The Soda Fountain

In the piece “Stainless steel all along the soda fountain”, Wah uses soda fountain to express the joyfulness and the struggle of his hyphen identity. Wah’s father instructed him to keep the soda fountain clean, taught him to utilize the western modern equipment, and finally Wah surpasses his father by making the soda fountain the “smoothest, shiniest, snazziest soda fountain in town” (41) and creating his own special. Wah emphasises his struggles of adhering to western cleanliness while keeping his Chinese identity, and expresses his calm facade and his rebelliousness inside him, and finally, comes to his own hyphenated identity. At the beginning of this piece, Wah states that he mops “up with clean white cloths, running water, sloshing the glasses in suds over a brush built into the sink” (41) which indicates Wah’s effort of adhering to western cleanliness. His father asked him to “keep it neat, clean, and ready-real pizzaz” (41), so Wah strives to “wipe all that stainless to a dazzle and wash, rinse, and dry the glasses” (41). Wah’s Chinese identity is not effortless to get rid of that the “hard red jewels congeal on the shiny chrome each day” (41). Even …show more content…
In the passage, Wah states that “[he is] the only one, except [his] dad, who knows how to put a scoop of ice cream in soda so that it doesn’t fizz over.” (41) Wah learns from his dad and he is proud that he masters the same skill as his dad. Wah also mentions that he concocts his own special “Grey Cup” (41) which implies that Wah finds his way of accepting his hyphen identity, also, expresses his joy and proud through discovering himself. Wah mixes “ginger ale from syrup and carbonated water” (41) indicates his hyphenated identity. The “ginger ale” represents his Chinese root and the “carbonated water” represents western modernity, the process of mixing two ingredients is also a journey of finding his