In the chapter the Western Palace by Maxine Hong Kingston, it shows the arrival of Moon Orchid to America also known or referred to as the Western Palace. America is in the western part of the world. In the book, Brave Orchid mentions the story of the four empresses. She says how the Empress West would “connive for power” (Kingston,345) and how the Empress of the East was “ good and kind and full of light.”(Kingston, 345) From the very beginning of the book, the word immigrant keeps coming up. It came up twice during the chapter “No Woman” (Kingston, 35-36, 45-46), Once during the chapter “Shaman”(Kingston 289-290) and 6 times during the chapter “The Western Palace.” (Kingston 301-303, 331- 333). It clearly plays a major role in this chapter. An Immigrant is when someone from a different country comes to live in another one. Brave Orchid is an immigrant and so is her sister Moon Orchid. In the chapter Moon Orchid’s husband was also an immigrant that came to America, had married another woman and had kids with her. Brave Orchid also sent for Moon Orchid’s daughter to live in the US. While at the airport when Brave Orchid and her niece were waiting for Moon orchid to arrive they were looking at the Chinese passengers when brave Orchid began to talk about immigrants. “These new immigrants had it easy. On Ellis Island the people were thin after forty days at sea and had no fancy luggage.” (Kingston, 301) Traveling to a new country back in the day was very gruesome compared to now. Now the Chinese people are traveling by plane which only takes a few hours instead of days. Ellis Island is the Island of the United States.Once on US soil according to Brave Orchid “Here everything was new plastic, a ghost trick to lure immigrants into feeling safe and spilling their sercrets. Then the Alien Office could send them right back.”(Kingston, 302) It’s clear Brave Orchid doesn’t like being an immigrant in America. As an immigrant myself, there are certain rights I need to know even though I have my green card. I have to know that no one, not even ICE, has the right to ask me about my status when I’m out on the street. According to Brave Orchid “ At Ellis Island when the ghost asked her what year her husband cut off his pigtail, a Chinese who was crouching on the floor motioned her not to talk “I don’t know” she said. If It wasn’t for that Chinese man, she might not be here today, or her husband either.”(Kingston, 302) Many People come here because they want to achieve the American Dream. They want the white picket fence, the nice home, the nice car, and a stable job. However truth be told, it’s not a straight line to the American dream. What they don’t tell you is how hard it is to get a job once on American soil. If you can’t get a job you can’t make money, and if you can’t buy a house or a car or put food on the table. It is very hard to provide for immigrants to provide for their family. Which is why some immigrants end up on the streets or in jail or even worse they end up getting deported. Sometimes parents get separated from their children because the children were born in America. Even if immigrants find a job to start out with in the beginning, that job would barely be enough to make ends meet. According to Brave Orchid when she was talking to her sister Moon Orchid about getting a job as a maid, “ A lot of immigrants start that way nowadays. And the maids get to bring home all the leftover clothes people left behind.” (Kingston, 333) Brave Orchid however was still relentless with her sister in finding a job, she then went on to say “ Immigrants also work in canneries where it’s so noisy it doesn’t matter if they speak Chinese or what. The easiest way to find a job, though, is to work in Chinatown. You get twenty five cents an hour and all your meals if you are working in a restaurant.(Kingston, 333) The minimum wage per hour now is roughly fifteen dollars, so working 8 hours a day would be one hundred and twenty dollars.. Working 8 hours a day for twenty five cents is only two dollars. When Immigrants come to the US to find refuge and to get a better life, sometimes it does more harm than good. They have to fight harder to achieve the American dream. Some are still fighting and some may have it worse in the US than the country they left.
6 Replies to “The Western Palace: A place of Refuge or Endangerment for Immigrants”
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Hey Michaile, I really enjoyed your blog post. It is very well put together and I love how you not only explain that the characters are immigrants, but also what an immigrant is. I also really respect the fact that you tied in your own experience being an immigrant yourself. I found that it was also important how you brought up the repetition of the word immigrant. I must admit that I was confused with the citing of your evidence with the page numbers reaching into the 300s but I’m just going to assume that you were using a different format for the book. All in all I thought your blog post was very imforming on immigrants and what people must go through, and I really liked the evidence you used to explain the characters experience with immigration.
