I’m writing this blog as I was assigned to read the book, “The Chosen and the Beautiful”. It was my choice as it was written in the point of view of my favorite character, Jordan Baker. The only differences are that she’s Vietnamese and that she’s queer. Her sexual identity is not important for this post as I wanted to talk about how her racial identity works and how we change the way we see Jordan. 

I feel that the author reimagined her as Vietnamese adoptee because in the original novel, most of the character’s description can be vague and we assumed that every character in the novel is white. TGG was written by Fitzgerald as a white male with beliefs of the American dream and social hierarchy, so it makes sense to have his characters to be in a default. Vo, on the other side, is a Vietnamese woman, with different and complex beliefs such as racial identity, magical realism, and love. I feel like the only reason that she changed Jordan’s race is, so her character gets fleshed out and be an actual human instead of being a caricature in the American Dream. It’s also the fact that she had Jordan as a self-insert since the author is Vietnamese herself while adding backstory and expanding relationship with the character. This makes sense as Scott Fitzgerald created Nick to be a self-insert of himself as a narrator while also making him flawed and human. 

When reading the first chapter, it basically goes over the original novel story but from her point of view. I get to the part where Tom read the racist and speak about his belief openly to everyone. For me, it felt weird that it was included, knowing that Jordan is Asian. However, having new context can pretty much create new themes with racial prejudice. I like the fact that she included the part where people tried to guess her nationality but no one can get it right. I can relate that the most as everyone wouldn’t guess that I’m Indonesian and Singaporean just by looking at me. We also get backstory on the fact that she was adopted by an ambassador, Anabeth Baker and also why she keeps mentioning her ghost; she also lives with Judge Baker and Mrs. Baker. I noticed that she doesn’t call them “mom” and “dad”, “grandpa” and “grandma” as it seem formal in which I believed it was rooted in Asian culture, in where you have to be formal to the ones older than you. This can also be the fact that she doesn’t see them as her family as their no blood-related which can also tied back to her identity. These are the differences I can see.