She Stood In Tears Amid The Alien Corn Summary

The book of Ruth is often seen in two perspectives. On one hand it is seen to be a text as a text that liberates women due to Ruth’s inventive ways of survival. People who view this text as a feminist story tend to see Ruth’s actions to be empowering being that she had nothing and showed she was resourceful by gleaning in the fields of Boaz. On the other hand, many argue that Ruth is not a feminist, and that she uses alcohol and seduction in order to support her stepmother and herself. In the text; “She Stood in Tears Amid the Alien Corn”: Ruth, the Perpetual Foreigner and Model Minority” Asian American Gale A. Yee shares her two lenses that she views the story of Ruth through.
In the text Ruth is a foreigner in Moab, Yee compares Asian Americans

to Ruth through the idea of social location. From personal experience she states that Asian Americans are always asked where are they are from, and when she tells white Americans that she is from America they seem to be distraught because out of ignorance they assume she is from an Asian country. At one point in the text Yee mentions that white Americans constantly follow up with the question “Where are you really from?”. I myself can advocate that white Americans have said this, which shows how ignorant white Americans can be towards other cultures that are blended within America.
Yee speaks about the idea of racial bigotry in the text.

Typically, Asian Americans and African Americans experience different types of racialization. Yes, both groups have and still do experience racism under white the eye of a white individual, but they are different from each other. Yee discusses that when comparing white versus black, the axis is color, but when comparing white verses Asian/Latino/Arab the difference is citizenship. This is something that really struck me, and made me think about race in a different way. When an individual is African American they do not identify as where they are from, however Asian Americans do tend to identify by where they hail from (Chinese American, Japanese American, etc.). This is connected all the way back to World War II when the Americans that were Chinese Americans would distinguish themselves from the Japanese Americans in hopes of preventing unwanted conflict. The concept of racialization goes hand in hand with stereotyping, making Asian Americans feel that they do not belong in this country due to the constant ignorance and stereotypes granted by white

individuals.
Asian Americans being seen constantly as foreigner’s dates way back to past military, economic, and political conflicts between the United States and Asia. A well-known act from the united states was the Chinese Exclusion Act that was put in effect in 1882, this was created so the Chinese were unable to enter the United States. However, this act was appealed once the U.S. needed the Chinese as a war ally during WWII. Due to racialization white Americans still viewed Chinse as the enemy just because they were Asian- just like the Japanese.
There are many stereotypes when it comes to Chinese Americans.

Often white Americans expect Chinese Americans to put their culture on display. Ruth is the perpetual foreigner in the story, Yee views Asian Americans to be the foreigner in most situations as well due to all the unwanted stereotypes. Yee also touches on common stereotypes that are put upon Asians. For example, Yee discusses how white Americans have this assumption that all Asians are intelligent, or good at math, she argues that this is not true, and that it creates an expected performance in education that puts pressure on Asian American students. Yee shares that she personally has never passes a statistic course in her life, but still Asians are seen to be exemplary which creates an inferior for white people. The catholic school that Yee attended growing up had homogenous groupings. There were four groups of students- group one being the most gifted and group for ironically contained the racial/ethnic students. Here the opposite of the common stereotypes is shown, Asians were placed in the lowest ranked intelligence group, this is because of racism within the catholic school systems. With Americas classroom sizes growing more and more Asian American students are becoming apart of the classroom, and due to the hard work of these Asian American student proses a threat to the white American

students.
Yee speaks of her first time in time visiting China, she claims to have faced several challenges while trying to adapt to the culture of China. Being both a teacher and a female she talks about how the majority of her colleagues were men. She felt the same way Ruth felt when she was in the fields- barely knowing language and culture while in Hong Kong. In a way her attitude makes the reader believe she doesn’t fit in anywhere, she claims when she’s in America she’s too Chinese, but when in China she was too American. Typical Chinese values include respect for elders, strong family ties, and hard work ethic; to me this sounds a lot like the attributes of Ruth. She shows that she has respect for her elders by trying her best to support Naomi, and is resourceful and somewhat finds “work” by meeting Boaz.
In the Hebrew bible whenever a text involves a foreign woman it is common for the story to be followed by erotic allure and sexual actions. Ruth is an excellent example of showing this to be true, the relationship of Ruth and Boaz results in sex which then comes Obed. In Asian culture it is often that women suffer from a similar exoticization or romanticized strange ideas of foreign women and sexual pleasures. White men often have sexual fantasies of Asian women and sex, possibly because it is not what they are used to which is why they are so attracted to the idea. In the text Yee speaks of this idea by mentioning what white men look for from Asian women and it is; a seductive geisha, Mongol slave girls, and “Dragon Lady”. This is all very inappropriate, offensive, and ignorant. These white American men are insulting Asian culture by using it as ways to “spice up” intercourse, its repulsive, and I feel ashamed that men think this way. There is a common view that Ruth has been seen as vulnerable towards sexual harassment, because apparently she was “asking for it” when she was gleaning in the fields. However that is an opinion based completely off of how an individual interprets the text.
Once Ruth gives birth to her son she is no longer identified as Ruth, but now as “Obed’s mother”. This is a common trend throughout the bible, often women are identified as their relationship through a man. Being that women must be identified through a man sheds light to how little of rights women have in the bible. The absence of women’s rights can be seen for other reasons as well, but this is something that occurs within the text of Ruth.
In all three of the texts that were assigned reads for this quarter spoke of the idea of social location and how it affects how an individual interprets the bible. Social location is ultimately how you understand something due to your surroundings and ways of thinking that you inherited from growing up around your family/friends. All three of the authors are feminists and really touch on social location, but in different ways, being that they are all from very different places. In the Native American perspective text, the idea of the bible not being a sacred text is discussed through the lens of a feminist Native American. Another text that was an assigned read was on a Hindu womanist perspective on the bible. This text focused on Indian Christian churches and how women dealt with becoming a widow in their culture.
The text on Ruth through a Native American’s perspective also discussed similar ideas when compared to the the Asian American view on Ruth. Laura E Donaldson; author of The Sign of Orpah: Reading Ruth Through Native Eyes, touches on the concept of social location and how it affects how you the interpret sacred text. The effect of socio-economic status on a person's life and their position in our society can determine a person’s beliefs and values in life.
Viewing Ruth through a Hindu womanist perspective had to be the most interesting for sure. Something that I found interesting within this text was the sacrificial acts that are expected of women after loosing their spouse.
The story of Ruth has many social aspects. Being there are many different relations ships mentioned in the text whether it be between male/female, mother/son, husband/wife and so on these relationships are binded by marriage, friendship, labor arrangements, and sexual attraction. Anyone can read the bible, and everyone is different which mean interpretations of the bible will always be different, so whether this is a feminist or non-feminist text is up to the reader to determine. This is because some view Ruth’s actions to be either bad or good when it comes to being a feminist.
Yee is able to compare her own Asian American ways to Ruth because they have similar values. Both Ruth and Yee have strong family ties, and Ruth shows this by her overwhelming devotion to her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth followed Naomi to Boaz, she didn’t have to go with her, but she shows her devotion by going to keep her company and help her settle in. Ruth also shows respect for elders by doing anything Naomi asks of her, this is also a traditional value that is seen within Asian cultures. A person’s social location will always have an impact on how they interpret something due to what their customs entail.