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“Mona in the Promised Land” is one of the most successful and renowned works written by Gish Jen. The main character of the book undergoes consistent changes under the impact tof her cultural environment in the course of the book. At the same time, she challenges numerous social and cultural norms because she does not want to be an ordinary person. Instead she attempts to find her cultural identity. In fact, the problem of identity is one of the core problems and one of the major themes of the entire book. In fact, the identity is a very important issue which, however, evokes heat debates because of the consistent changes in the life of the modern society. Traditionally, identity is closely associated with the identification of an individual with certain group, ethnic or cultural, which has certain set of values, norms and standards. At the same time, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that identity is quite a complex concept which should be viewed at different levels. In this respect, it is possible to distinguish personal and social level of an individual’s identity. What is meant here is the fact that each individual shapes his or her own identity but, at the same time, the individual’s identity is influenced by the impact of the social environment of an individual that leads to the formation of his or her cultural identity, i.e. identity at the social level (Ede, 2007). On the other hand, the individual identity is still homogeneous because, normally, individual does not have a double identity. Therefore, the concept of identity can be defined as a set of norms, standards, values and models of behavior shaped by an individual in the course of his or her personal development under the impact of his or her personal experience and social environment, including the impact of social relations, cultural traditions, existing social norms and standards (Stewart, 2008). In such a context, the main character of “Mona in the Promised Land” attempts to find her identity and in search of her identity she tries different cultural identities which do not meet her needs and expectations but the process of searching for the identity and self-identification of the main character reveals the process of cultural assimilation of people in the US because, on the one hand, the main character does not accept her ethnic identity, whereas, on the other hand, she cannot find yet her new American identity because she does not have a cultural or ethnic group to associate herself with that prevents her from close assimilation and integration into the American society.
The problem of identity of the main character
On analyzing the story of the main character of Gish Jen’s book, “Mona in the Promised Land”, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that the main character lives in the Asian American family. At the same time, the author describes a complex period in her life, when her cultural identity is just shaping. In fact, the main character undergoes consistent changes because she is in the context search of her identity. Remarkably, she does not want associate herself with Chinese Americans as her parents are. Instead, she looks for a new identity which could have allowed her to be a truly American, a person, who belongs to one of the traditional groups in the US society (Ede, 2007). The major difficulty that arises in the course of the formation and definition of identity of the main character in the modern society is the problem of the growing cultural diversity of the modern society. What is meant here is the fact that traditionally an individual identity formed under the impact of a steady cultural norms and traditions existing in the society but the modern world grows more and more diverse because people interact with each other more dynamically than they used to in the past (Stewart, 2008). The modern society is a globalized society where representatives of different cultures interact with each other and cultural differences tend to disappear. In this respect, it is possible to refer to the example of immigrants who arrive to a new country, such as Mexican immigrants that move to the US, where they expect to find a better life and new job opportunities. In fact, immigrants have their own cultural identity, which is totally different from the traditional American culture. Therefore, immigrants face a problem of clashes between their own cultural identity and the cultural identity of the dominant ethnic group. Often, immigrants feel being outsiders in a new country, where they feel as if they are strangers who have nothing in common with the local community. As a result, cultural barriers arise and immigrants face the problem of self-identification because they need to find the group with which they can identify themselves. In regard to Mexican immigrants they tend to create their own community where they maintain their traditional lifestyle and culture and where they can preserve their identity. However, they need to interact with the American community and when they are outside of their community they need to develop a new model of behavior to meet standards existing in the American culture. Mona lives in a culturally diverse society, where she has to find her identity to get assimilated and integrated in the American society that is not an easy task. On the one hand, she has ample choices of self-identification with either cultural group, whereas, on the other hand, she does not really belong to either cultural group physically and mentally. Being a teenager, she keeps looking for the group she can identify herself with.