Seminar #6
Due Monday, November 29th
Text: Mona in the Promised Land by Gish Jen
As you read this book, you should pay attention to the interactions and voices of the characters
that Gish Jen is portraying in her comic novel. Jen uses humor to lighten the often serious topics
of immigrant adjustment to America, second-generation children having values and cultural
misunderstandings with their parents, and America being the place where individuals might want
to transform their identity and move beyond their ethnicity, nationality, or other social position.
This book presents a view from the author Gish Jen, and characters (Mona, Sherman,
Barbara, Seth, Andy, Helen, Alfred, etc) and those points of view may have different
interpretations from you the reader. Use what you’ve learned in class about reading for
meaning/themes and what you’ve learned about communication to write this paper.
Assignment:
#1. Choose two quotations from the list of five below. Select one from one from the first
half of the novel and one from the second half of the novel. Put your two quotations at the top
of your seminar paper as epigraphs. [An epigraph is placed at the beginning of a written work
and is shown as a direct quotation from an author that suggests a theme.] Make sure you
have correctly copied the quotation. Place quotation marks around the text (note: the MLA style
for epigraphs is different than for a long quote) and citing correctly, in parentheses the author’s
name and page number.
Option: If there is another quotation that you have found during your reading and you
would like to use it as one of your two choices, please feel free to. Just make sure that it goes
with the assignment.
#2. For each of the two epigraphs do the following:
Paraphrase the quote directly underneath the epigraph. You will want to paraphrase the whole
passage and restate the author’s words to show your understand of the original. In other words,
you want to be sure to provide a more detailed presentation of the quote in a way that gets at the
theme that the epigraph demonstrates from the novel. Your paraphrase should be double-spaced
and should be at least as long (or longer) as the passage you have quoted. You don’t want to
summarize or condense the passage, but rather to unpack it so that you explain the key words and
phrases to say what it means in your words. You might refer to the MLA Handout on the
Blog that demonstrates how to use paraphrasing.
Next write your own interpretation of the scene as an analysis of a cultural conversation
connected to our class themes of identity, intercultural or family communication, or the rank
systems of oppression. Also, address how Jen’s use of humor—which includes the tone, her
use of irony, exaggeration or sarcasm—helps or hinders your understanding of her
characters and of the text overall.
Your paper should be 1-3 pages long.
Suggested Epigraphs:
“When Helen comes in, her face is so red that with the white wall behind her, she looks like the
Japanese flag herself. Yet Mona gets the feeling she’d better not say so. First her mother
doesn’t move. Then she snatches the flag off the icebox, so fast the daisy magnets go flying.
Two of them land on the stove. She crumples up the paper. She hisses at Sherman, “This is the
U.S. of A., do you hear me!”’ (Gish Jen 15)
“Thanksgiving already. At temple, Mona has begun to consider with Rabbit H. the holidays, and
how very much she unfortunately likes the family Christmas tree. Not that they have always had
the tasteful real Scotch pine they have now, with the fresh woodsy scent and the tendency to drip
real pitch on the living room carpet. Before they moved, they used to unpack their tree out of a
box, and sort out the silvery limbs by size, and poke them into little coded holes in the tree trunk.
They had a revolving colored light to shine on it, so that it would turn blue, then red, then
yellow, then green, and there was a Styrofoam tree skirt too, all sprinkled with glitter that used to
fall off. New Year’s Day meant having to vacuum that glitter up. But the Changs liked that tree
and its rituals, or at least Mona did— even the vacuuming. If you asked her, she’d have to say
that she’s only just gotten used to the idea that they now have a new kind of tree, with a fabric
skirt- the kind of skirt that matches the kind of people who say, as they do now, ‘fridge’ for
‘icebox,’ and ‘wastebasket’ for ‘garbage.’” (Gish Jen 38)
“That night Mona dreams Helen is having a new baby, a boy, which is also the baby that Mona is
having, except that Helen doesn’t realize it until she notices how long the baby’s legs are. Then
she shouts, “This baby is Jewish! Throw it in the garbage!” and will not be appeased until Mona
throws herself in the garbage instead. The garbage looks to be mostly paper, but turns out to
have eggplant at the bottom, which Mona thinks is Italian. Helen insists it’s Chinese, though;
and when Mona looks again she sees that her mother is right. There’s no mozzarella.” (Gish Jen
77)
“‘The whole key to Judaism is to ask, ask, ask, instead of just obey, obey,” Mona says. “That’s
what I learned. Also you’ve got to know your holidays. You’ve got to know all the ritual, so
you know who you are and don’t spend you time trying to be Wasp and acting like you don’t
have anything to complain about. You’ve got to realize you’re a minority.’” (Gish Jen 137)
“Then begins a more personal conversation, with special conventions of speech. For example,
Mr. Ingle begins introducing his questions with “I’m curious.” Mrs. Ingle, on the other hand,
tends to ‘Do you mind my asking.’ Mona answers, figuring it’s just the cost of dinner. Once or
twice she asks them about where they came from, occasioning a general kind of answer. But
then they switch the topic, gently but firmly, back to her. For Mona is so much more interesting
than they are; they already know all about themselves.” (Gish Jen 182)