Conflict Between Tradition And Modernity In Who's Irish? By Gish Irish

We are trapped between tradition and modernity, which is largely a construct of the growing generational gap. Conflict between the opposing concepts provoke issues with older and younger generations. In “Who’s Irish?” by Gish Jen, she explores the distance the generational gap creates through the relationship of a mother and daughter in which both feel entitlement to their teachings towards Sophie. To most the text seems to be about a critical grandmother and the standards she places upon everyone, however it is really about the exploration between the preservation of tradition and modernity caused by the generation gap. The Grandmother often expresses her disapproval towards Sophie and often compares her Irish side to her Chinese identity.

She says “ You never take off your clothes when you were little, I say. All my Chinese friends had babies, I never saw one of them act like that . . . The next day we go to the park and, like a nice Chinese girl, she does not take off her clothes.” (9,10). Grandmother has standards of what Sophie should be as a Chinese girl, however Sophie challenges this idea making grandmother distraught. Grandmother appears to have an old school mentality because she has rules that she follows and with Sophie there is a distinction between the two of them, one which is rigid and the other free. After, fixing Sophie’s habit of stripping by spanking despite Natalie’s belief, grandmother is content. So content that she states “Even I am happy, because there is no more trouble with Sophie, But now I think I can help her Chinese side fight against her wild side.” (11). Here we can see grandmother assert her beliefs upon both Natalie and Sophie through disciplining Sophie by spanking, in which she disregards Natalie’s beliefs that symbolize American or modern thinking. Instead she places a style of disciplining common to Chinese

Grandmother is depicted as a tragic protagonist that fights to preserve tradition from conflicting modernity. In which she ends up losing the trust of her daughter due to spanking sophie which ultimately leads to Sophie being deserted at a park and grandmother kicked out. If this story teaches anything, it shows that as a result of confliction between two contrast beliefs that it can come in the way of family and ruin relationships and that we should set aside our ideals and look at situations