Physical Relocation Reflects Unrest in Typical American -- Essay
Gish Jen's 1991 novel Typical American tracks the progress of Ralph Chang, Theresa Chang, and Helen, who emigrate from China to America in the middle of the 20th century. In New York, they move from home to home, guided by circumstances, financial need or aspirations for a better life. The structure, quality, and contents of their apartments and houses, as well as the frequency of their relocation, are reflective of their optimism, pessimism, and the degree of their acclimatization in America. Several months after his arrival in New York, Ralph forgets to renew his visa. To avoid discovery, he leaves graduate school discreetly and moves out of his "rooming house" (29) to an office building converted into tenement units. He finds that he misses the house's "stack of predictable halls… [and] its schedules" (30). Of his new neighbors, he says: "everyone seems to be missing something. There was a family with no mother, a couple with no furniture, a man wit