Chinese Girl in the Ghetto- (immigrant conflict & hatred of thieves)

When Ying Ma comes to America she experiences theft for the first time. She encounters a situation she has no control due to the language barrier between her and her classmates. Three classmates steal her pencil that was a gift from her friends back in China and is very significant to her. When she can’t defend herself or communicate with her classmates who steal her pencil she turns to Cindy, another classmate who also speaks Chinese. Cindy translates to the teacher what happened and the teacher confronts the classmates, but they deny stealing anything. The teacher has no proof so she moves on from the incident and tries to replace Ying Ma’s special gift with an ordinary #2 pencil. Ying Ma is infuriated when she sees the classmates are not being punished for what they did. Her anger turns to hate, “I hated the three thieves. I hated their poverty, which had inspired then to covet my possession and conspired with them to take it from me. I hated their parents, who had failed to teach them that being poor was no excuse to steal. I hated myself for not adequately guarding an irreplaceable gift and for not doing all that I could have done to retrieve it once it was gone” (Ma 82). She blames everything that has to do with her pen being stolen. It is important to understand this specific scene in the text happened when she first arrived in America. All her hate reflects on the struggles she experiences.

 Later on in the text when she has been in America for several years, she encounters another situation where she has to deal with her new neighbor, a new coming Hispanic immigrant. The neighbor’s kids destroy Ying Ma’s parent’s garden so as a result of her parents not knowing English, she has to go next door to talk to the lady. When Ying Ma confronts her neighbor she realizes the Hispanic lady has a language barrier that makes it difficult to communicate well. The Hispanic lady takes Ying Ma’s information and disciplines her children. Confused Ying Ma watching her neighbor spank her kids remembers the struggle of first coming to America. She understands the struggles the Hispanic lady is going through because she also was in the same position once before. She acknowledges the stupidity of having to argue with someone who is experiences the difficulties she did before. This scene was very interesting and connects with her theft experience because when she first arrives to America we see how she hates having to deal with all the obnoxious Americans who bring nothing but hardships to her. Yet once she has been settled in America for a while the tables turn and she all of a sudden becomes the obnoxious American bringing problems to her Hispanic neighbor’s door. For a second she forgets what it’s like trying to make a new life in a country you’re a stranger in.