Ha Jin

Ha Jin is a contemporary Chinese author and poet who grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution and has written many books of short story collections. “The Bane of the Internet” is fairly new and part of a collections of stories published in his 2009 book “A Good Fall”. Characters like the eldest sister in “The Bane of the Internet”, immigration to the land of opportunities shows the loss and gain of her life. Jin created the character of the eldest sister to dramatize the lives of the Chinese immigrants and their daily battle to find balance between their lives in a new world and the responsibilities of caring for their family they left behind.
The Eldest Sister
The eldest sister in the “The Bane of Internet” is a static character
in which her drive to become independent and successful outside of her family unit is carried throughout the story. The eldest sister paints a life of working hard and saving her money in order to become prosperous on her own. The struggle for the eldest sister is how does she balance a successful independent life for herself and yet not feel responsible for the happiness and wellbeing of her younger sister Yuchin? The tone of the eldest daughter is one of irritation. The eldest sister has immigrated to the United States from China where she is working hard. The sisters begin this transition of living in two different countries by writing letters to one another. For the eldest sister, this allows her to keep connected with her family and yet have a sense of independence. Jin proves the eldest sister’s character is irritated by stating, “I used to believe that in the United States you could always reshape your relationships with the people back home – you could restart your life on your own terms” (Jin, 2009, para, 7). Jin further develops the character of the eldest sister when letters are replaced by emails from her Yuchin. “At first it was exciting to chat with her every night” (para, 2). The character misses her family and Jin is able to paint a picture of the eldest sister excitement to hear from her loved one each night. However, the feeling of excitement soon wears thin on the eldest sister and the character takes on a sense of frustration because she is dragged back into the daily life of what seems to be her shallow less responsible sister. As the story develops, Yuchin emails her eldest sister with the desire to buy a car.
Yuchin wanted her ex to see how well she was doing without him. “I urged her to wipe him out of her mind as if he had never existed” (para, 3). The stream-of-consciousness style mimics the perplexing and irresponsible thoughts the eldest sister feels about the ex-husband and the purchasing of a car. She symbolizes the thought by stating, “Indifference is the strongest contempt” (para, 3).
Phrases by Jin (2009) such as “I told her that was ridiculous, nuts” (para 4) and “That was insane” (para, 6) shows the informal diction used to describe the thoughts and feelings of the eldest sister. He creates a character that one would feel is easy to talk to or in the younger sisters case take advantage of. The story is informal which makes the characters believable and as if anyone could have the same type of relationship with their
siblings.
Jin (2009) further develops the character of the eldest sister with the imagery he portrays of her responsible, frugal and goal oriented manners. Unlike her sister Yuchin who is impulsive, vain and immature. To prove his point, he writes of the impulsive and irresponsible Yuchin, who is desperate to purchase a car that she places an ad on the internet offering her organs in exchange for money. The eldest sister character immediately takes on more of a parental role when she writes her sister, “All right, my idiot sister, I will lend you $10,000. Remove your ad from the website. Now!” (para, 11). Again, the informal diction and the imagery shows the complexity of the eldest sister’s character as she struggles to find balance. As any responsible family member would do, the character of the eldest sister shows her responsibility and frugality by allowing her sister to borrow the money with the condition it is paid back within two years.
Conclusion
Ha Jin’s contemporary writings in the short story “The Bane of the Internet” is a good example of the trials and tribulations that immigrants endure when moving to a new country.
The character development of the eldest sister is one of gain and loss. On one hand she has immigrated to the land of opportunities to gain a sense of independence and freedom from her family. On the other hand, she feels a sense of loss in her independence by being pulled back into the unpredictable life of her younger sister. “If only I could shut her out of my life for a few weeks. If only I could go somewhere for some peace and quiet” (para
16).