No More Maybe Gish Jen Analysis

No More Maybe, by Gish Jen is a story about a Chinse couple who have Immigrated to the United States and are hosting the husband’s parents as they await the birth of the couples first child. As the mother in law waits she decides to enjoy some of the resources the United States has to offer such as breathing clean air and taking free English classes. This causes a competition to break out between the narrators, mother, and father in law. The father in law believes English classes are a trap set up by the government to spy on immigrants. However, the mother in law disagrees and challenges him, by learning English regardless of his opinion. As the mother in law decides to maintain her self-busy the father in law looks for hobbies himself. He decides to rearrange the furniture around the house and proceeds with a desire to wash his son’s car. Ironically, he confuses the neighbor’s car with his sons and ends up washing the neighbor’s car. The neighbor then comes and thanks to the father in law for washing his car. The

It is him who we as readers spend the most time reading and learning about. The father in law seems to be going through a state of dementia, an example of this is that the narrators “father-in-laws English is declining.” Another example appears when the narrator describes her father in law having many ideas that he had to write them down on a piece a paper. Now as he is older “he still puts a piece of paper next to his bed. But in the morning, it is almost always blank. If he writes something, he says he cannot read it. The writing is unclear.” However, he is a static character due to him being stubborn throughout the story and always questioning others. He never develops a change throughout the story, even though he accepts that he was wrong, he remains authoritative yet stubborn throughout the end. The central idea is of cultural shock is supported by him having an authoritative