Gender Roles In Anne Jew's Everyone Talks Loudly In Chinatown

In Anne Jew’s short story, “Everyone Talks Loudly in Chinatown,” the protagonist Lin, a Chinese Canadian girl, falls in love with a white boy. However, her parents, who have conventional thought, are dead set against Lin’s decision. Lin goes away and goes for her grandmother who took care of Lin when Lin was a kid, but now is sick. Lin finds her grandmother died. The characters represent two types of gender roles in the short story: The male adult has right to make decision for his family. The female elder has less concern and respect from her offspring, even though her offspring are indebted to her. The first gender role, the male adult in the family has right to make decision for his family. In the short story, Lin falls in love with a white …show more content…
The slap represents Lin’s father thought which is Lin must follow his idea, which is not falling in love with a white boy, or he will be angry. Lin’s father believes that he is right to do so, he has right to plan the future for her daughter, which is not fall in love with a white boy. The male adult has ability to decide for his family. The second fender role, the female elder has less concern and respect from her offspring, even though her offspring are indebted to her, involves Lin, Lin’s mother and Lin’s grandmother. Lin’s grandmother loves Lin. When Lin was a kid, her grandmother used to “take me (Lin) to Chinatown” (23) and Lin knows that her grandmother is always “take care of me (Lin)” (22) while Lin was growing up. However, Lin is not willing to take care of her grandmother when her grandmother is sick. In addition, Lin’s mother also does not want to take care of her mother-in-law. She even hopes that Lin’s grandmother could “die soon” (17). In Lin’s family, Lin’s grandmother had helped Lin in the past. Lin’s mother is a part of Lin’s family, she has ability to look after the sick female elder in this family. However, Lin’s mother curses Lin’s grandmother die as soon as