Mona in the Promise Land

The question of whether or not the Chang family is more typically American or Chinise is very complex. I see Samantha's point that Mona's parents are defnitely strongly influenced by their Chinese culture and this makes them more like traditional Chinese parents. However, I also agree that the conflicts between Mona and her parents are present in other cultures, even within the families in this book. For example, Mona and Barbara's mothers are both horrified about the Alfred situation. Although their mothers come from very different cultures, they both take similar drastic measures to punish their daughters for this incident. Although there are drastic differences between these two families, the parents are unwilling to understand what might have been behing their children's decision to help Alfred and automatically go to punishing them. Perhaps these are patterns we see in every family, making it difficult to categorize families as typically American or typically Chinese, or typically anything else. The complexities between child and parent are present in cultures across the board.