In Gish Jen’s book, Mona in the promised land is the story of a Chinese-American family that lives and an upper-class suburb of New York. The story follows Mona an eighth-grade second-generation Chinese American who is struggling to find her self in a new community where she’s only seen as Asian. As I read this novel Mona appeared to me to be just the typical teenager someone is trying to find themselves in fit into their peer group. I think we see Mona struggle in crystal-clear detail from the exchanges between her and her mom when Mona misbehaves or doesn’t mind her manners her mother is quick to snap at her “you be a good Chinese girl”, to which Mona quickly replies I’m not Chinese, I’m an American. To me, this is Mona standing up for herself and saying unlike in China I’m free to make my own decisions here in America. To me, Mona’s trying to shake that Chinese girl stereotype that is placed upon her simply by her looks, much in the way that every time Barbara Gugelstein is brought up in the book the fact that she is Jewish is always mentioned. One of the first stereotypes that we see Barbara dealing with is the Jewish nose.
