Who’s Irish

In “Who’s Irish”, Gish Jen demonstrates a family that has Chinese root and American culture at the same time. The main character is a fierce grandmother who lives in with her daughter’s family, and then ironically forced to move out because of her improper behavior during she raises her granddaughter. The author uses some unpleasant language and contents to describe the situation, which are effectively demonstrate how difficult and how struggle for people who lives in the gap between two different cultures. I can’t say who is right or who is wrong, but feel sorry for the grandmother.

The grandmother of Sophie is an old lady who has worked very hard her whole life. She and her husband own their restaurant although they have no money and do not speak English when they first have come to the U.S. Because of her personality, her husband, people who work for her, and even gang members afraid of her. She doesn’t like her daughter’s in-law family, whose name is Shea, because they have Irish root, because four sons in this family are not working, and mostly because her own stereotype about them. She doesn’t understand these people’s behavior, especially her son in-law, John Shea. He doesn’t work and still have some problems constantly even though he already has beautiful wife,

beautiful daughter and everything he needs.

Her daughter, Sophie’s mom, Natalie, is the vice president in the bank. She supports her husband and being tolerant about his unemployment. Natalie and her mother sometimes have argument about Natalie’s husband and his family; they have their own understanding about things based on different culture and different value. They have something in common and something in contrast.

Sophie is a wild three years old American child. She looks like Chinese on appearance but behaves very differently than what her grandmother expects. She takes her clothes off in the public, she like to climb everything, and she learns how to attack her mommy from her friend. Sophie’s parent are permissive whereas the grandmother tries to correct Sophie’s bad behavior by using the way that she thinks is the most effective one, spank, but not too often and not too hard. This method seems work out very well although it is strictly prohibit by Natalie. After a period of time, Sophie stops taking her cloth off and act like a nice Chinese girl, but still, there are some other problems.

One day, grandma takes Sophie to the park. After Sophie hides in the foxhole and refuses to come out no matter what grandma says, the grandma uses a stick and tries to chase her out because there is no one can help her. Sophie is very stubborn