who had it rough setting up life in America. I like that Jen used two ethinicities that mirror each others struggles and then unites them in the end.
Firstly, I completely agree with you about the narrator. She was awesome! I enjoyed how funny she was and how she had a good sense of humor. She was brave, wise and confident yet still motherly.
ReplyDeleteDeep down, you could tell the narrator truly loved and cared about her family. This could be seen clearly through how she was so concerned about Sophie and her own daughter, Natalie. She wanted things to be good for them and she wanted to be a good role model for Sophie and while Natalie seemed to push Sophie’s grandmother away, you could tell that it hurt the grandmother because she wanted to be in Natalie and Sophie’s life. I have to admit the narrator, also known as Sophie’s grandmother was definitely my favorite character in the reading.
I also admired how her character grows and matures more throughout the story by attempting to get along with her daughter, Natalie and by trying to help with Sophie, her granddaughter. She even tries to learn more about John’s Irish heritage so she can understand him, his family, his culture and Irish people in general better. By trying all of these things, it showed she was dedicated to being a part of Natalie, John and Sophie’s lives and that she loved them all enough to do whatever she could to help them all find a way to get along better.
I also don’t blame Natalie’s mother for putting down John though since he lost his job and doesn’t seem to show any interest in finding a new one to help provide for his family. Plus, I wouldn’t blame her for putting him down when he constantly puts her down in a way, by putting down Natalie’s family as he did after they caught the grandmother poking Sophie with a stick. He said “Your family” as if he was being harsh and critical not only about the grandmother but as Natalie’s family as a whole (Jen, 185). I think this is because he doesn’t understand Natalie’s mother and family, just as the grandmother did not understand John and Irish people and John’s family until she made an effort at the end to learn about Irish culture to try and work things out with Natalie, John and Sophie.
I also fully agree with you about Natalie and John. They don’t even discipline Sophie when she does something wrong. How can Sophie learn right from wrong if she is never disciplined and never taught what is bad and what is good? I honestly felt that the grandmother was more of a parental figure for Sophie than Sophie’s own parents were simply because the grandmother wanted to make time to be in Sophie’s life and she disciplined her when Sophie kept taking off her clothes and was the sole reason why Sophie stopped doing that because the grandmother was the one who taught her that it was wrong to take off her clothes in public.
I think if Natalie would just let Sophie spend time with her grandmother, the grandmother could be a good role model for Sophie. I also agree with you about believing in creativity! Great blog!