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    A Study Guide for Gish Jen's "Typical American"
    A Study Guide for Gish Jen's "Typical American"
    A Study Guide for Gish Jen's "Typical American"
    Ebook42 pages22 minutes

    A Study Guide for Gish Jen's "Typical American"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Gish Jen's "Typical American," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJun 27, 2016
    ISBN9781535841771
    A Study Guide for Gish Jen's "Typical American"

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      A Study Guide for Gish Jen's "Typical American" - Gale

      09

      Typical American

      Gish Jen

      1991

      Introduction

      Typical American is a novel by Gish Jen, published in 1991. Jen is the daughter of Chinese immigrants to the United States, and the novel follows the story of three Chinese people who come to the United States in 1947 and become U.S. citizens in the 1950s. The novel covers a twenty-year period, up to the mid-1960s, and shows how Ralph Chang, his wife, Helen, and his sister Theresa gradually adapt to life in their new country and become typical Americans. Typical American raises many thought-provoking questions about the nature of U.S. society and culture. Is it too materialistic? Is it racist? The book also explores the nature and extent of personal freedom. To what extent do people really have the opportunity to become everything they wish to be and attain the American dream? The Changs seem to attain their dream and become typical Americans, but they are subject to a reversal of fortunes that makes them question their values and the dominant ethos of the society in which they live. Reviewers hailed Typical American as an outstanding contribution to the literature that describes the immigrant experience in the United States. The novel was praised for its humor, graceful style, insight into the way immigrants view the United States, and blend of comedy and tragedy.

      Author Biography

      Gish Jen was born Lillian Jen on August 12, 1955, in Long Island, New York, the daughter of Chinese immigrants Norman and Agnes Jen, who had met in the United States in the 1940s. Both her parents expected to return to China, but were prevented from doing so (like Ralph Chang in Typical American) by the Communist takeover of China in 1949.

      As a child Jen lived in Yonkers, New York, but the family later moved to the Jewish suburb of Scarsdale, where Jen went to high school and acquired the nickname, Gish. Jen attended Harvard University, graduating with a degree in English in 1977. At that time she had no ambition to be a writer. Her family expected her either to go into business or become a doctor or a lawyer. So even though, as she told interviewer Rachel Lee, she really had never had any interest in … business, Jen attended business school at Stanford University from 1979 to 1980, dropping out in her second year of study and then making a trip to China. On her return, she decided to enroll in an M.F.A. program at the University of Iowa in 1981. Her parents opposed her decision, but she persevered and graduated in 1983.

      Jen married David O'Connor and

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