Representations of Asian Americans in mainstream culture tend to reinforce a stereotype of the silent, model minority. Such silence typically stems from a language barrier or the perception that silence equates to respect and horror of conflict. Media portrayals often offer audiences an outside view of Asian American characters, but fail to offer the characters' inside perspective. Brian Ascalon Roley's American Son counters these portrayals by centering its story on two Filipino American brothers living in Los Angeles and specifically telling the novel from the point of view of one of the brothers, Gabe. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay A recurring theme in the novel is Gabe's heartbreaking silence during times of conflict. Because the story is told through Gabe's perspective, we have access to his thoughts during these moments, in contrast to typical depictions of Asian Americans. Roley forces readers to sit and endure these long, awkward moments, providing the opportunity to observe the internal effects of navigating everyday micro- and macro-aggressions. Roley's novel warns that if minority groups, particularly Filipino Americans, cannot translate silence into a productive voice in times of conflict, then violence serves as an alternative form of expression. As the story progresses, we see how these moments of silence in the face of conflict build up and create tension that eventually explodes in the form of violence. This violence is presented as a short-term power, but ultimately leads the reader to see it as a dead-end solution. Roley stops short of presenting a functional and complete alternative response to silence, but leaves a few passages that suggest some imagined solutions. Before delving into the novel's major warning device, it is helpful to consider why Roley chose to write about Filipino-American biraciality. Boys. There is the obvious reason that Roley himself is a multiracial Filipino who grew up in the Los Angeles area and so this work likely has autobiographical basis. Additionally, biracial Filipinos provide an ideal group to address issues of racial identity and manhood, as they generally lack a specific stereotype as is often assigned to other minority groups. This means that for Filipino Americans there is still a cultural voice to be found, making the question of what outlet to direct the tension of silence quite relevant. The main event that Roley uses to alert us to the outcomes of unresolved silence is the ordeal between Gabe's family and the Feinsteins. Gabe's mom, Ika, dents Mrs. Feinstein's Land Rover in the car line at Gabe's school, which catalyzes a series of events that ultimately culminate in Gabe and Tomas going to the Feinsteins' house and attacking Ben, their son . Roley highlights the moments when Gabe chooses to remain silent and shows how these moments aggregate within Gabe, leading to the violent intimidation of Ben Feinstein. Gabe's inability to transform his silence into a meaningful voice illustrates how individuals resort to violence as a way to express themselves when other means fail. There are several specific instances in this context where Gabe chooses silence instead of expressing his thoughts. These thoughts are steeped in violence, and Roley uses them as an example of how frustrations left pent up can turn into real manifestations. The first case is during the car accident, when he looks at theYoga-practicing mom, Mrs. Feinstein, verbally intimidating her mother. During the entire scene, Gabe never addresses his mom or his yoga mom. He recognizes that Ika is the mother of Jordan, another student: “That's my mother, I say…I just wanted to make sure you knew” (176); but she never speaks for her mother while being scolded by her yoga mom. Instead he stands there as a silent observer: “And I can't do anything but stay there, next to my mother who does yoga. His son, Ben, looks at me, shifts on his feet, and even though he looks embarrassed, as he touches his stupid red vest, I want to stick the ice pick into his cheek. My fingers are shaking. I don't know what to do with it” (177). There are two main things to pick out from this quote. First, we are in Gabe's mind and as such we see events with his biases. He thinks to himself, “And there's nothing I can do,” which implies that he thinks he has no choice in the matter. As readers, we understand that there are actually other avenues besides staying silent, such as speaking up for Ika and calling out the yoga mom's aggressive comments, such as "I mean, really, some people" or especially "The idiots we send the their kids in school here…people who can’t afford insurance should take the bus” (177-178) But Gabe only hears these remarks and feels like he has no choice but to stay there, which shows us who is not even able to see if he can act on his own initiative. The second thing we can take from this quote is the violent thought of stabbing Ben in the cheek with his ice pick. Note that Gabe's anger is not directed at his mother who does yoga – doesn't say he'd like to stick the ice pick in her cheek – even though she's the one verbally abusing Ika. Instead she directs her violent thought at Ben, which seems disconcerting. Also, Gabe's fingers are shaking and he doesn't know what to do so, which is a physical manifestation of the tension that