Mother-daughter relationship in the Joy Luck Club Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club enjoys high fame in the field of Chinese American literature. It mainly tells a story of four mothers, fled from China to America with tragedies and hardships left behind, yet all cherished good intensions and wished to pass them to their daughters born on this new land. This seemingly simple work contains so affluent contents that it can be interpreted from numerous aspects, feminism, post-colonialism, cultural clashes and so on. However, the eternal theme is the mother-daughter relationships, which is conflicting and finally comes to understanding and reconciliation. This essay, mainly focusing on Suyuan Woo and her daughter June, is aiming to further analyze the causes and manifestations of this complicated mother-daughter relationship.
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.
Chua’s text is very harsh toned, yet effective due to the use of all three appeals: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. The author is raised by Chinese parents, which defines a big part of who she is. In the text Chua uses Ethos to establish her personal experience with parenting. She chooses a hard, and a time consuming parenting technique “ The Chinese method” to raise both of her daughters. For instance:“ A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids well I can tell them, Bachour 2 !
The film, Army Nurse, is the story about the relation of women to the Party and society’s expectations of them as a good citizen under ‘People’s Republic of China’ which was established by Mao Zedong from 1966 to 1976. The film was released in China in 1986, when the 80’s was the beginning of an era in which there was an increased interest for the notion of individualism. For political and social reasons, the Party forced many Chinese to live under repressed conditions, giving up personal happiness. At the time, Chinese ideology strongly forced the submission of the subject to the Party, which means that ‘public duty’ is always priority over individual desire and interest. The era finally ended in the late 1970s and then the time came when the Chinese wound of the movement began to heal.
Would she have been allowed to be who she is today if she had been born in the 1850-1940s? What do you have to say about the modern social structure based on the examination of this character? QGoldBoyEmeralsGirl Look for two specific quotes about Professor Dai that shows her to be a different person from the traditional image of Chinese women. Explain how these quotes show the differences from the traditional roles and images of women. Define the social structure that allows Professor Dai to be who she is.
The image of Progressivism was depicted through second-generation Chinese American women were influenced by Chinese nationalism and Christianity in adapting to Western traditions. Local Chinese organizations consistently reminded women to vote. "It is the ballot that will win political rights-and economic opportunities- for the future of American citizens of Chinese ancestry in the United States (uf162)." American women benefited from feminist campaigns for equal pay, vast career choices and gained an improved image for themselves. The 1970s saw a boost in the status of Chinese American women and their participation in community and politics.
Katie Tava July 25, 2012 “The Struggle to Be an All-American” Part 1: Summary In “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl,” Elizabeth Wong writes about her transformation from being a Chinese girl in to an American girl, as she moved to the U.S. Wong went to a Chinese school at the same time she attended American school because Wong’s mother wanted her and her brother to maintain the Chinese language as part of their heritage. Wong became embarrassed by her Chinese culture while studying in America. She said Chinese was, “ quick, it was loud, it was unbeautiful…. Chinese sounded pedestrian” (98). The desire to become American had become her dream.
As she attempts to interpret and understand the cultural codes that have shaped her life, Kingston introduces the reader to the fate of transgressive women in traditional China, elucidates women’s situation in her extended family, and epitomizes the contradictions in the cultural messages with which a young Chinese American woman must grapple. Storytelling becomes the means through which mother passes on to her daughter all the complexities and uncertainties of mother’s and daughter’s identity as women in a patriarchal culture. Remembering her mother’s interpretations as they resonate with the memories of her past, the daughter, as she too passes them on to posterity, ponders around these memories, critiques them, making them her own. The role of memory in The Woman Warrior surfaces from the very first sentence of the
Taylor Hooker Ms. Burks English 10 Honors Tuesday, February 15, 2011 The Joy Luck Club: The Theme of Anti-Americanism In Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, the portrayal of the evolution of four mother-daughter relationships and the cultural gap between American and Chinese culture as a result of the assimilation into American life supports many critics’ assumptions of the novel being written with anti-American sentiments. Throughout the novel, mother-daughter relationships, current or flashbacks in time, create a comparative model of life for the mothers of June Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. By comparing their childhood of being raised in China, with the current lives their daughters lead from being raised in America, Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair see faults in the American way-of-life. This cultural separateness has literally created a gap in all four relationships. Throughout the novel, both the mother’s and the daughter’s views on Chinese culture change, but the manner in which this topic is handled proves once more the negative views of America portrayed in the novel.
Explain the impact that women made on America and their changing role after the Civil War. If their role did not change would this have changed the future of the nation? Ali Sterner APUSH – Period 4 Shaw January 28, 2011 In American History, women have not exactly had it easy. In colonial times, women were to do strictly house work and take care of the children. This changed after the Civil War, giving women their right to speak up and become more like men.