The Farm

by Joanne Ramos

Jane does not believe people are as free as Reagan thinks they are. Sometimes a person has no choice but hard choices,

It just proves that in life, attitude’s everything. Reagan’s trapped in a cage of her own making.

It’s important to encourage her interest in books and learning, which Jane doesn’t do enough. She’s so hard on her daughter, constantly nagging Amalia about her manners, her loquaciousness, almost as if Jane’s trying to force her into the rigid mold of Good, Obedient Asian Female.

promise. And yet, so much of any “success” I’ve had is due also to happenstance and luck: that my parents were educated; that my mom, a newcomer to America, had the tenacity to figure out the public school system in our area and locate a school for gifted kids that was willing to bus me and my little sister all the way across town; that such a program even existed, and on and on.

One of the foundational narratives of capitalism, the story that allows us as a society to accept the inequality that is a natural consequence of a competitive system, is that we start our lives on a relatively even playing field and, through merit, we can change our circumstances. Is this true? Is it less true today than it was before—and if so, why, and are we okay with this?

Mae is the American Dream.

She supports her parents; she writes big checks to help her college roommate’s work in public school education; she sees herself as a champion of her female underlings at the Farm. And yet, she runs a company that commodifies women.

I can’t say whether Jane finds her ending a happy one or simply a pragmatic one, the best choice among not-great choices. I’d rather the reader decided that.