In the American Society

“‘Those Americans always saying it,’ he told us. ‘Smart guys thinking in advance.’”

Mr. Chang says these words to his adolescent daughters when they ask why they have to start saving for college now. Mr. Chang understands the sentiment of “looking ahead” that he has heard often in America. However, he uses incorrect grammar as he repeats this phrase to his daughters. He heard and understood the message, and yet something still gets lost in translation.

“[A]nd as time went on and the business continued to thrive, my father started to talk about his grandfather, and the village he had reigned over in China—things my father had never talked about when he worked for other people.”

Before Mr. Chang becomes a rich business owner, he does not talk much about his grandfather in China, who was powerful in his area. Once Mr. Chang gets some power by owning the pancake house, he thinks back to his grandfather and wishes to become powerful like he did. He does not understand that American employees do not want to be treated like the citizens in Mr. Chang’s hometown. He will not be able to replicate this patriarchal structure in America, but his desire to do so represents his conflict with society.

“We all laughed: my father had no use for nice clothes, and would wear only ten-year-old shirts, with grease-spotted pants, to show how little he cared what anyone thought.”

The women of the family discuss Mr. Chang’s manner of dress and laugh at the thought of him going to a meal at a country club. Mr. Chang refuses to debase himself at the beginning of the story by conforming to the norms of others.