The Third Dumpster

This is Lena Gruber.

In "The Third Dumpster," by Gish Jen, language and dialect is used carefully to help the reader better understand this Chinese-American family. The English spoken by the Chinese parents is written in italics and is not proper English. Even though the family has lived in America for 50 years, there is still the separation between Chinese and American in the generation of the parents and the children. Then there is the language in the dialogue used by both brothers that also creates a separation. Morehouse's language involves profanity in the English language and Goodwin wishes that he could be like his brother in this way but remains using proper English. This creates another separation between brothers, one that represents American, Morehouse, and the other who represents Chinese, Goodwin, in Chinese-American , both through the language they use in this short story.