ipl-logo

Amy Tan Thesis

808 Words4 Pages

Being a parent is something anyone can do. Only the competent ones, however, can raise a child that surpasses oneself--a child that will revitalize one’s purpose. Sharing a faulty/disconnected dynamic, the mother and child in the stories “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan and “Rice and Rose Bowl Blues” by Mei Lin Mark have trouble communicating what one wants to the other and why a working consensus cannot be reached. Both sets of characters in their respective stories have a similar problem and struggle throughout the story that is never properly resolved. Using similes, figurative language, syntax, and connotative diction, Tan and Mark reveal the theme that when children are given unreasonably high expectations when they are young, they are put into …show more content…

The first quote that is shown in “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan makes excellent use of a simile when describing how the child in the story, Jing-mei, feels when saying these horrible things to her mother whilst in a verbal dispute. During an argument about how Jing-mei has stopped believing in herself and why her mother should stop trying and testing her, Jing-mei describes the things she says as “...worms and toads and slimy things were crawling out of my chest, but it also felt good…” (Tan 230. This quote is significant because of how the reader can understand deeper how these words made Jing-mei feel. A simile was one of the only ways that this could be done because of how much more freedom can be had when describing one sensation with another instead of an arbitrary array of descriptions; furthermore, used by Tan is another devise in the form of imagery to describe the situation Jing-mei is facing when she looks herself in the mirror and begins losing herself. In her earlier stages of the testing her mother put her through, Jing-mei goes into the bathroom and stares into the device displaying only the worst of her character, this elicits a mental breakdown; in her words, “...I saw only my face staring back--and that it would always be this ordinary face--I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made high-pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror” (Tan 223). All of the tests have gotten to her and the mirror allows her to reflect on the draining experiences that have happened to her since then. Tan then describes the movements and things she says to herself using imagery. Imagery and Figurative language--two tools used by Amy Tan to express everything that needs to be

Show More
Related
105 Words | 1 Pages

Norman Mailer, in his article “The Death of Benny Paret,” uses simile to show a comparison between the fight and a commonly known example. He says, “Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat.” This simile is meaningful because it shows the way Griffith was attacking Paret. It shows that Paret was helpless as he was stuck in the rope. The simile adds to the work by giving the reader a visual of what was taking place at that time.

Read More
306 Words | 2 Pages

In Elizabeth Acevedo’s novel, Clap When You Land, Acevedo uses similes and personification to display a strong theme of grief that has severe impacts on individuals. In the novel it says, “Mami still had an air around Papi,/like he was a medicine she knew she needed/even as she cringed at the taste (Acevedo 230-231).” Simile acts as a dominant tool for Acevedo to help highlight the theme of grief. Here, the simile is comparing the theme of grief to a world without Papi when she writes “he was a medicine she knew she needed”.

Read More
265 Words | 2 Pages

Another example is the use of simile to describe the characters' reactions to the books. The characters are described as feeling "as if they had been born again" or "as if they had been awakened from a dream" after reading a book. This simile emphasizes the idea that the

Read More
536 Words | 3 Pages

For example, in the text it says "Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard 'cause laugh like I've got gold mines diggin' in my own backyard. " This quote shows the speaker is confident and self-assertive with how she shoves it in your face that she doesn't care what you think and instead is haughty. As a result, the use of similes helps the reader understand that the speaker is self-assertive with her ego and confident on how she carries

Read More
798 Words | 4 Pages

Oftentimes parents struggle with feeling like they are not doing enough for their kids, overshadowing all the things they do provide for them. This insecurity is shown in the poem, “A Story”, which follows the thought process of a father who is struggling to feel as though he is doing a good job at raising his son. Written by Li-Young Lee, the poem explores the father's feeling of being an inadequate parent, being incredibly pessimistic over the things that he is not able to provide. Overall, in his poem, Li-Young Lee uses literary devices such as rhetorical questions, imagery, and metaphors to convey how the father feels towards the relationship he has with his son: even though he yearns for a loving connection with his son, the father is

