Marrying outside of one ‘s ain race is considered a societal stigma among members of Asian-American households. “ Over the past 30 old ages, the Asian-American community has gotten used to the thought of Asiatic adult females intermarrying, but non Asiatic work forces ” ( Pan, 2000 ) . In Asian-American households, it is considered disrespectful for the kids to get married outside of their ain race. Parents desire this because it would be easier for them to interact with the members of the other household, the household of the girlfriend or fellow of their boy or girl. There are besides historical jobs, such as war, that give some Asiatic households a sense of pride and restrict them from interacting with other Asiatic races ( Tewari, 2009 ) . Jason Koo portrays this household force per unit area in his verse form, “ Why Ca n’t You Meet A Nice Korean Girl. ” In the verse form, he uses second-person narrative, context, and symbolism to stress his defeats and solitariness he feels from this restrictive societal stigma.
Second-person narrative is normally used for the reader to experience engaged in the literary work. “ The ‘you ‘ voice distances the storyteller and pulls the reader closer ” ( Plotnik, 2007 ) . Koo, nevertheless presents a alone stylistic component and uses second-person narrative to represent his solitariness. He is talking straight to himself. “ You know you ‘re non making well/when the most tenderness you ‘ve felt in months/comes in the signifier of Lucy Liu/touching you on the dorsum in a dream ” ( Koo, 2009 ) . Since Koo is speaking to himself, it allows the reader to sympathize with him even though he has non distanced himself from the verse form. He lets the reader know he has been experiencing lonely without straight saying so. He mentions that he has non felt tenderness in months. The second-person besides allows Koo to portray a sense of defeat with the societal stigma. He is unable to show his feelings of solitariness and exogamy to his female parent or male parent, so he keeps his feelings contained within. In the following two stanzas, Koo describes Lucy ‘s touch in item. “ She put the most/discerning small force per unit area on your back/with her manus. But possibly that ‘s merely how long/it ‘s been since you were touched. Possibly you yourself were touching your dorsum in bed. But even so, how does that explain/the dramatic reciprocality in that touch ” ( Koo, 2009 ) . He expresses uncertainty that Lucy ‘s touch is existent, conveying himself in and out of his dream-state. It is as if he does non desire to spot his dreams from world because his dreams have momently become his world. It is apparent that he desires that stamp, loving attention from a adult female that he has non felt in ages.
Koo intertwines his dream with world throughout the verse form, picturing an interesting organisation of idea. An illustration of this is presented in these lines: “ [ She ] took your hand/and kept her eyes on you as you walked/toward the phase in a male child ‘s prep school/auditorium, all those eyes squinching at you/from the darkness as you tried to prove/you ‘d turn up to be a adult male deserving of Lucy ” ( Koo, 2009 ) . Suddenly Koo is in a flashback, happening himself at his old male child ‘s prep school auditorium. His parents were most likely in that auditorium along with “ all [ of the other ] squinching eyes. ” He is seeking to turn out he is meriting of Lucy Liu non merely to his parents, who disapprove of exogamy ( as the rubric of the verse form suggests ) , but to other people as good. Along with the societal stigma of get marrieding within one ‘s ain race comes the portraiture of the Asiatic adult male in American society. In America, Asiatic work forces have been viewed to be karate combatants, swots, or holding feminine characteristics, the complete antonym of a “ adult male. ” These specific qualities would non be seen as features for a compatible spouse for adult females, particularly for people of Lucy Liu ‘s criterion. She is a successful Chinese actress considered to be a female human dynamo ( Armstrong, 2008 ) . Koo knows she is of a higher criterion. “ Hard to believe/anyone would listen to this, allow entirely Lucy Liu/but she was listening with ecstatic concern/she was truly in love with you or just/a much better actress than you ‘d given her/credit for ” ( Koo, 2009 ) . Again he expresses uncertainty, stressing that he has non felt romantic reciprocation from a adult female in a long clip. It is evident that non all Asiatic work forces are nerdy or emasculate, but this portraiture is merely another force per unit area that Koo feels when it comes to happening a miss ( Tewari, 2009 ) .
