Feathers From A Thousand Li Away is about a woman who goes to America for a better life for her daughter. Her daughter becomes very Americanized and gains respect but can only speak english and her mother cannot. The Joy Luck Club is about a girl taking over her mothers position in a club that she had started. Her mother started the club back in China to get away from the outside world and have fun and relax. However, her mother thought of her daughter as a failure and they did not get along very well.
In the film you catch how Ana and her mother believe in different roles that women should have and this is where most of the problems and differences come upon. One of the female roles that Ana strongly believes in is that she aspires to advance in life and attend college is something that is very important to her. On the other hand her mother Carmen opposes to college and moving from home is not an option for Ana unless is for marriage. In the eyes of Ana's mother, a college education is not the top priority and she is determined to make this clear to her daughter. With this said, there is a part in the film where Carmen is talking to her husband about the fact of Ana attending college and she tells him that there is no need for their daughter to attend college, that it’s a waste of time that she herself will teach and educate Ana with everything she needs to know so she finds herself a husband and gets married.
June feels so pressured she decides to give up even before she really tries because her mother’s standards are so high. Also, because music is imposed upon June like a school assignment, she derives no joy from practicing. Suyuan believes she can bully her daughter into becoming the woman she would like her to become. In contrast to June, Waverley seems to have had an actual, instinctive interest in and gift for chess, which is why the exhibition of her prowess is so much more natural. For June, anxious to create her own, independent ‘American’ identity, resisting music and her mother becomes a potent source of self-definition.
She had invested the time trying to make Jing-mei a prodigy because she was her last hope. Jing-mei’s mother had lost two children while in China. Jing-mei’s mother also expected her to be a prodigy because she was a Chinese immigrant; she felt immigrants had to prove that they were as talented as or more talented than Americans were. <br> <br>Jing-mei’s mother didn’t know what she wanted her to do, so she experimented. First came the dancing and singing trails, “ at first my mother wanted me to be a Chinese Shirley Temple†(Tan 450).
Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior The article ”Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” focuses on the fact that chinese children are turning out to be so stereotypically successful. Amy Chua points out that there is a big difference between Chinese mothers and Western parents and the way they raise their kids: ”What Chinese parents understands is that nothing is fun until you’re good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up.” I think this quote makes a good picture of how she thinks of herself as a parent and the Western people as parents. To make her point clear she uses a lot of pathos and a lot of examples from experiences with herself and her two daughters, Louisa and Sofia.
The point that Amy Chua stresses the most in Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is the difference between “Chinese parenting” and “Western parenting.” It is clear that in her opinion Chinese children excel more than American children because they are constantly being pushed by their mothers to be the best at everything they do. There are even studies Chua quotes that suggest the same thing: In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that ‘stressing academic success is not good for children’ or that ‘parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun.’ By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be ‘the best’ students, that ‘academic achievement reflects successful parenting,’ and that if children did not excel at school then there was ‘a problem’ and ‘parents were not doing there job.’ (5). Whether this study and her book proved that Chinese parenting is better than Western parenting is not the point to be made. However there is much to be said for parents encouraging their children to strive to do well and not give up. A child who grows up to have poor work ethics and a track record of laziness will typically come from an upbringing where they were neglected or never pushed to do much of anything.
In Alice’s case, her characteristics and values have been drastically influenced by what her family has been through in the past. An example of the influence of past lives on the behaviors of family members is the relationship between Alice’s mother and her grandmother. There is great conflict between the two of them during Alice’s childhood because her grandmother has such high expectations of Alice’s mother that she finds difficult to fulfill. Alice’s grandmother is an old fashioned Chinese woman, who believes that the wife of the house must bring honor to her family by perfecting all domestic duties. Juggling four children, cooking, cleaning and adjusting to a new society puts pressure on Alice’s mother.
In "Two Kinds," by Amy Tan, the narrator’s mother is from China, which affects the way she looks at the world. To her, America is the land of opportunity: “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America.” She has an unrealisic expectation that her daughter can be a musical prodigy. Because of this, she pushes and forces her daughter into piano lessons. The girl’s first act of rebellion is when she purposefully fails at piano. It is her way to reject her mother and her mother's strict Chinese rules.
Esperanza received her name from her great-grandmother; Esperanza and her great-grandmother were both born during the Chinese year of the horse, which means strength. For women, this was considered "bad luck" but Esperanza did not believe in "luck", she wanted to be strong. Esperanza wanted to be strong enough to leave Mango street. Her great-grandmother was forced into marriage and although Esperanza got her grandmother's name, she did not want to be forced into marriage and she promised herself that she wouldn’t. Esperanza had a little sister named Magdalena but she was called Nenny.
In the first part of the poem Song conveys that the life lived in China is not a glorious one. The people of her culture desperately wish to move across seas to America so they can make for themselves and be freed from the overpowering rule in China. The speaker then begins to describe her sister and how she is “across the ocean” (Song) in America. At first Song describes the opportunities that can be found for women in America “In America there are many roads and women can stride along with men” (Song). However, the tone quickly changes as Song begins to miss and need China.