Corresponding with Jagodzinski’s judgement of Milan’s work, Milan’s Trade Me challenges her audience to “explore and understand experiences of oppression” (Jagodzinski 128) caused by classism conflated with racism through the story of Xingjuan “Tina” Chen, the daughter of destitute Chinese immigrants. Milan’s “insistence on representing characters of diverse backgrounds” (Jagodzinski 131) is necessary in a literary genre where analysis of privilege rooted in socio-economic class status and racial identity is neglected, and in Trade Me, Milan explicitly “depicts the main barrier to the romance…as the difference in [socio-economic] class status between” (Jagodzinski 45) Blake Reynolds, a wealthy Caucasian man, and Chen. They live, essentially,
…show more content…
Milan identifies how core elements of Reynolds and Chen’s characters obstruct or facilitate their access to power. Trade Me exhibits that while all individuals face obstacles, the obstacles encountered by high-income Caucasian males “are often made less complicated due to the lack of societal barriers they face” (Jagodzinski 65). Chen registers how the distinction between her identity and Reynolds’ identity dictates leverage in social settings: “nobody [in the class] would care about a word [Reynolds] said if [his] family was on food stamps” (Milan 15). By addressing how the “structural barriers to agency” (Jagodzinski 179) are determined by socio-economic status and race, Milan asks her audience to draw a connection between “unequal access to power based on identity” and the preservation of power by those who already have it. To the aristocracy, individuals such as Chen are “invisible…except when [they] tell [her] what to do” (Milan 15). Individuals who both embody non-hegemonic ideals and intelligently protest the prejudice they face–such as Chen–pose a threat to those in power as a result of their hegemonic origins because they suggest that being of the majority does not equate with being qualified to hold a position of
Milan identifies how core elements of Reynolds and Chen’s characters obstruct or facilitate their access to power. Trade Me exhibits that while all individuals face obstacles, the obstacles encountered by high-income Caucasian males “are often made less complicated due to the lack of societal barriers they face” (Jagodzinski 65). Chen registers how the distinction between her identity and Reynolds’ identity dictates leverage in social settings: “nobody [in the class] would care about a word [Reynolds] said if [his] family was on food stamps” (Milan 15). By addressing how the “structural barriers to agency” (Jagodzinski 179) are determined by socio-economic status and race, Milan asks her audience to draw a connection between “unequal access to power based on identity” and the preservation of power by those who already have it. To the aristocracy, individuals such as Chen are “invisible…except when [they] tell [her] what to do” (Milan 15). Individuals who both embody non-hegemonic ideals and intelligently protest the prejudice they face–such as Chen–pose a threat to those in power as a result of their hegemonic origins because they suggest that being of the majority does not equate with being qualified to hold a position of