On Ralph’s American Dream In Typical American

Gish Jen is one of the famous Chinese American female writers in the Chinese Americanliterary circle. Gish Jen, with Amy Tan, Gus Lee and David Wong Louie, is labeled with “theGang of Four”. Following the success of the novels by Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan,Typical American, Gish Jen’s first novel, is one of the masterworks drawing the Americanreader’s attention to Chinese immigrants. It wins the New York Times Notable Book and isnominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.Typical American is a story that tells how Ralph Chang, a Chinese American, pursuesAmerican dream. In this novel Gish Jen reveals ethnic intellectual’s helplessness and struggle.Under the corrosion of modern commodity society, the protagonist Ralph loses the initial selfand abandons the family and social responsibility in the money-oriented society. However,Ralph uses his dual perspectives of Chinese and American culture to redefine and reexaminehis social roles, and then become a real intellectual in the end.This thesis focuses on the theme of “American Dream”. Through the exploration of theprotagonist Ralph’s American dream, it expounds the practical significance of ethnicintellectual as the marginal who has the dual perspectives. It is divided into three parts. Thefirst part analyzes Ralph’s scholar dream. Ralph sets “doctoral degree” and “tenure” as theaims of his scholar dream in order to be his father’s “filial son”. However, during the processof pursuing scholar dream, his personal rights and freedom are extremely bounded by filialpiety, and the limited personal rights and freedom make him give up his scholar dream. At thesame time, the disillusionment of scholar dream indicates the failure of the culturaltransformation of Chinese filial piety of Ralph in America. The second part explores Ralph’smerchant dream. He turns to pursue the typical American dream-merchant dream for moneyand status. However, he is driven by the profits of commercial speculation which accounts forthe collapse of his fried chicken store, which declares the disillusionment of his merchantdream. The disillusionment of his merchant dream reflects the irrationality of individualismand money worship in American culture. The third part expounds Ralph’s American dream.After the disillusionment of his scholar dream, Ralph regains his tenure in university. Thefamily and social responsibility make Ralph become an intellectual who can apply dual perspectives to re-examine the social problems. Finally, the conclusion states that Gish Jenhopes to use the dual perspectives of ethnic intellectual to re-examine American dream andreflect the irrationality of American culture.