“The Moslem Wife” by Mavis Gallant is about the experience of an innkeeper in southern France, Netta, whose home and life is invaded by the Second World War. In their own way, both these stories tell a tale of the brutalities of war. Survivors of war are a generation of people who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war. The brutality of war affects these people psychologically, physically, and spiritually. Before examining the ways in which Wolff and Gallant expose the true brutalities of war, one should understand the setting and the conditions people were forced to live under during times of war.
When she travels to China, she discovers the Chinese essence within herself, thus realizing a deep connection to her mother that she had always ignored. She also brings Suyuan’s story to her long-lost twin daughters, and, once reunited with her half-sisters, gains an even more profound understanding of who her mother was.For the most part, Jing-mei’s fears echo those of her peers, the other daughters of the Joy Luck Club members. They have always identified with Americans but are beginning to regret having neglected their Chinese heritage. Her fears also speak to a reciprocal fear shared by the mothers, who wonder whether, by giving their daughters American opportunities and self-sufficiency, they have alienated them from their Chinese heritage.Jing-mei is representative in other ways as well. She believes that her mother’s constant criticism bespeaks a lack of affection, when in fact her mother’s severity and high expectations are expressions of love and faith in her daughter.
Book Review for Farewell to Manzanar The book entitled Farewell to Manzanar is a memoir written by Jeanne and her husband James Houston. It is a book that tries to give a vivid description of the hardships that the Japanese-Americans faced during the Second World War. It was a painful period for every Japanese family living in America after the bombing of the Pearl Harbor by the Japanese and this was the move that led to the Americans to join the war. The story is recounted through the eyes of the young Jeanne Wakatsuki. It explores a non-fiction work of the experiences that she underwent at the interment camps that were set up for the Japanese families.
The contents of their two books are the situation of Chinese American life experiences, family and difficulties within the generational problems that occur between mothers and daughters. In The Woman Warrior and The Joy Luck Club, mothers tell stories to their daughters. They turn to their own experiences and cultural values so their daughters can avoid a tragic fate in America. They talk about the past, the legends passed down from generations and the ghost stories based on the beliefs of Chinese culture. The two stories expose the fate of women suffering from patriarchy and sexism in China.
There are still some Holocaust survivors in this world not a lot though and so one very special guest came to speak to Washingtonville Middle School’s students and parents. Her name is a name that I shall hopefully never forget her name was Sonia Aronowitz Goldstein. Sonia recalled those miserable days in great detail, describing how the women were starved, how they lacked of sleep, and also how they worked through physical, mental, and emotional suffering. Yet, every day she held out hope that the Russians would come liberate them. During the middle of Goldstein's speech she began to tell us when the Nazis took the women from their tents and had them embark on what she described as a death march to a small town in Poland.
The Spirit that Catches You and You Fall Down The Spirit that Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman is a well-constructed story about a refugee Hmong family and their struggles communicating with American Hospitals. The story goes beyond Lia Lee’s health issues, and digs deeper into cultural boundaries and differences we face everyday. America being a country built up of many different ethnicities and cultures, one would think that cultural barriers are not an issue, and are well broken down. But in the Lee’s case, the cultural barriers cost the life of a daughter. The Hmong are an Asian ethnic group that originated in China.
These struggles were not only political but also personal. Housseine portrays a story of oppression and hope through the eyes of two women in the war scared country. 2. Characters Mariam- “Mariam knew that life had for the most part been unkind to her. But as she walked her final twenty paces, she could not help but wish for more of it” (Pg.
One can tell by reading the story, that Jing is a young character and how she does not realize about her mother’s good intentions for always wanting the best for her. Reading Amy Tan’s biography we get a sense of her personal life story through the character Jing. The biography states “that the tensions and conflicts produced by her dual heritage eventually found their way into her fiction, which often portrays the generational conflicts in immigrant families”(Huntley 3). We understand that Amy Tan was the daughter of a Chinese
The author’s purpose for writing Red Scarf Girl was to share her and her families experiences during the Cultural Revolution. The author shared all of the hardship her family went through being a “black family” and being shunned and disgraced for her grandfather’s actions even though he had died long ago. Her grandfather was a landlord and during the Cultural Revolution people accused the landlords and they’re families of being some sort of whip master who treated they’re people like slaves. Even though young Jiang Ji-li never even knew her grandfather she was treated as though she was a landlord herself. The author of the story Jiang Ji-li herself tells her story of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Although she was captured and raped by the Japanese during her escape, she did not give up herself and then become a spy for her nation. After she came back to her village, she calmly faced the difficulty and discrimination in the village. She always tried to fight and struggle against her miserable experiences. When Xia Dabao propose to Zhenzhen, Zhenzhen’s family approved that and tried to persuade her to accept the offer because they thought Xia Dabao would probably the only man who would be willing to marry Zhenzhen. However, Zhenzhen refused the offer.