However, the tone quickly changes as Song begins to miss and need China. After describing an unfriendly run in with a landlord Song says “You find you need China: your one fragile identification, a jade link handcuffed to your wrist” (Song). Here we see Song relating to the sister across seas and knowing that she needs to be back with her family and the people that love her, like her mother. These two contrasting section of the poem are used to show that even though life may be tough and strenuous in China, the life lived in America can also be not as forgiving. Family and culture seem to always win the battle against rebellion to a new land, resulting in the speaker’s sister’s
However, her mother thought of her daughter as a failure and they did not get along very well. The parable connects to this chapter because in both the mothers came to America for a better life for their children but it did not turn out how they wanted it to. Scar is about a girl who is raised by her grandmother, brother, aunt, and uncle. Her father died and her mother was a dishonor to the family who left An-mei when she was a little girl. Her mother became a polygamist in China and therefore disgraced herself.
She deems the misfortune of herself and the women in her family on 'fate' and 'bad destiny', however I believe there were real concrete factors and choices that contributed to the depressing lives of these women. One of these factors was the cultural belief in early marriage, which negatively affected Ning Lao Tai Tai, her daughter Mantze, and her sister Yintze. Other factors included the plagues of opium addiction and incurable diseases which also adversely haunted Ning's family. It's fairly easy to understand why the Chinese at the turn of the century insisted on marrying their daughters so early. With short life expectancy and the constant threat of disease, a young woman's best bet at reproduction was in her adolescent years.
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.
The DeRosier’s were also the ones who shattered her dreams of a perfect family by saying “We take you in because your parents don’t want you"(35). The DeRosier’s left April with a shame of her background and an even deeper shame for her parents. Even though the DeRosier’s did so much bad for April and her identity, they still did some good for her. They made such an horrible environment but April stayed strong and grew as a person. She even said “I could let the DeRosier’s suck out my dignity for now and I could pretend they had me where they wanted me.
In contrast to Cindy’s new found self esteem, her mother seemed to uphold a strong lack of confidence in her daughter and in herself as well. By the same token, in the second article “The Thrill of Victory … The Agony of Parents”, the author presents the opposition through her mother. Jennifer Schwind’s mother appeared as an embarrassment to her publicly and emotionally. “In a voice so screeching that it rivaled fingernails on a blackboard, she told him that he was a disgraceful coach and that he should be ashamed of himself” (Pawlak 3). While in her mother’s eyes, she only supported her daughter and craved the absolute best for her child.
Luna Williams English 100 02/10/2014 Just Whom is This Divorce “Good” For? Divorce is a huge topic a lot of parents think about when they feel that there spouse is no longer compatible with them and also the fact that it’s not working out for reason only they will know. It may just be the fact that two people that were deeply in love just feel out of it because of no connection anymore. In the article “Just Whom Is This Divorce” Good” For? Written by Elizabeth Marquart talks about how divorce can cause children even from a good divorce go through it there selves when they get older, children also feel that they are to blame for their parents getting divorced and they lose all interest for other things, there is also a lot of controversy about which parent gets which day can just lead up to a huge custody battle for most.
Tan, because she was often ashamed of the way her mother spoke what she called “Broken or Limited English”, she was ashamed of what people would say about her mother and the way she talked. Tan’s mother was a victim. One example was the way the hospital treated her when she went to New York about her CAT scan, but as soon as they talked to Tan the situation changed. Another was with the stockbroker and her getting the check and as soon as the people spoke to Tan it was another story. In other words when Tan spoke with proper English she was treated differently opposed to how her mother was treated for speaking her limited English.
written by Gish Jen demonstrated a double consciousness. Through her racial lens she detects the differences between the Chinese, the Irish, and the White Americans; she is always racially conscious and suspicious. When her Shea in-laws continuously comment on her granddaughter Sophie’s skin color she makes a remark implying more racial breeding thus ceasing conversation and invoking an apology. Further in the text Chinese grandmother says, “Nothing the matter with Sophie’s outside, that’s the truth. It is inside that she is like not any Chinese girl I ever see.” Her statement gives insight on how the granddaughter may pass through the veil with her exterior as Chinese but her interior passes for American, a dual identities within one person.
Daniel Poleshchuk 10/3/12 E1FC Assignment: Writing About Literature Final Draft In “Rules of the Game,” by Amy Tan, Waverly’s mother is more of an adversary than an ally. Waverly’s mother acts as an adversary to Waverly because she doesn’t allow her daughter to embrace American culture. Waverly has been raised in America and has been living here for a long time, experiencing the ways of the country; her mother, however, has little respect to the American way of life and work ethic and depicts this when she says, “Chinese people do many things…Not lazy like American people” (3). Her condescending outburst makes it clear that she does not intend for Waverly to be at all like American children, who are