The Girls of Good Fortune

By examining the experiences of outsiders and immigrants in the American West, the novel offers different models of how newcomers adapt to an established social order. In many cases, Celia and various supporting characters adopt the strategy of assimilation, conforming to the majority-white culture in order to survive in a world that is not built to recognize or honor them for their differences. Faced with widespread prejudice and outright racism, this is the best strategy that Celia and her similarly marginalized companions have found to protect themselves from harm.

In the novel, the true risks of being seen as “other” are found in the historically accurate experience of the Chinese miners of Rocks Springs and Hells Canyon, the latter of whom are brutally murdered by a gang of white horse thieves. Taken together with the difficult lives of the marginalized residents of Chinatown, these events suggests that the strategy of segregation can be a dangerous choice. In the Rock Springs massacre, the Chinese laborers are more easily targeted because their living space is concentrated in a specific area that the mob organizes to attack. In the case of the Hells Canyon massacre in which Frank Vaughan is involved, the isolation of the Chinese miners in this remote, inaccessible region along the Snake River makes them vulnerable to ambush. Similarly, the concentration of populations in the “Chinatowns” of the various cities makes them more vulnerable to racist attacks, as when white residents in Tacoma try to reject Chinese residents in what came to be called the “Tacoma Method” (84). These incidents collectively suggest that banding together with others in similar situations is not always a safe option, at least not for those whom the dominant population considers undesirable.

By contrast, Celia’s half-Chinese, half-white heritage gives her the option to pass for white, and she begins adopting this tactic as a survival strategy when she realizes that it is easier to get a job when she doesn’t disclose the Chinese part of her ancestry. When Abigail discovers this aspect of her, she does manage to retain her job with the Bettencourts, but the discriminatory attitudes of the Bettencourts’ friends nonetheless alerts Celia that the Bettencourts’ decision to retain her is an unusual one. The prejudices that run rampant in their social circles also foreshadow Celia’s eventual discovery that her employers are not very open to accepting members of marginalized groups as equals. In fact, their own biases quickly rise to the surface upon the realization that Celia is pregnant with Stephen’s child, for rather than embracing the idea that they will soon be grandparents, they label the entire matter “an abomination” and eject Celia from their lives, even going so far as to spread misinformation that keeps Celia and Stephen apart for years. Thus, in this instance, Celia’s attempts to assimilate into mainstream society bring her nothing but grief.

Likewise, the tensions that Celia feels when she visits Portland’s Chinatown signal the larger dangers of being identified as Chinese in a racist society, especially when she discovers the Chinese family living in the tunnels as a way to avoid the risk of racist attacks. In a different scene, when Celia leaves the square where the workers’ rally is being held and observes the police officers watching the crowd, she realizes that her appearance of being white is the only thing shielding her from suspicion and interrogation. This form of assimilation, which she adopts for much of her early life, bears similarities to her more drastic act of briefly dressing as a man in order to avoid the risks of assault that come with being a woman in dangerous situations amidst a largely misogynistic culture. In all of these cases, she keenly understands the necessity of conforming to the demands of those in power in order to escape harm.