Trying to Find Chinatown Essay Example

Ronnie again, shows it in his choice of words and anger. “ What are you gonna ask me next? Where you can find the best dim sum in the city?

Whether I can direct you to a genuine opium den? Or do I happen to know how you can meet Miss Saigon for a night of nookie-nookie followed by a good old-fashioned ritual suicide? Now, get your white ass off my sidewalk. ” Words such as dim sum and Miss Saigon are the symbols of Asian culture, but Ronnie uses these good symbols in a negative way because he is not happy. A person can be happy and satisfied by accepting one’s identity. A person that is not happy is embarrassed of himself and his race.

Ronnie feels measurable because he thinks his ethnic group is below the American. Ronnie is not proud of where he is coming from; therefore, he makes fun of it by using good Asian symbols to bring a negative message. Ronnie is angry to the point where little things set him off such as eating dim sum, seeing ducks hanging on windows of restaurants, or using chopsticks. On the other side, Benjamin is embracing his ethnicity and he couldn’t be anymore happier. He thinks completely different from Ronnie.

Little things like people screaming in Cantonese make Benjamin happy. Benjamin is more literate in Asian culture and history, but Ronnie stays away from Asian knowledge. People would never think that an American-looking guy would get the warmest and overwhelming feeling when he came to see where his father lived and sucking on Hua-moi, which is a dry plum

coming from Cantonese culture. The tone of Trying to Find Chinatown is pleasing to me because it’s not hard to feel when a writer wants for a character to be frustrated, offended, or surprised.

Ronnie was surprised when he heard that Benjamin is not just an ordinary Caucasian man. People expect for a certain ethnic group to have only one look. America is full of different backgrounds, culturues, ethnicities and they mix all the time. Simple language in this poem is helpful to give a reader that “street language”. Through Ronnie’s cursing you feel anger, lack of education, pride, and care. He treats every person the same because he is trying to make some money on the streets of big city.

I think David used a setting of New York because it’s a large and cold city where people like Ronnie trying to survive everyday. Ronnie sounds fed up with his existence and the setting of large city and a violin object shows that. People shouldn’t judge each other by its looks and have certain expectations, but that happens all the time because of ignorance, not a mean spirit. Trying to find Chinatown shows how appearance sometimes doesn’t match the reality. The play has a perfect setting, tone, language, and two characters that clearly show that.