"In the Land of the Free" by Sui Sin Far

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In the story "In the Land of the Free", Sui Sin Far explains the unhappiness and melancholy of a young mother, Lea Choo, when she had to be separated from her child when they entered the U.S due to the fact that her boy did not have an essential certificate entitling him to admission to this country. This story traced back to the time after 1870 when a big number of immigrants from China arrived in the U.S. The U.

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S federal government, frightened by a supposedly financial depression and misperception triggering by immigrants, enacted many racially discriminated laws to limit their work and migration. Particularly, in 1882, the federal government passed the federal Exclusion Act which required Chinese immigrants to be regularly apprehended for questioning. The assessment process took a very long time and divided lots of relative. Lea Choo was a directly unpleasant victim of this unjust law. Her kid was eliminated from her arms and was prohibited to reunite with Choo until she and her husband, Hom Hing, supplied enough identification paper to the federal government to show that this baby was their kid.

Due to the fact that this process took a long time, Lea Choo sank in her torment and helpless.

Hom Hing was a merchant doing service in San Francisco. Like lots of other Chinese immigrants, he struggled to come to the U.S. hoping he might find have a much better life and prosperity. Regrettably, his partner, Lea Choo could not feature him since she had to stay to look after Hing's sick moms and dads.

After they died, Choo took a long journey to America to reunite with her spouse. She constantly dreamed of the U.S as a wonderland. Nevertheless, when she initial step in this wonderful country, she understood that all her dreams were broken. Her boy could not come in with her. She almost resided in depression and solitude for over ten months before reuniting with her child. Ironically, her kid could not acknowledge her and flee from her. She lost everything in this dreamland. Her catastrophe dramatizes the style that people's misleading dream about a terrific land can cause them sadder and more weepy when they experience genuine difficulties in this brand-new homeland.

Before she came to the U.S., she always dreamed of "a green tree with spreading branches and one beautiful red flower flowing thereon". (Page 176) Lea Choo fantasized the U.S as a vividly luminous image of a rich and blossom country, where she and her husband could have a better life and prosperity, a land full of milk and honey. This wonderland was covered with everlastingly sea green trees. They would have many opportunities to succeed and become rich. This land had many resources like tree with many branched and Lea Choo hoped that by their efforts and sweat, they could enjoy many prosperous achievements like the" beautiful red flower flowing thereon" blooming on that tree. Overall, she believed that the U.S gave her a chance to savor a marvelous and joyful life, absolutely better than her past.

When she saw her dreamland, she still confirmed her imaginary impression of the U.S. She happily told her son "There is where thy (your) father is making a fortune for thee (you)" (page 174). She always strengthened her belief that this land giving hope for the immigrants. She imagined she would have a comfortable and bright life here. She hoped that the day she came here was the beginning of her exultant period. By taking her son to the dreamland, she hoped he would have success and prosperity too. "It is very happy and thou wilt be happy there"," Twas (it was) for thee I left him". She was ready to pay any price for her son. All her hope and bless, she passed to him.

However, when his son was taken from her, she stopped dreaming of this land with a tree full of branches and a red flower. Instead, she wept and nagged her husband to bring his child back. She realized that her dream of a wonderland was unrealistic and unworkable. She merely had a desire to meet her child again. "Even in the darkness, his darkling eyes used to shine up to mine." She became angry with the unfair law that separated her and the child." There cannot be any law that would keep a child from his mother." She regularly hoped to come to the U.S. Now, she knew that immoral and unemotional laws of this land brought the depression and sober to her. She saw her dream was broken into pieces. Ironically,"In the Land of Hope" symbolizes that when people enter this dreamland, the U.S., they see all their hopes about a beautiful land are destroyed.