The road trip

The Wangs vs. Amerca uses the trope of the cross-country road trip to explore the differences in the journey for a Chinese-American family. There are few tropes in fiction more purely American than the Road Trip. As early as the captivity narratives in the 1700s, and through to Kerouac's On the Road Again and beyond, the idea of hitting the road in search of one's self or a new version of America runs throughout the country's literature. It should not be surprising that Chang has taken up this well-worn trope and repurposed it for her immigrant-American family.

Charles Wang's choice to drive his family across the country in a car that was older than most of the children is not accidental. It is clear by the end of the novel that Charles Wang had enough cash hidden away to fly his family to New...