59 pages • 1 hour read
Rachel KhongReal Americans
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Dress Matthew Buys for Lily
During the first section of the novel, Matthew buys an expensive dress for Lily to wear to an upcoming party. Lily is initially moved by the gesture and enchanted by the dress, but she quickly wonders if the purchase is an indictment of the dress she wore to the last event the two attended together. The dress therefore symbolizes not only Matthew’s affluence but also the way that wealth and class divide the couple. It speaks to the theme of Class and Belonging in the way that it highlights Lily’s worry that she will never truly belong among Matthew’s wealthy friends and family members. Her conflicting feelings about the dress are a microcosm of her broader struggle with class. She is not ashamed of her middle-class roots, but she does acutely feel the gap between her background and Matthew’s. She is shown at times to be markedly anti-materialist, but she is also dazzled by Matthew’s wealth. She adapts readily to vacations in the Hamptons, Matthew’s expensive condo, and the financial security that their relationship affords her. At the same time, the dress encapsulates her worry that she will never truly be seen as an insider in his social circles. The dress also symbolizes their class differences in that Matthew does not see these complex issues and simply intends for the dress to be a nice gesture, emphasizing how wealth shields him from class anxiety.
The United States
The United States is a complex symbol with meaning that shifts throughout the narrative. Initially, it symbolizes potentiality and possibility to May, Ping, and Charles. As young scientists attempting to forge new careers against the violent backdrop of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the United States appears to be a beacon of freedom and safety. Their perception is that in the US, they will be able to pursue their research agendas without fear of denunciation and persecution, and the political stability of the US will guarantee them the opportunity to lead calm, “normal” lives.
However, when Lily and Charles finally immigrate, their experiences are not always what they anticipated. The US then becomes a symbol of difficulty, prejudice, and, for May, alienation. Like other immigration narratives, Real Americans highlights the elusive nature of the American dream, and America becomes a fraught symbol of both possibility and struggle. In this way, it helps the author engage with the theme of Immigration, Race, and Identity: May and Charles want desperately to be seen as American and even come to think of themselves as more American than Chinese after they leave China. They embrace the English language, American popular culture, and American cuisine. That they raise their daughter, Lily, without a strong sense of her Chinese heritage speaks to their desire to identify as American.
Lily’s feelings about her parents’ choices remain mixed. Although born in the US, people often assume that she is foreign just because she is Asian. Unlike her parents, she never quite feels fully American. There is a sense in which May and Charles do see themselves as “Real Americans,” but Lily does not feel as though she is perceived as a “Real American” by the people she encounters on a day-to-day basis. “America” and American identity remain slippery, shifting symbols throughout the novel, but even in their lack of fixed meaning, they speak to the difficult intersection of race and identity within immigrant communities.
Genetic Research and the Biological Sciences
Each generation of the Chen and Maier families is involved in some way in the biological sciences and genetic research. May and Ping become interested in the burgeoning field during their studies at Peking University, and when May and Charles immigrate to the United States, they work with Otto Maier and his family foundation on various gene-editing projects. Otto’s son, Matthew, ultimately enters the family business as a financier, and he and Lily use their parents’ technology during Lily’s IVF treatments. Lily’s son, Nick, also ends up in genetics.
Although this motif is a key part of the narrative in its own right, its ultimate role within the novel is to help the author explore each of her primary themes. Genetic research speaks to the theme of Class and Belonging in that the IVF treatments that Otto and May’s research enables are expensive and unavailable to families of limited means. That Lily and Matthew can make use of this treatment becomes yet another way in which the difference between their family backgrounds is highlighted for Lily. The motif also speaks to the theme of Fraught Family Relationships. Otto and May give Lily childhood genetic treatments in secret, and it is not until Lily is an adult that she remembers the sessions and fully understands the impact that they had on her reproductive capabilities. Matthew’s brother, too, received controversial, experimental genetic treatments, and Matthew comes to blame them for his brother’s suicide. The secrecy that exists between the older and middle generations of this family becomes one of the fault lines along which they fracture, and the author thus uses genetic testing as a way to discuss the complexity of familial bonds.
Nick’s startup is ultimately interested in gene editing to allow parents, especially those in biracial relationships, to alter the appearance of their children. Because this kind of gene editing resulted in Nick looking entirely white and because he identifies the inherent racism in picking the race of one’s child, he objects to the research. In this way, the motif also helps the author discuss issues surrounding Immigration, Race, and Identity: Racial identity is a key issue for Lily and Nick, and the idea that it could be possible to alter a child’s racial makeup is meant to interrogate American standards of race and acceptability.
