As Peggy Orenstein’s three year-old daughter entered the “princess phase,” Orenstein became increasingly frustrated. As a feminist, she worried about the negative effects the princess obsession would have on her daughter and other young girls in their futures. In “Cinderella and Princess Culture,” Orenstein sets out to discuss these effects. She discovers that although it seems as if this princess craze is creating negative gender stereotypes at an early age, maybe princess enthusiasts are really benefitting from their obsession. Orenstein has gotten accustomed to adults assuming her daughter likes pink and princesses.
Now that’s growing up without a childhood. Jane Smiley seems like a great parent who cares about her children but to allow her daughters to put on makeup even entering their teenage years just isn’t right. Her girls where prematurely growing up, where behaving beyond their age, and with their only priority being beautiful at all times it seem to help them in the long run. As they burned off the “Barbie stage” and grew into more important things down their lives. Like for example Smiley talks about her older daughter, “Now she is planning to graduate school and law school and become an expert on woman’s health issues, perhaps adolescent health issues like anorexia and bulimia” (377).
Knowledge is not always power because the more you know does not necessarily mean you understand what you have learned. In the short story “Everyday Use”, education seemed to make a rift in the relationship not only between the mother and the daughter, but also between the sisters. Dee was one to always try and outsmart her family members always seeking answers knowing no one knew. It was mama who eventually got the community together to help send Dee to school so her daughter would be happy and satisfied. The values of heritage seem to have been lost with the gain of knowledge when Dee has gone to college.
Major Characters; Carla - As the oldest amongst the four girls, she feels left out and out of place when her family moved to the United States and finds it hard to fit in her new social and cultural environment. She was harassed at school by malicious and prejudiced boys, and felt isolated by her limited English language abilities. Her discomfort with puberty was exacerbated by an encounter with a perverted American exhibitionist in a car. She dealt with these issues later in life by becoming a psychologist and analyzing her family's sort of mental issues. Sandra - Her artistic abilities were frustrated as a child by poor art instruction and a terrible fall which badly broke her arm.
‘I’m your mother. In which her daughter replied ‘if you want to be treated like a mother, you should act like one. “ it is evident that the way things are conducted in the family is known to be wrong by the children as she points out to her mother that her actions and behaviour do not depict that of a mother, this shows both maturity and understanding, and again the will to rise above her current situation. "But on that first day of school, Mom refused to get out of bed. Lori, Brian, and I pulled back the covers and tried to drag her out, but she wouldn't budge."
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.
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.
Herberth 1 Wendy Herberth Mr. Smith ENG1101 E-Learning November 18, 2012 "Mommy dearest" "Mirror mirror on the wall", I am really like my mother after all. Daughter and mother relationships are something so valuable and should be treasured in my opinion. Many young girls admire their mothers, as they are their very first friend. They are each other's confidantes and pals. A mothers duty is to protect their young, and giving birth to a baby girl is a miracle, but then raising a daughter is a whole different miracle.
Lucy loved her mom but her mom constantly neglected her when her brother came to their life. Lucy is thought to be a bitter character because she was unable to love anyone, she didn't want to love anyone like she loved her mother which rejected and left
The mother doesn’t understand the daughter’s life, and this failure to understand leads to her to distrust her daughter. Dee sees her new persona as liberating, whereas the mother sees it as a rejection of her family and her origins. Dee indeed rejects her family by changing her name to “Wangero”, “she’s dead”, she responded when asked “what happen to Dee” (28). Later, Dee tried to get stuff from the house like the bench, the butter chunk, just as decorative objects but her mother sees those “objects” as a symbol, as a living proof of her family, her tradition. The mother wants her daughter to see those precious objects that way too.