When Moon arrives in America, Brave shows her the many differences in American vs Chinese culture. One example is when Moon asks “Your pictures are up too. Why is that?” in which Brave responds “In America you can put up anybody’s picture you like” (Kingston 122). There is a clear difference in cultures and Brave is trying her best to incorporate Chinese culture in her everyday live living in america, but she has also picked up on a lot of American traditions, and has to teach Moon these differences and what you can and can’t do, like how you mentioned the rights you need to know being an immigrant. Brave is used to living in America now and must teach Moon the ways of America.
Hey Michaile, I enjoyed your post and it is interesting how many times the word “immigrant” has come up in the book as a whole. I believe Moon Orchid had a bit of a culture shock when coming to America. One thing I noticed was the difference in how their children acted. She had a moment of observation of the children and how they received compliments and how smart they were. While observing the kids she says, “They’re so clever, They’re so smart. Isn’t it wonderful they know things that can’t be said in Chinese?” (Kingston 158). Mood Orchid is impressed and seems proud of the American children while also having recognized that they do act differently because of where they grew up. She recognized that they stare and act sort of barbaric, but she also sees that they are intelligent and is proud of them. Possibly in her home, it was uncommon for this behavior in kids.
Hey Michaile, I really enjoyed your blog post and the details you were able to capture after each quote from the book to help explain to the reader your main point of interest. When I was reading the repetition of “immigration” it reminded me of the “ghosts” that keep being repeated and brought up in different ways. Even in this chapter at the bottom of page 153 in “The Women Warrior” when they include “They indeed entered the land of ghosts, and they had become ghosts”. This line appears after Moon Orchid has seen her Chinese husband for the first time in 5 years; he has started a new life and family without her which is why she compares him to another ghost that she sees because he has become them. Her husband now talks in English, has his own work office where he is a brain surgeon, and his nurse is his new wife. She could no longer even speak to or recognize the man from China because he was no longer there after spending so much time in New York.
This was a really nice post. I enjoyed how you brought up multiple examples from the reading and showed how they relate to each other and how they have an overall effect on the characters. Pointing out how the word immigrant played a part in the story was very clever. It allowed us to compare the knowledge of immigrants today and the immigrants in the story like you later in your post. I really liked when you spoke about what type of jobs Immigrants would have and where they would be when it was discussed in the book. Saying how Chinatown was only a really “well” place just shows how immigrants were viewed in the eyes of American society. Most places do not denote the ethnicity of a group as blatant as that and how it acted within that place seems to be like it would be a massive stereotype and how that affected their wages and to support their family.
Hey Michelle. I really enjoyed reading your blog post. Examples are key! Everyone always says Escape to America you will be free!! And this may be true in terms of freedom but when it comes to opportunities, not so much. Like you said in your post, minimum wage today is around $15. A chinese girl back in the day would have to work 60 hours just to make what someone today would make in 1 hour. This truly depicts the immigrant struggle. Your blog post did a really good job showing the differences immigrants and non immigrants face. For example, when Moon gets to America, Brave explains to
her all the various differences she will soon see to come while she is here. When they are settling in, Moon notices pictures of the grandparents, and across from that sees Brave and her husband in photos as well. “Your pictures are up too, why is that?” (Kingston, 119) She is so shocked at her being represented in pictures because of the difference in life style between America and China. This just again shows the differences immigrants and non immigrants face when coming to America.
Hi Michaile, really nice blog post. I enjoyed how at some points in your blog you slightly tied in the idea of the American Dream for immigrants. You touched on the idea of how difficult it is to attain a job in America. I think it is important and significant how you touched on the historical context whilst this is very important in understanding the book. I think its significant how the book commonly uses the word “ghosts” to describe people. We had this discussion in class about what we think is meant by the use of this word. I think it is significant because it shows how the Orchids moved to America felt like they may have felt out of place and surrounded by ghosts, or unknowns. “They had indeed entered the land of ghosts and they had become ghosts.” (Kingston 153). This quote shows how they feel they may have just been existing in the unfamiliar land feeling just as out of place as the unknowns they felt they were surrounded by.