Being born in China but living in America, she seems ashamed of her roots and that is why she is embarrassed when her mother speaks broken English (Tan 142-146). But, although she tries hard to be American speaking and writing good English, she realizes that she has deviated from her true self. She finally makes peace with her mother and she starts appreciating her “Mother Tongue”, which consequently affects her writing positively. This shows just how peoples’ native languages are important in their lives. Our “Mother Tongue” is what gives us identity; it defines who we are, and therefore, people should value their native languages.
“Se Habla Espanol” The essay, “Se Habla Espanol,” was written by Tanya Barrientos. Tanya writes about the hardships she goes through trying to speak the language that she pushed away from because of racial stereotypes. Being stereotyped Tanya did not want anything to do with being a Latina, or speaking the Spanish language. Once she realized how society had changed, Tanya tried to regain the culture she had lost during her childhood. Tanya wants to inspire those of her culture that can relate to what she is going through, while also asking for acceptance within the Latino community.
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. At the beginning when she tells the stories about her daughters trying to fight back you think ’what a terrible mother’, but she uses this feeling to support the view the readers have on the Chinese mothers as being mean to their kids so that afterwards she can tell how it turned out good and therefor the way she raises her kids is the best. Amy Chua has a high ethos because she is a professor at Yale which is a very respected job, and as a parent it makes her more reliable because she tells the reader that her parents treated her the same way that she treats her daughters, and as we can see she has been very successful. Also she uses loghos: ”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,
It represents the bound feet that Chinese women of high class had when arriving in America, to “ensure that women did not ‘wander’ too far outside the household gate” (Yung, 19). Though this ideal was proposed and enacted by Chinese men and upheld for so long because of ideal women’s submissiveness, as independence rose in America, the women became “unbound”, free to wander without agony of oppression. Yung proves the popular stereotypes of Asian women as voiceless, passive and
Juggling four children, cooking, cleaning and adjusting to a new society puts pressure on Alice’s mother. Since both mother and grandmother are such strong personalities, arguments between the two of them are not uncommon. They both attempt to entice information about one another out of young, unsuspecting Alice, so that they have something to use against each other during future conflicts. Alice describes their ways of deceit as, “Constantly sighing and lying and dying – that is what being a Chinese woman means, and I want nothing to do with it.” (-Part 1, page
Unlke Yunior, she did not grow up in another country. Her struggle deals with finding an identity as a Chinese- American. Unlike the Domincan culture, which seems to be outspoken and open, the Chinese seem to encourage silence and secrets. The novel begins with Kingston’s mother saying, “You must not tell anyone,” before sharing the story with her daughter. - Silence is encouraged in their culture, allowing Kingston to develop into a shy, awkward girl with trouble adjusting.
Kingston’s story “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe” employs numerous fantasy elements in depicting her separation from the restrictiveness of China and further, her discovery of harmony between her ancient family’s culture and her new American one. Navigating through confusion and anger, Kingston is ultimately able to remove herself her Chinese bindings and find a sense of accord between her past and her future. Kingston’s rhetoric conveys her struggle with the complexities of her Chinese culture and her inability to come to a core truth. Furthermore, she gravitates toward American culture for its simplicity. Kingston is having difficulties sorting fact from fiction in her mother’s story about Moon Orchid’s encounter with her husband.
Culturally the sisters were not ready to take on a new society that had standards against immigrants outside of their nation. There identity is something the girls hold close to them and are passionate about. The author mentions about of the sisters that, “She is here to maintain an identity, not to transform it” (282). The sisters did not wish to be Americanized, but only wished to be treated equally and not judged. They ask the question, “Have we the right to demand, and to expect, that we be loved?” (282) All the girls wanted was to be socially accepted and to be treated fairly politically after the hard work they gave back to the nation.
Ashamed of her family’s Chinese traditions, the fourteen years old girl cries because of what her beloved boy will think of their “shabby Chinese Christmas” and their “noisy Chinese relatives”. Amy’s fear of embarrassment is growing when she goes into the kitchen and sees her mother preparing all these different meals, called in the essay “strange menu”. With the following description of the food, writer’s exaggeration is obvious. The young girl is so into her own oppression that she doesn’t recognize her favorite foods. As adults, we realize how dramatic we were in our teenage years.
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.