Everyone talked loudly in Chinatown
The text has a first person narrator it is restricted to Lin (the protagonist). Todd is characterized explicitly example (65, 23) “His eyes are blue, almost like glass”. The restriction to the protagonist is fatal for how we understand and read this text. If it was restricted to another person like the parents or the grandmother, or if it were an omniscient narrator, then the story would have been totally different. So this way we often have compassion for the restricted character. Lin is of course characterized implicitly, because it would be strange if the narrator describes herself. So we can see how she is, through what she thinks, does and says. There is a scene where Todd and Lin kiss in a cinema (65, 31- 42). In this passage, we go inside Lin’s head. That makes the scene more realistic, emotional and important than the other scenes in the text. There is another place in the text where it says something about the narrative technique of this text. It is the scene where Lin feeds her grandmother (64, 10-15). It says that she feels guilty of not spending enough time with her. The reader can hopefully identify himself with that feeling of guilt towards your grandmother and that makes the text more interesting. The narrator’s technique is also thought of, when the text practically starts by describing Todd (65, 10-26) that means that Todd is a very important person for the text, and for Lin.
Lin is the protagonist in this text. She is from a very strict Chinese family, which immigrated to Canada, with high values on their original homeland culture and traditions. Lin is in love with a boy from school “Todd”. He is a bad boy when it says he goes to the vice principal daily (65, 14) and Lin likes that he is a bad boy. Todd is every girls dream boy, which we can see (65, 10-13): “Todd is very good looking. All the girls at school think so, and it makes me feel good when they turn to look at us walk down the hall together.” And (65, 26-29) we can see that he is used to hold a girl: “He puts an arm around me, balances the bucket of popcorn on his knee, hold his drink between his legs, and eats and drinks with the other hand. I am impressed.” There she says it clearly. She likes that he is so experienced with girls, unlike her. (65, 33-38) She is unexperienced in kissing when it says: “…not knowing what to do…”and “Just as I’m becoming used to the new sensation…” That shows that Lin had been a bit of a geeky girl up to now but now she is becoming a rebel. We can see that when she is slapping her father back and when she is kissing Todd (66, 20 and 65, 33-37). That shows us that she is becoming more independent, surely, because she is tired of her family. The family is not very integrated and will not let Lin go out with a white boy. And a big part of her family, is her grandmother. The big burden of this family. The parents are tired of her (63, 40-43): ”She is going to die soon anyway. My mother can’t wait for my grandmother to die.” That is why Lin always has to feed her. It becomes very symbolic when the grandmother dies in the end I think, she lifts a big burden of Lin’s shoulders by dying because she symbolizes: the old Chinese tradition, couture and the strict education. That dies with the grandmother.
I could mention many different themes in this text like: Growing up in another cultural community, integration or teenage life. But biggest of them all I would say is growing up in another cultural community than your ancestors’.