The Myth of Suburbia and Traditional American Values in Chang-rae Lee's Novels

Abstract

Suburbia symbolizes the embodiment of American culture. The modern suburb sprang from traditional American values such as democracy, social mobility, and the importance of private property and home-ownership. I attempt to read Chang-rae Lee's two novels, A Gesture Life and Aloft in relation to the myth of suburbia. In A Gesture Life, a suburban mansion becomes a symbol of assimilation into the mainstream of American society. A model minority character, Dr. Hata is proud of his house and garden. As he comes to doubt if he really belongs to the New York suburban community, however, he is estranged to the house and finds it uncanny. He finally reconciles with his adopted daughter whom he had abandoned because she refused to conform to his pursuit of the American dream. He decides to leave the place in an attempt to stop living a “gesture life.” In Aloft, a successful Italian-American white man retreats further from an affluent home into a private plane high up in the sky. As he is forced to face the earth-bound problems of his and his family members, he comes to realize that he can not get away from all the noise and dust of life even in his place of safety and prosperity and comfort. In the end, he willingly changes his single family mansion into a house of four generation families, and makes connections with them. Whether the suburb is an American dream of someplace better or a flight from reality, Lee shows that redemption is possible in the American suburbs.