Race
How does race play a role in James' life? How does it affect his adolescence? How does it impact his career and personal life? How does it affect his marriage and his relationship with his children?
The children
How are each of the children affected by their parents' issues?
When Marilyn attends James' class, her first impression is "This was their professor? This little man, five foot nine at most and not even American". People keep leaving his class one by one until the lecture hall was nearly empty.
ReplyDeleteJames had to take the name of his neighbor's sun because Congress was "terrified that the molten mixture was becoming a shade too yellow" and banned all immigrants from China except for the children of those already in the States.
When he was in class at Lloyd, one of the students ask "'What's wrong with your eyes?'"
Harvard had decided to take his white classmate instead of James Lee because of affirmative action.
When James Lee is marying Marilyn, Marilyn's mother discourages her from marrying Lee. "'Thing about your children,' she said. 'Where will you live? You won't fit in anywhere. You'll be sorry for the rest of your life.'"
You cant edit responses?
DeleteI just wanted to fix typo
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I feel like the students left his class because they couldn't believe how they would learn some American History from an Asian-American. Maybe they kind of stereotyped him that he would be better at teaching math or science than American history? However, I am unsure if a stereotype like that existed back then.
Delete(The stereotype I am referring to is the one how everyone thinks Asians are always just the best in science and math, but not really the other subjects in school. I don't mean to be offensive to anyone...)
People don't always think he is American. For example, a receptionist thought he was a visiting diplomat from Japan and asked him about his Tokyo flight. When he tells people he is actually a professor of American history, people are always surprised, so he has to explain that he is American.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn is in his class for the first time and is confused because she expected him to have an accent. "He sounded nothing like what she'd been told Chinamen sounded like: so solly, no washee. Had he grown up in America?" She didn't think that he was American because of his race.
A woman once stopped Nath and Hannah and asked, "Chinese?" and when they said yes, the woman said, "I knew it. By the eyes." and proceeded to tug the corner of her eyes. Nath and Hannah look more like James, who is of Chinese descent, whereas Lydia looks more like her mother. This affects his children because they become more aware of people making fun of and criticizing their race.
The mother of the children is American and the father is Asian so the children are a mix of the two. Both Nath and Lydia (I don't remember any examples of Hannah) get oscillated by their school peers.
ReplyDeleteLydia has no friends at school. When the police question everyone that Lydia's parents said were her friends, they are told that they hardly knew Lydia. Most of Lydia's "friends" just used her to copy down homework answers.
At the pool, Nath is tagged in a game of Marco Polo. His peers stand on the outside of the pool and tease Nath because he is unable to tag any of them. Jack then jumps into the pool and lets Nath tag him. When Nath opens his eyes, he sees that everyone had been teasing him.
When Marilyn leaves to pursue her education without telling anyone, James reaches out for help. The only think he knows is that his wife is missing. The police officers are trying to help but tell him that sometimes this happens and people are just different from each other. But James knows that the police officers are really saying that because they are an interracial family, Marilyn might have left because she didn't want to still be married with someone "not like her".
ReplyDeleteThis also causes James to think back to the times when his race was an issue for Marilyn's mother. Marilyn's mother did not like that Marilyn was marring someone different than her and wouldn't even talk to James. She would only refer him as "your fiance" to Marilyn.
He begins to believe that maybe Marilyn did leave because she didn't want a life with him and her children and that she wanted to have a different and better life.
There is one part where they are talking about the father getting rejected from Harvard and other Ivy League schools because he is Asian. This reminds me of a lawsuit today against Harvard. An Asian student group is suing them because of their claim that oppressed minorities are given priority violate their civil rights. They say that because they are Asian, it is harder for them to get in. This clearly violates their civil rights. Their race is a disadvantage and they aren’t even the majority (white, civil rights law doesn’t cover discrimination against white people as well as it covers the ones against minorities). Affirmative action has its advantages and disadvantages in Civil Rights.
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the book, Marilyn and James end up fighting about Louisa. They have always ignored that some people, even Marilyn's mother, did not like the fact that they were different races. Marilyn is extremely upset and mentions how her mother was always hoping she would find a certain type of man. But then James gets upset and starts commenting on how maybe Marilyn is tired different.
ReplyDeleteI think all this time James just kept to himself how his race and other people's reactions affected him, but now he's able to say it because of what has happened to them (Lydia's death, and his relationship with Louisa and Marilyn).
He mentions that she has never experienced what he has experienced. "You've never had people mock you to your face. You've never been treated like a stranger...You have no idea what it's like, being different" (242). They continue arguing, Marilyn telling James that she does have an idea because she was treated terribly by the men in the lab when she is in school.
This all affects Marilyn, James, and the rest of the family because James ends up leaving and Hannah and Nath witness the whole thing. Race, Lydia's death, and the insecurity of James and Marilyn tears the family apart.