The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl by Elizabeth Wong - Book Report/Review Example

The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl” By Elizabeth Wong The competition in the world has increased and every human being wants a better and more secure future. The prospects for a better life style and a safe and sound future are the main attraction for immigration from one’s homeland to another country. Though it seems very simple but this process is associated with many difficulties that a person faces in relation the cultural variations. All generations have different responses to these.

Chinese immigrants in the United States now constitute a good proportion of the minorities there and Elizabeth Wong was one of the children in these immigrant families. The story of her childhood presents with a picture of the hardships that she faced because of the cultural diversity and her reading presents with the different immigrant responses towards the new culture and language from different generations. Elizabeth’s mother was a strong believer of the fact that her children should know about the language of their country where they truly came from.

This can be understood from the fact when she forced her children to go to the Chinese school to learn Chinese even though they were not at all interested (Wong p. 41). The reason behind this can be her strong association and attachment with her motherland and that she wanted her children to be brought up in a similar manner as she was. Elizabeth’s grandmother also seemed to be proud of her language and did not feel any disgrace while speaking in it loudly in public places (Wong p. 42). This was the view of their generation towards their language and culture.

Elizabeth and her brother who belonged to the new generation and were being raised in United States wanted to be Americans. They did not like their Chinese lessons and they were very content with English and preferred it over Chinese. They were having a difficult time adjusting with the language of the country from where they came and preferred the language of the country where they being raised. They wanted to be like other children of their ages in their locality and play with them rather than going to learn Chinese (Wong p. 41). Elizabeth also exhibits her dislike for Chinese which according to her was a language without any sense and emotions.

She believed that she could speak and coordinate in a better way in English than in Chinese (Wong p. 42). Thus this shows a difference in concept of different generations towards language. The reading also signifies that this gap keeps on increasing with age. This can be seen from the fact that Elizabeth’s younger brother showed a stronger defiance than her towards his mother with relation to language as he kept on pointing out her mistakes when she spoke English (Wong p. 42). Their mother wanted her children to learn Chinese so that they could be associated and integrated with their previous country as well.

Elizabeth, on the other hand wanted to be a true American because she believed that she belonged there (Wong p. 42). This was the reason why she wanted to only know English. References: Wong, Elizabeth. “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl”