I found “Homebase” to be an intriguing novel. I think that it’s easy to relate to Rainsford as he is struggling to gain an identity (we all struggle to figure out who we are). Also, the use of flashbacks through dreams, and letters was an interesting aspect to the novel as well. It’s also easy to sympathize with Rainsford, everyone experiences loss during their lifetime. However, I could not imagine having both my Mother and Father dying at such a young age “I was left a father to myself after my father’s death” (p 6). Especially since in Asian culture children seem to hold their parents in such high regard (much more so than children brought up on American values). I imagine it would be extremely hard to hold onto Asian values as well as attempt to figure out a sense of identity all while leading a life in America. Do you think that Rainsford became interested in his family’s history upon his Mother’s death (since she died after the Father) as a means to hold onto his family? And, as a way to hold onto tradition in which would also link him to his family and allow him to feel less alone in the world? Rainsford always seems to give off a sense of loneliness “I came to live with my Uncle and Aunt at the Age of fifteen in a small town near the ocean in California, I cam to them as a son. Not their son, just a son. I came on an overcast day…” (p 42). In the aforementioned quote Wong gives insight into how Rainsford is really feeling- he’s lost, and feels a sense of abandonment. He came as a son, but he is not their son, he is a son without parents (making him feel almost like an outcast).
On page 83 Rainsford is told “This is your Country. Go out and make yourself at home”. I thought that this was an extremely powerful point in the novel. I feel as though at this point the Indian man is offering comfort to Rainsford who is lost in the world. He tells him that there is a place for him, just as the he has found his place in the Country. Everyone has a place. You just have to find it and make yourself feel at home. Everyone fits in somewhere. After Rainsford learns of Angel Island the Indian later says “an island is the saddest kind of land there is” (p 85). What do you think he means by this? Is he speaking of solely just Angel Island, and the ways in which the Chinese Immigrants were brought there after harsh travels and an attempt at a new life (only to be stopped at the very end of their journey, never making it to America)? Or does is mean something more?
How do you think Rainford’s life would have been different if he had not lost his parents? Do you think he would be as interested in learning about Chinese history if his parents had not passed away?
I believe that in wanting to hold on to his parents' memory he looks to his family's background. When we lose someone close to us we don't want to forget them and so we hold onto whatever we can to remind us of who they were. I'm a strong believer that a person's culture and past history is the means to their being. I think by going through flashbacks and letters he is trying to preserve all that he knows about his parents. I can't imagine it being easy to just forget my parents' existence, and I would think that no matter how much I tried to forget about them I would always remember whether or not I wanted to or not.
ReplyDeleteI also believe in reference to an island being the saddest land there is that there are multiple reasons it is the saddest land. Obviously he could be talking about Angels Island because of the Asian history there. But also it could be a little symbolic.When I think of an island I think of a small piece of land surrounded by water, which depending on your optimism can appear as if the water is going to overpower you. What does water represent? I think it can represent a few things, including sadness. I also think of the land being weak like sand, and not very strong and concrete. Also there are a lot more limited supplies on islands, making them less useful. Hence, an island isn't always considered a tropical paradise.
Brie--I do think that Rainsford's search for his identity and history is a direct result of his parents' death. When we lose a parent, we lose a direct connection to our family history, and we want to preserve that. When our parents are alive, we sometimes take them for granted and assume they will always be around to tell the family stories and preserve the cultural heritage.
ReplyDeleteI like Jessica's comments about the function of the island. I would add that islands are isolated and apart from the mainland. Symbolically, they represent the ways in which Chinese Americans (and others) have been excluded from mainstream America--literally, psychically, and in the stories we tell about ourselves and our history.
I am concerned you are with the same sentence: This is your Country. Go out and make yourself at home. I think this is a positive attitude, sense of encouragement. Low self-esteem, withdrawal, general psychology of immigrants. They feel that they are recognized by others, they are not to be worshiped, but to be recognized. It reminds me I have the story of Chicago's Chinatown. I come from China, I would like to interview about the Chinese in Chinatown. When they saw me take the initiative to speak to them, panic, fear. There is no reason. They say that we are American citizens, to a number of years. They get together to chat, smoke, and when strangers approached on their spread. Maybe they thought I was right immigration investigators.
ReplyDeleteI can't image how is the life of the people lived in Chinatown. It's become a small community, people live here couldn’t speak English, even didn’t understand English, but stay here all the life. Why? What make them leave the hometown, leave the country, come here? Most of them thought they want to make as much as possible money when they are young. And go back china after they become old. But when they become old, they found everything already changed, the hometown, the people in their memory. They have friends in Chinatown but nothing on hometown. So they stay so do their child.
Hey Brie!
ReplyDeleteYou make it so easy to respond to your blog by asking so many questions! Jessica and Dr. Kulbaga stole my answers about the island (thanks a lot!), so I’ll have to come up with something else.
As far as an island being “the saddest kind of land there is” (85), I think another viewpoint is through someone on an island. The fact that an island is surrounded on all sides by water means that an island dweller is comparatively restricted in where they go. In the literal sense, they can be restricted to move past the water and in a historical sense, immigrants were restricted by the laws that mandated Angel Island’s Immigration Station. Coming from an American Indian, this is driven even further by how they were increasingly limited in where they could go during Anglo-American expansionism. Symbolically, this affects Rainsford who, in one way, searches for his answers by traveling all over.
I like “What if” questions like the one you ended your blog with. I think that if Rainsford hadn’t lost his parents at a young age, we would have wound up with a story more similar to Gene Yang’s “American Born Chinese.” It seems to me that Rainsford would have grown up without the necessity to put himself in his ancestor’s shoes and, instead of embracing his family history, would have felt more compelled to carve his own place in the line. Jin Wang and Wei Chen both initially saw their families as obstacles blocking them from defining their own personalities, where Rainsford sees it as the only solution.
Another interesting “What if” is: what if Rainsford had lost his mother at an early age and grown up mostly with his father? I think this would become a completely different novel.