Response to “Two Kinds” Donna-Lee Bellamy Jing-mei’s confrontation with her mother following the recital is not where the climax occurs in Amy Tan’s Two Kinds. Jing-mei is the protagonist and during the climax the protagonist is supposed to change during that event. Jing-mei’s mother is constantly encouraging her, telling her she can be a prodigy if she puts forth more effort, but Jing-mei does not believe in herself or her abilities. Jing-mei says, “ For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me” (464).
She mentions the example of Patrica Saldarriaga, a professor whose daughter had to celebrate her quinceanera even when she did not want to just because of her father’s status(62). People who cannot affod these lavish celebrations then go in debt which later causes problems. She asks herself “Why cannot they do both?’(62). Why can’t they celebrate their daughters quinceanera and also not go in debt. She feels the need for their culture to be revised to work better for them in the new realities they are facing right now.
Later she soon concluded that it was her name that held her back from achieving the jobs she wanted.Of course her frustration rose. She decided to change her name at that point. Ironically the calls started pouring in. This is another example of how your culture plays a big role in how society see’s you as a person, no matter if these assumptions are completely and utterly false. After Firoozeh changed her name, her life became one huge mess.
Rue, I think is the best ally she could have. She may not be a Career but she still is fast and she accepts that at some point one of them will have to die. An example of this is on page 213 when Katniss goes to destroy the Career’s supplies. Rue gives her a hug as if Katniss was someone she had known for a long time. Katniss hesitates before returning the hug because she does not want to get too attached to her since this will make it harder for her to let her go if she dies.
This makes her wonder if she made the right decision moving to Lowell. She has her little sister to care for now and debts to pay off back home. Lyddie is only a teenager and is forced to act very mature in this situation. While some people believe that Lyddie should sign the petition, it would leave Lyddie without any money or a place to go. Lyddie is in need of money, for this purpose, she should not sign the petition.
C. Wright Mills was born on August 28, 1916 in Waco, Texas. He grew up in several different cities in the United States, as his father was a traveling insurance agent for Banker’s Life in Des Moine, Iowa. He eventually spent most of his high school years in the Texas heartland. Many people believe his Texas upbringing was a factor in how he viewed humanity and it’s culture. Mills himself believed he could view America’s culture more clearly, from Texas, because he was brought up in a region that was just beginning to experience the sociological changes which occurred in Chicago and New York.
In the novel, “My Antonia”, Willa Cather opens her novel with the Virgil quotation, “Optima dies...prima fujit”, meaning “The best days are first to flee.” This quotation has an important significance to this novel as it is a story about a fictional man, Jim Burden’s, fond memories of growing up on the prairies of Nebraska. As he comes to the state at the age of 10 to live with his grandparents after the death of his parents, he is faced with uncertainty and uneasiness. He leaves his childhood memories of Virginia behind to start a new life, not knowing that his new life will bring some of the most influential and important friendships he will ever encounter. This essay will discuss why remembering the past is so important to Jim, and while he had a hard life growing up, how these memories can be described as “the best”. At the beginning of the novel when Cather first introduces Jim, the love and admiration he feels for Antonia Shimmerda is very apparent.
Because Skeeter’s parents weren’t a big part of her life as a child, they left their help to raise their daughter. Constantine encouraged Skeeter and gave her confidence. She taught Skeeter that each day she would have to decide wether or not she would listen to what others said about her. She also made Skeeter to believe that she could do what she wanted with her life, “All my life I’d been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine’s thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe” (00).
After leaving the store, Caroline calls her mom asked why she never thought her how to say her name properly and her mom responds by saying, “So what if you cannot pronounce your last name? You are American”. Even though hwang was unsatisfied with the way her mom responded she continues by explaining how her parents immigrated to the United States 30 years ago and hope she would become a powerful person some day and in order to do that she has to fully assimilate to the American society around her and her parents made sure of that. She stated that, “like any of American generation, I whirled my youth strolling malls and talking on the phone, rhapsodizing over Andrew McCarthy’s blue eyes…” Caroline grew up to be an all American in her parent’s eye however, she points out that she has to straddle with two different cultures on a daily basis, and she also feels displaced in her own country. Hwang’s parents wanted her to attend law school, but she had other aspirations of being a writer.
Esperanza doesn’t like her name. She doesn’t feel that it suits her and wishes she could be named something more like Maritza or Zeze the X. She wants a name that show the side of her that nobody is