his silence is accumulating within him. The next time she silences her thoughts is during repeated phone calls from her yoga mom. demanding payment. Gabe observes, “I could have given our mother some advice or told the woman some things, but I'm sitting in the corner very still with my arms crossed” (198-199). It is unclear why Gabe is unable to speak up to help his mother and instead chooses to remain silent. However, this sentence suggests what was missing in Gabe in the previous moment, that Gabe chose to remain silent. Here Roley takes aim at some of the reasons why Asian Americans are silent and frames this passage in a way that criticizes Gabe for his choice of inaction. Perhaps Roley is asking the question addressed within the Asian American community: Are there moments when we choose silence that continue to cause us further problems? There's also a moment at school where Gabe meets Ben in the school hallway. “Once in the crowded corridor between periods he even says hello to me and I decide he can't know anything but I feel like hurting him anyway, and I have to take long walks to calm down” (200). Here again we see these violent thoughts rise to the top of his mind, but he does not discharge them into a productive expression of his anger. Instead we can feel them boiling inside him. By detailing all these tense moments, Roley highlights the numerous opportunities Gabe has to vent his frustrations by speaking on his mother's behalf or conversing with Ben. But when Gabe doesn't express his thoughts, can we glimpse what motivates his silence, or, in other words, what are the barriers to speaking up? There is a moment when he chooses not to speak, but in others there seems to be a nameless barrier. For example, think to yourself, “I really want to say something to this woman, butfor some reason I don't" (200). As readers, we are probably frustrated that Gabe hasn't broken his silence. Roley plays on this frustration, asking us to understand why we don't speak up in conflict situations, especially when they come to us provided examples of what can happen when those emotions are repressed. Roley lays out this sequence of events to show how emotional tension, when unresolved, can foster and motivate violent actions more likely to be carried out. In the last pages of the novel we see the implementation of violence. In the moments preceding the brothers' trip to the Feinstein house, Roley gives us a disturbing phrase, foreshadowing what is to come. His face stands out in the blue sky. Behind him a skywriter has left a trail of white clouds, the ghostly etchings of blurry words that I can no longer understand” (202-203). What verbal expression is more visible than the literal writing in the sky? But Gabe can't understand the words, because they are blurred like ghosts. The blurry words could represent Gabe's attempts at communication, which failed because they were not maintained and therefore blown away by the wind. This also symbolizes Gabe's later decision to give up using words to express his thoughts and instead resort to violence. We see the exact moment when his violent thoughts overflow and he moves into action. Tomas catalyzes this by egging Gabe on: “That's the truck that bitch humiliated her mom about in front of school, right? The sun pulses hot against my temples. This pissed you off, didn't it? I nod... are you ready? he says. Yes” (210). Here there is no internal dialogue in Gabe's mind about action versus inaction; it's almost an automatic shot. The moments of silence that led to humiliation (even if the silence was usually self-inflicted) pushed and pushed Gabe inside until the opportunity to act arose, at which point he easily committed violence that he probably couldn't have done Before. To reinforce the role that repressed voices have in motivating violence, Roley inserts one final moment during the assault: "A couple of times in the past I've been with a small group of people when someone said some smart things about me and Well." I laughed even though I was older. But now he is respectful, with his head bowed” (214). Roley also uses this phrase to show how violence can empower Gabe. Once the object of mockery, it now commands respect or rather fear. The next line also gives us a sense of how violence empowers Gabe: “And even as my stomach tightens, I feel a surge not of anxiety but of confidence. In a scary way I realize that I like it. Oddly enough, this only makes my stomach worse” (215). Although the violence makes him feel safe, Gabe knows he should be disturbed by his actions. This pushes us as readers to question the validity of violence as empowerment. The novel ends shortly after, so Roley doesn't tell us the aftermath of the attack. The kids managed to take their anger out on Ben, but will that really stop the yoga mom from asking for the eight hundred dollars and Ika from having to work another job? Didn't they just open up another opportunity for their family to get hurt again, like if the police got involved and the kids had to serve time? Roley refuses to write what happens next, but it doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination for readers to understand that ultimately beating and threatening Ben Feinstein does little to change their overall future and even has the potential to change things. worse for the.