Title & author
White Ivy by Susie Yang
Synopsis
White Ivy is a modern day take on the traditional social climbing genre. The novel not only looks at how ambitious women are depicted in comparison to men who desire the same, but also how an immigrant rewrites the American Dream to fit her own needs, instead of conforming to the ever fictitious narrative.
Who should read this book
Fans of The Lying Life of Adults and Everything I Never Told You
What we’re thinking about
What it takes to overcome societal barriers that favor privilege
Trigger warning(s)
Physical violence, eating disorders, sexism, racism
From The Great Gatsby to Pride and Prejudice, fiction has long depicted tales of social climbing, often rooted in the ideals of the American dream. But how do these stories alter when the protagonist is a woman versus a man? In White Ivy (Simon & Schuster, 2020), Susie Yang’s Ivy Lin shares the same goal as women protagonists from traditional social climbing novels: just like Lily Bart from The House of the Mirth and Undine Spragg from The Custom of the Country, Ivy is willing to do anything it takes to marry into the upper echelon of society. But unlike these novels, White Ivy is a modern day take on the traditional genre. The novel not only looks at how ambitious women are depicted in comparison to men who desire the same, but also how an immigrant rewrites the American Dream to fit her own needs, instead of conforming to the ever fictitious narrative.
Born in Chongqing, China, Ivy immigrates to America when she is five years old, three years after her parents. Here, she begins to yearn for what she has been taught she cannot have: tampons, Gideon Speyer, the “clean-cut, all-American boy” from her class, and a large house (Yang, 5). And when her family finally purchases a house, “the pinnacle of [her parents’] dreams,” Ivy finds it “awful” (68). Ivy does not see the white-picket fence and green front yard that accompanies stereotypical imagery of the American Dream. Rather, she sees a run down home, miles away from where she wishes they lived. And so, Ivy strives to achieve this envisioned prosperity through other ways.
Using a version of the childhood lessons instilled in her by her parents and grandmother, Ivy begins to shape the life she so desires. While initially “the only real wish” her parents have for her is to be a doctor, they later pivot to hoping “that Ivy [will] marry a doctor” (3, 76). Realizing that Ivy will not go on to med school, they push Ivy to marry wealthy, wanting her to ensure not only her own prosperity, but the entire family’s. Her grandmother, Meifeng, instills in her lessons of “self-reliance and opportunism” (6). At a young age, Meifeng teaches Ivy how to shoplift, taking small items from stores that they cannot afford. So many years later, when Ivy re-enters Gideon’s life, it’s not hard to view Ivy’s pursuit of him as her husband as being influenced not only by her parents’ wishes, but also by the lessons Meifeng taught her on taking something she has been told she cannot have because of her class, race, etc.
But do we as readers see Ivy’s attempts to win over Gideon as resourceful, as Meifing first taught Ivy when she was so young, or do we see them as untrustworthy? And why is Roux, another outsider who attempts to climb societal ranks, able to make a fortune to secure his status, while Ivy must resort to marrying into such wealth? At play is Ivy’s lack of privilege in comparison to those around her. While “it would be so easy for [Roux] to disguise himself as any other all-American boy...she, who took such pains with her clothes and mannerisms, would always have yellow skin and black hair and a squat nose, her exterior self hiding the truth that she was American! American! American!” (15). Again, Yang touches upon the myth of the American Dream. While boys like Roux can assimilate, blend into American culture and achieve wealth and success by playing the part, Ivy cannot. Her race, her class, her gender, these are all factors that result in society’s cruel exclusion.
White Ivy poses questions that readers might find difficult to consider because they aren’t so simply categorized into “right” versus “wrong.” But more and more, these questions are the ones society must consider. Amidst America’s glaring inequality that actively works to prevent non-white individuals from obtaining success, Yang’s novel challenges us to consider when is it not actually the individual that does wrong, but the system? When is it not the person who is trying to achieve success that is at fault, but the corrupt idolization of a dream that is off limits to a large portion of the population?
“She would never be able to make this plain, undeviating man understand that the most fragile inner parts of a woman were compiled from a million subtle looks and careless statements from others; this was identity.”
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What are your thoughts on the questions posed in the write up above? Does Yang’s depiction of Ivy come across as untrustworthy? Did you read it to be more layered?
How does Ivy and her story arc compare to Roux’s? How does gender come into play?
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