In the Land of the Free
From the title of the story In the Land of the Free by Edith Maud Eaton, you immediately get the sense of irony that the author implies from the beginning. I went into it fully expecting some tragic example of how "free" America really can be and, alas, Eaton delivered. My heart went out to the mother, Lae Choo who, because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, was separated from her two year old son upon her arrival in the United States. I have a daughter myself and can only imagine how Lae Choo felt being apart from her young child indefinitely, especially in a foreign country. I think once you're a parent, only then can you fully know "what it is to miss the feel of the little fingers and the little toes and the soft round limbs of your little one" (pg. 804) and therefore understand the emptiness that comes with their absence. And the fact that James Clancy, the lawyer, exploits the mother's desperate determination to get her son back in order to make as much money off of the couple as possible makes me sick. In response to Lae Choo's comment "you not one hundred man good; you just common white man", Clancy replies with an ironic "yes, ma'am" (pg. 807), revealing the fact that this is just another business transaction to him. He's not only okay with potentially tearing this family apart, as revealed in the end of the story with the son's reaction to his mother, but Clancy seems to be proud of the fact that his actions are typical for the "common white man". It's stories like these that make me ashamed to call myself American, especially since we're known to be and often portrayed as corrupt and unjust.
A sound bit of observations. The so-called "American Dream" is a very heavily idealized vision of our country, and because of it we carry a responsibility to root out the injustice that can be so prolific at times.
ReplyDeleteThis story about the mother losing her son, and her fears of losing him to American really broke my heart. Especially the ending when she went to hug him and he pushed her away. She gained him back, but her son's feelings for her changed and thus she lost him.
ReplyDeleteKaryn, I was also disturbed when reading how Clancy responded to the Chinese couple. When I was reading this story, I definitely had hopes that it was going to be one of those "happy ending" short stories, where the mother would be reunited with her son and America will truly be advertised (again) as "The Land of the Free." It shocked me to read his stark response of "Yes, ma'am" and then continue on like it was nothing more than an everyday task for him. Even though he was just doing his job by not allowing unauthorized things, in this case people, into the country, he STILL refused to show any remorse or compassion for Lae Choo and her husband, which I would agree showed the brutal and corrupted labels that are sometimes assigned to this country. It's too bad that after reading this story we're able to agree with others and finally see the unjustness in those labels in the same way they do.
ReplyDelete-Ben