"The Good Daughter" describes the “dual identity” of Caroline Hwang as a first-generation American with Korean immigrant parents. She describes the challenges, triumphs, and everything in between in the trials of her life. It starts off with her narrative anecdote, going to the dry cleaners and bumping into a lady who also has her origins in Korea. They bow in a traditional manner to greet one another. Caroline introduces herself and is surprised to be asked by the woman whether she is Chinese. Why would she come to that conclusion? Soon Caroline discovers that it was because she pronounced her last name, Hwang, incorrectly. The older woman laughs at her mistake and Caroline finds this to be a little offensive.
Caroline goes home feeling bad about herself, feeling as if she doesn’t know her culture and origins well at all. She thinks about her life as a dropout graduate in college and how being in America has kind of made her lose sight of her origins. She decides to call her parents and talk to them about what happened. She is not quite satisfied with the answer that her mother gives her, telling her that it doesn’t matter that she doesn’t know how to pronounce her last name. Why does it matter? She is an American, not in Korea. This doesn’t comfort Caroline but rather makes her even more upset. This is not the comfort she was seeking. She is unsatisfied and wants to find herself, not just brush it off and accept this as her reality.
As the essay goes on, Caroline explains how her parents have immigrated to the United States 30 years ago. They brought her up to be a “strong, independent woman”, telling her that she can do and be anyone she wants to be when she grows up. However, as Caroline grows older, there is a little of a culture clash between her origins in Korea and her life in America. Her parents really want her to be a lawyer. Caroline wants to be a writer. But in order to make her parents proud and pick the safer path, she decides to continue with her lawyer pursuit.
She goes with the plan, but Caroline finds it very hard to squeeze down her real dream and passion. So she decides to take a Ph. D. in English Literature. She thinks that this is a really good in-between, doing what her parents want as well as what she wants. But it’s just too much to keep up with both and she ends up dropping her lawyer career path because it was really arduous to continue with something she doesn’t have a passion for. Her parents are disappointed, but they aren’t devastated. They respect her and though she didn’t succeed in the path they wanted her to follow, she did find something she really loves to do.
Towards the end of the essay, Caroline discusses the sacrifices and troubles that came with finding a spouse. As Koreans, her parents fully expected her to find a respectable Korean man and give them their full Korean blooded grandchildren. In Korean culture, keeping the Korean bloodline is very important. As a younger teenager, Caroline accepted this as her fate and was fine with it. But as she gets older, she feels that this is just too much to ask for. In America, there are so many different people of all different backgrounds. Why does she have to stay within her own ethnicity? She doesn’t want to disappoint her parents, but as a conclusion to her essay, she states her belief that when families immigrate out of their origin country, the next generation to come is the last to be fully immersed in the origin culture. That group is the new generation with a new take on life.
