29 pages • 58 minutes read
Gish JenIn the American Society
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1986A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Clothing
Clothing is a motif that represents the characters’ attempts to either stand apart from or assimilate into American culture. This motif is effective because culture and class are often expressed through clothing. Mr. Chang, for most of the story, refuses to dress in a socially appropriate way, often wearing grubby clothes. He does this because he says that he does not care what other people think. By contrast, Mrs. Chang becomes interested in espadrilles, a type of shoe, as her husband becomes more financially successful, and she starts to dream of American status symbols.
Toward the end of the story, Mr. Chang agrees to wear a suit that Mrs. Chang picks out to a party, which indicates his new attempt to assimilate. The suit is ill-fitting and inappropriate for the weather, foreshadowing that the Changs will fail to fit in at this party. Sure enough, the other guests are wearing “bermudas and wrap skirts” (37), showing that Mrs. Chang’s knowledge of avoiding white after Labor Day is insufficient. Despite the Changs’ best attempts to understand and fit in, American culture is complex.
Clothing takes on additional significance in Mr. Chang’s confrontation with Jeremy Brothers. After accosting Mr. Chang, Jeremy tries to switch clothes with Mr. Chang, offering his polo shirt—a symbol of white, upper-class leisure—in exchange for Mr. Chang’s dress shirt. Ultimately, Mr. Chang throws both the polo and his ill-fitting suit jacket in the pool, symbolizing how he chooses his pride over assimilating into American culture.
The Country Club
The country club is a symbol of success and inclusion for Mrs. Chang, as admittance usually requires some degree of affluence and social influence. Mrs. Chang starts to dream of the country club when she begins to be interested in status symbols as the family becomes wealthy. She likely begins to desire the country club at this stage in her life because the financial barriers to admittance have been eliminated, though cultural barriers remain. Applying to a country club poses a risk for Mrs. Chang because a rejection would represent her failure to attain status in her new community.
Anecdotes from different characters show that the country club is discriminatory. Mrs. Lardner confides in Mrs. Chang that she is Jewish, indicating that the club would reject her if they found out. Likewise, Mona reveals that a Black family has applied for membership for years and has not been admitted. Ultimately, the country club rejects the Changs’ application despite a glowing recommendation from Mrs. Lardner. With this, the country club symbolizes American xenophobia and racism, particularly in white, upper-class spaces, and how immigrants and people of color continue to face discrimination.
Mr. Chang’s Recliner
Mr. Chang’s recliner symbolizes his desire to be financially and socially successful in his new culture, although he wants success in the context of his old culture, not his new one. In short, he wants to establish a hierarchy based on old patriarchal norms. He purchases the red leather recliner when he starts to become rich from his business. It is a sign of comfort, and in Chinese culture, red represents prosperity, power, and luck. As a bold color, it also represents a desire to stand apart and above others. In Western culture, red often has more aggressive connotations, highlighting the culture gap with which Mr. Chang contends.
He often reclines back in this chair as he doles out charity to his employees in a show of power. The reclining position represents his desire to be served, which plays out when he exploits his employees. Later, when he considers whether to change the way he does business, he plays with the leather of the recliner, creating small peaks. He does this as he considers changing his ways, and though he does not make any changes at this point, the leather’s pliability hints at his own attempts to change.
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