In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.

The line contrasts a perceived American ethos of self-determination with social systems (or family expectations) in which one is expected to accept an assigned station. “Circumstances somebody else gives you” suggests inherited roles—class, gender, ethnicity, family duty, or the narrative others impose. The quote affirms the possibility of refusing those constraints: in America, at least ideally, one can revise one’s life story rather than merely endure it. Read alongside Tan’s recurring themes—immigrant families, generational conflict, and the tension between obligation and autonomy—it can also be heard as both aspiration and critique: the promise of reinvention is empowering, but it may oversimplify the real limits imposed by economics, racism, and family ties.