Pa2iimptadp Minnie

Minnie 1201 “I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party” by Chen Chen Subject​ = Encountering Sexuality Paraphrase ​Occasion​ = This poem is situated at a dinner party involving a gay son, his boyfriend and his parents who are hesitant about accepting the boyfriend into their family. The party has a tense, awkward atmosphere where the mother doesn’t feel comfortable about her distaste of the boyfriend, hence she talked in Mandarin so he could not understand her. Organization​ = The poem was written in couplets and it can symbolize the duality between the persona’s identity and his mom’s denial of it. Enjambment is also used throughout this poem to create a pause between each stanza and also to create the shift in emotion the poem such as tense, disconnected, and awkward. The breaks within a sentence can also represent the disconnection the persona has from the situation he is in, as he isn’t able to control what his mother believes in. Tone​ = awkward, hopeful, accepting Theme​ = The Price of Acceptance - what one has to do to gain respect and acceptance, especially from family members Title​ = “I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party” refers to a specific situation that is usually perceived as positive, intimate interactions between family members. In this poem, the author illustrates the opposite, as he shows the tense, awkward side of a dinner party where his parents need to confront the truth that is his sexuality, again. The persona’s invitation to his dinner party serves as an opportunity for him to reassure his parents and ask for their acceptance, as difficult as it is. Speaker​ = Chen Chen, the author of this poem, uses first person point of view as he uses “I” throughout the poem. This most likely refers to him, according to his biography. The persona has a strong sense of identity and desire for acceptance. Although gays are stereotypically seen as prideful for being different, this persona shows the struggle that comes with it. As he reveals his interactions with his mom and his boyfriend, his feelings of suppression and frustration are shown. Shift​ = In stanza 1-9, it shows that the persona wants his family to accept and respect himself and his boyfriend. However, there’s a shift in stanza 10 since the persona starts to concern and worry. For example, he observes his mother’s seemingly pretentious smile. The atmosphere of the dinner party starts to become awkward in the 10th stanza unlike in stanzas 1-9 since these lines are just the expectations of the persona. It gives a hopeful tone, but in the 10th stanza the persona tends to feel like he is more used to it and isn’t surprised by how his mother acts.

Minnie 1201 Chen Chen utilizes an allusion of the film ​Home Alone​ to compare and contrast the main character’s emotions with his own. In the film, Kevin was forgotten and left home alone while the rest of his family goes on vacation. He previously wished that his family would disappear and so he thought that his wish came true. But the brutal truth was that he needs to survive on his own, making him realize that he needs his family after all. Likewise, the persona in this poem also longs for independence from his family which may not be a physical independence, but mental independence, where he gets to be who he wants to be. But for that to happen, he must go through struggles as shown throughout the dinner party. The first appearance of the phrase “I’m like the kid in ​Home Alone​” in stanza 7 suggests that he feels unnecessarily manipulative from trying to break the ice. He also feels pressured to handle the shared awkwardness, as the “incompetent burglars” can represent his paranoia that he is going to be attacked in some way or another. The persona’s feeling of manipulation intensifies once the phrase is repeated in stanza 14 where he feels anxious to conceal his mother’s distaste for his boyfriend. But then he quickly realizes that as much as he wants to be who he is, he needs to accept who his mom is as well. This change in attitude can resemble Kevin’s realization for the need of his family. The phrase is used again in stanzas 18-19, this time, separated with enjambment. Chen Chen creates a paradox in this stanza by stripping Kevin’s core characteristics: being a kid in a home, alone, and needing to learn. Instead of comparing his and Kevin’s similarities, he shows that they are also very different. He conveys that although he feels the need to take control of the situation, he is not naive like the kid. Instead, he feels the need to be responsible, hence “not the one who needs / to learn” implies that he already learn about himself enough and that it’s his parents’ job to learn more about him. Unlike the kid, who needs to learn to protect his own security. This presents another significant idea that the persona struggles to control his parents and their beliefs. In the last stanza, he would come to realize that it takes time and perseverance to make someone accept him.