Read More
832 Words | 4 Pages

Another time where similes and metaphors are used is when Elie is talking to his friend Moishe the Beadle. Wiesel writes “‘They think I’m mad,’he whispered, and tears, like drops of wax, flowed from his eyes.” This comparison gives the situation a very somber tone. Moishe the Beadle is distraught because nobody will believe his story about the Gestapo. Overall the use of similes and metaphors help quickly impact the reader while also helping the reader better understand the

Read More
572 Words | 3 Pages

A simile is a comparison that describes two different things using ¨like¨ or ¨as.¨ The first way Connell demonstrates using a simile is in the example, ¨The sea was as flat as a plate glass window.¨ He describes the sea to a smooth glass window. During this part of the story, there was no breeze in the air and the ocean waves were still and calm, which caused Rainsford to feel stressed about the strange things that were happening around the island. Another way Connell used a simile was ¨... his thick eyebrows were pointed and military mustache was as black as the night from which Rainsford had come.¨

Read More
596 Words | 3 Pages

In life difficulties may arise, but an “instructive eye” of a “tender parent” is a push needed in everyone’s life. Abigail Adams believed, when she wrote a letter to her son, that difficulties are needed to succeed. She offers a motherly hand to her son to not repent his voyage to France and continue down the path he is going. She uses forms of rhetoric like pathos, metaphors, and allusions to give her son a much needed push in his quest to success.

Read More
436 Words | 2 Pages

The author uses simile to show Ha’s personality and perspective. A quote from the novel that shows this is on page 5 when Ha says, “I was as red and fat as a baby hippopotamus.” This reveals that Ha lacks confidence. This is important because she remembers all the negative stuff people have said to her.

Read More
1406 Words | 6 Pages

Best of the Worst Parenting is never perfect. Every parents questions whether they are raising their child correctly, and no parent ever feels like they are doing the right thing. With no clear distinction between good and bad parenting, it is usually left to personal preferences and judgements to decide which parents have adequately raised their children and which have failed. When a parent so call “fails,” often it is the children with their strong will and determination to survive that collectively raise themselves. In Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing, Leonie, one of the narrators and the mother of another narrator, Jojo, is not the most caring, hands-on mother, but is loving of her children nevertheless.

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

Amy Tan is a Chinese-American author who was born on February 19, 1952, in Oakland, California. In Tan’s early life she had many struggles because her parents desired for her “to hold onto Chinese traditions and her own longings to become more Americanized” (Encyclopedia). While she wanted to become a writer when she was still young, her parents wanted her to become a neurosurgeon. When she got older and went to college she majored in English then started her career in the 1970’s. She was a technical writer and then started writing fiction stories.

Read More
629 Words | 3 Pages

For instance the author writes “Without hearing his wife’s scream, the old man smiled weakly, put out his hands like a blind man, and fell, a senseless mass, to the floor. “ The author uses the simile, “put out his hands like a blind man,” to help the reader visualize what he is doing and help the reader understand the shock he is feeling. Also W. W. Jacobs

Read More
2019 Words | 9 Pages

She then uses these “new thoughts” and ideas to state that she “won’t let her [mother] change” her into the person she seeks her daughter to be. When Jing-Mei experiences a realization that she is her own person and not simply another part of her mother, she can embrace the comfort of knowing that she will not change for anyone, and is simply extraordinary for having her own thoughts and feelings. This reflects how Amy Tan can understand her thoughts and feelings about the hardships in her relationship with her mother as a way to connect more closely to her characters and make them more realistic in her writing (“How Amy Tan’s family stories made her a

Read More
427 Words | 2 Pages

Amy Tan uses Imagery in her essay, to create vivid descriptions. In paragraph three Tan describes cod as, “A slimy rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil” (Par. 3.). Tan uses Imagery to showcase the difference between American and Chinese food.

Read More
1608 Words | 7 Pages

There are about 3 million cheerleaders in America. These 3 million people are as dedicated to cheerleading as a regular person is to going to their job each day. Cheerleaders, on average, spend about 10-12 hours a week in the gym. That is just to make one game look good. People think traditional cheerleading is not a sport because they do not compete like other sports.

Read More

More about Amy Tan Thesis

Related Topics

Open Document