Koo ‘s dissatisfaction with the societal stigma is apparent in this stanza: “ [ Y ] our ma was right/about you necessitating to run into a ‘nice Korean miss, ‘ Lucy wasn’t/Korean or even what your ma would call/’nice, ‘ in fact she ‘d likely name her slutty/ because of her function on Ally McBeal/or merely because she was Chinese ” ( Koo, 2009 ) . Due to historical events, some Asiatic households have a strong sense of patriotism. It creates racial misgiving among Asiatic Americans ( Euler, 2000 ) . What may do Koo ‘s female parent to disapprove of Lucy Liu, or any other Chinese adult female, is the Korean War. During the Korean War, China decided to back up North Korea because they were besides a communist state. When the United Nations, protagonist of South Korea, infiltrated North Korea, the Chinese ground forces intervened and attacked the United Nations military personnels, doing them to fall back ( Brown, 2003 ) . Assuming Koo ‘s female parent is from South Korea, she may mistrust Chinese people because of the war. “ If a individual marries outside the cultural groupaˆ¦ , that may be seen by the familyaˆ¦ as a failure of the parents to transfuse [ Korean ] values, which brings shame to the household ” ( Tewari, 2009 ) . Koo besides mentions in a ulterior stanza that “ Koreanness, ” in his female parent ‘s eyes, constitutes for likability in a miss. He does non wholly hold with this, for he has “ met many not-so-nice Korean misss ” ( Koo, 2009 ) .
The fact that his female parent disapproves of interracial relationships could take to Koo concealing his relationship with Lucy Liu, or another miss that is non of Korean dissent, to avoid or prorogue inevitable struggle between him and his household ( Tewari, 2009 ) . In the last stanza, Koo mentions that “ Lucy aˆ¦came back/wielding a harpoon and said, Come on/get out of there. But you did n’t desire to interrupt screen ” ( Koo, 2009 ) . The harpoon, although used for catching big animate beings such as giants, can besides be viewed as a arm, a symbol of power ( Lytle, 2008 ) . Although Lucy wields this powerful arm, Koo still did non desire to interrupt screen. This represents Koo ‘s vacillation to state his female parent he does non desire to needfully get married or a day of the month a Korean miss and that dating adult females of other racial dissent should non be a ground for struggle. There is an obvious difference of civilization between him and his female parent. America is going a more diverse state, and Asians get marrieding outside of their ain race is easy going more socially acceptable among the more recent coevalss of Asians in America. It is more common among Asiatic Americans than Asiatic immigrants to take part in matrimony outside of one ‘s ain race, and even more common among Asiatic adult females ( Kent, 2010 ) . For now, Koo must fight with happening the balance between esteeming his female parent and maintaining his ain involvements when dating ( Tewari, 2009 ) . This balance is portrayed within these lines in the verse form: “ but in the dream world/Lucy was close plenty, with your mom/as backlight ” ( Koo, 2009 ) . He is maintaining his ain involvements in the head, symbolized by Lucy Liu, while still believing of his female parent ‘s criterions, represented by the backlight. This is merely his dream, for happening this balance in world would be a major battle if he is merely limited to dating Koreans.
His experience with dating is non entirely affected by his female parent. He mentions some kind of experience he had in high school. “ Yes, I ‘m in problem, Lucy, you whispered/I still have n’t gotten over high school/apparently, and now my assurance in love/and myself has been shattered. ” Koo does non give a specific state of affairs, but the reader can deduce that he did non hold a pleasant experience because he feels that he has lost his “ assurance in love and himself. ” He reiterates that he is non worthy of Lucy Liu through a metaphor of his high school uniform. “ [ He was ] non have oning a jacket and tie, which are required/for forenoon assembly. ” His jacket and tie represent the qualities he feels he should hold, or are “ needed, ” in order to day of the month Lucy, a adult female of higher criterion. This feeling of insufficiency is besides portrayed through another vesture point presented near the beginning of the verse form: a fin. “ [ He ‘d ] turn up to be a adult male deserving of Lucy/yet struggled to set one flipper/in forepart of the other with any sort of self-respect. ” There is a big line interruption stand foring different stanzas between the words “ flipper ” and “ in. ” It creates a tarriance intermission, picturing Koo ‘s battle to put one fin in forepart of the other with self-respect, which represents his deficiency of assurance ( Koo, 2009 ) .
Koo does non merely experience loneliness. He besides struggles with continuing his Korean household values and award and holding assurance. Koo is non the lone 1 who experiences these battles, and he is really cognizant of this. In an interview with Elizabeth Hildreth, Koo reveals his inspiration for this peculiar verse form. “ [ He ] wanted to compose the sort of book that people would turn to when they can hardly moveaˆ¦ – [ he ] had a pupil who [ watched The Notebook for times in a row ] . [ His pupil ] wrote about it in his notebook, stating he was in an ’emotional coma ‘ and merely Rachel McAdams could assist him. [ He ] wanted to replace Rachel McAdams ; [ he ] felt [ his ] verse forms should be able to make a better occupation of talking to [ that ] cat ‘s hurting ” ( Hildreth, 2010 ) . Alternatively of utilizing Rachel McAdams, he uses Lucy Liu. In this verse form, he has depicted this grief and hurting and emphasized that there are no definite black and white state of affairss in love. There are all sunglassess of grey in between, and everybody has their battles. His shadiness of Grey is the societal stigma of exogamy and his ain deficiency of assurance due to outside force per unit areas.
