Essay
Essay
Essay
of dominant culture/narratives?
The novel Little Fires Everywhere was written by Celeste Ng. The dominant culture is a broad
term for what we consider “normal” as a society, this permeates into our views of people and
affects how we feel about ourselves. One of the many groups that have been marginalized by the
dominant are women. The essay “Sisterhood: Political Solidarity Between Women” by author
Bell Hooks talks about how as feminists and upstanders, we need to lift everybody up as a whole
instead of focusing on political beliefs, class, or race. “Radical commitment to political struggle
carries with it the willingness to accept responsibility for using conflict constructively, as a way
to enhance and enrich our understanding of one another, as a guide directing and shaping the
parameters of our political solidarity.” Political solidarity is a key idea to take down the
patriarchy of dominant culture and lift up one another for the good of everybody. When you are
uplifted by the collective, you are empowered to have more self-reliance on an individual level.
Little Fires Everywhere is the story of two new tenants (Mia and her daughter Pearl Warren)
moving into affluent suburb Shaker Heights, in a duplex owned by The Richardsons. The main
conflict of the book starts when we see all the different characters interact and reveal their
differences. For example, Mrs. Richardson presents a forward thinking accepting image when in
reality she needs everything to be her way whereas Mia is very free spirited and chooses to live
for herself. This complete opposition to Mrs. Richardson’s world view leads her to snoop into
Mia’s past and violate her privacy behind her back. These personalities and lies all erupt into
many explosive interactions that reveal problematic aspects of our society and point a mirror at
the reader.
Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere employs the characterization of multiple women in shaker
heights to address the importance of self-reliance as fuel for social change. Celeste Ng’s
depiction of how members of dominant culture rely on social norms advocates for social change
because they ultimately have to confront their own privilege in order to create real change.
Towards the end of the novel after Mrs. Richardson finishes her search into Mia’s past, she
confronts Mia unannounced and verbally attacks her. Mrs. Richardson is taken aback when Mia
fights back by questioning Elena’s life choices, saying: “It terrifies you. That you missed out on
something. That you gave up something you didn’t know you wanted.” pg 212. Mia Warren
reaches into Mrs. Richardson and finds something inside of her that Mrs. Richardson finds
terrifying - the idea that she might not be happy and that she is just living out the life that the
dominant culture wants her to live. Mrs. Richardson gives us a picture of someone who wants to
be in control, who wants to be the center of attention, and who wants everything to be her way.
But is it her way? This connects to the idea of political solidarity because of the way Mrs.
Richardson thinks about people she does not agree with. She thinks they are wrong and chooses
not to learn from a different point of view which ultimately stunts the growth of change and
reinforces negative ideas. Elena thinks that she is being empowered by her privilege and lifestyle
when in actuality she is painstakingly striving to keep playing out a prescript-ed image of what
the dominant culture wants us to want. At the very beginning of the novel we are introduced to
one of the many people the Mrs. Richardson tries to control, her own daughter, Izzy. We learn
that Izzy is an outcast and chooses not to care about the roles that society presents to her. It is
clear that Izzy shares many values with Mia and ends up assuming a kind of mother-daughter
relationship with her. Because of how comfortable Izzy is with Mia she ends up sharing aspects
of herself that she isn't comfortable sharing with others, her reliance on Mia comes to an end
after Mrs. Richardson attacks Mia causing her to leave Shaker Heights. Izzy gets the chance to
talk to Mia one last time where Mia gives her a valuable metaphor of how she can deal with her
problems. “Prairie fire quote.” By comparing Izzy’s issues to a prairie fire, Ng reveals how the
dominant society forces people who don’t fit into traditional roles to take matters into their own
hands and become self-reliant. Even though Izzy defies social norms she still has benefited from
the dominant culture. She has access to whatever she wants but chooses to rebel which may be
easier for her to do because of her encapsulating safety net. Mia pushes her to further pursue a
life that disregards societal norms in a way that isn't so comfortable. The image of a prairie fire
symbolizes the burn and hurt of pushing back against dominant society, in the end leaving new
fertile land and the feeling that you have genuine force and power to see the world the way you
want it to be.
Celeste Ng’s use of contrasting characters critiques the dominant culture because it creates a
barrier for social change. In the middle of the novel after Mia finds a job at a local restaurant, she
meets an immigrant named Bebe Chow. Mia learns that Bebe’s partner left her after giving birth
at a time when she was not making enough money to support a child, this leads Bebe to leave her
baby at a fire station hoping she will get a better life. This wish changes when Bebe finds a stable
job and is making enough money for two, she learns that one of Mrs. Richardson's neighbors (the
McCulloughs) had taken in her daughter and were not willing to give her back. We then enter a
lengthy court case towards the end of the novel resulting in Bebe losing custody of her child and
the McCulloughs becoming the full legal guardians of the baby. Bebe is completely at a loss and
decides to take her baby back herself. “She would fall asleep and Mrs. McCullough would turn
in and find Bebe’s daughter there waiting for her. Bebe leaned her head against the BMW and
waited for the light in her daughter’s room to go out.” pg. 220. Bebe has to fight against the
system in order to regain what she lost. Bebe’s devastation is a clear portrayal of how society
fails people who don’t fit into what we consider perfect or normal. Bebe is not wealthy or
American and for that she is treated like she had no idea how to properly take care of a child, it
says more about how she wasn’t given enough resources to take care of her baby than it does
about her parenting abilities. She made a giant and painful sacrifice by giving up her baby to the
fire station but instead of regaining custody when she has enough resources to provide for two,
she is blocked by the bias of what we consider “normal” and “better”. Maybe the McCulloughs
really think that they can take better care of this baby, but they are blinded by their own wealth
and don’t see what culture and history the baby would lose touch with. This leaves Bebe in the
fate of her own hands. Mia’s daughter Pearl reflects some of the same traits as Mia. At the start
of the book we get to know her as a smart outsider but she gets to play with popularity as the
book ramps up and she is bombarded by the social dynamics of high school in Shaker Heights.
Still a common thread throughout her journey in this novel is that she knows where she belongs,
not fully on the outside and not fully on the inside either. This realization is made by one of the
Richardson kids, Moody who says,”She lingered comfortably in the gray spaces.” Pg. 274. By
utilizing the image of a gray or uncertain area, Ng reveals how comfortable Pearl feels in this
space and the strength she draws from it. At the core of this novel is a story of coming to terms
with the fact that you always have to be looking out for others. But because we also see the
duality of not everybody caring for one another, we also see how people can find strength within
themselves. Pearl is the proof that we will carry on and still be okay, she has moved too many
times to count and is not what many people think of when you hear “perfect life”. Even still she
is enjoying living and the world and not being sure and figuring everything out. So what the
main question really is, do the people who have everything really have everything? We can
connect all of the central ideas of this story into a sort of melting pot of life lessons but the main
theme that holds throughout the story is the idea of self reliance.
The only way we can achieve true social change is not by just relying on another person to fix it
but instead to fix it ourselves. Many people who have attained a level of privilege or more likely
were born with it, often miss the fact that they have a leg up on other people and choose not to
acknowledge it. A way we can achieve growth as a society is by realizing any privilege we have
and learning about how that affects others and where we can lend a hand instead of focusing on
just problems that affect us. The other side to this is not being able to have money that shields
yourself and actually needing to rely on your own strength to be able to combat hardship. All of
these ideas connect to the core principle that we all have to find the strength within ourselves to
not just shut down and focus on ourselves, but to actually be sympathetic to everyone else's