ipl-logo

Jean Kwok's Short Story 'Where The Gods Fly'

1200 Words5 Pages

The short story ”Where the Gods Fly” from 2012 is written by the Chinese American author Jean Kwok, who immigrated to the United States of America at the age of five. Being the
The story is set in America, but the specific location is never mentioned it can be safe to assume that it is set in New York; Brooklyn due to the fact Jean Kwok also grew up in this area and therefore is familiar with its societal structure. The main characters of the story as a small family of three; the daughter Pearl, the father Ah Sun and the mother whose name is never mentioned throughout the story. The family are Chinese immigrants in the United States, just like the author herself. This family came to the states when Pearl was around 7-8 years old since she …show more content…

This is another thing she is torn about, because while it is necessary for her to have Pearl to translate the English into Chinese, she is as bothered by the fact that Pearl speaks English faster than she speaks Chinese which is already a fast spoken language. “When I heard her talking and laughing on the telephone with her American friends, jabbering in English much faster than she could speak Chinese by then, a part of me wanted to run over and wrench the phone from her hands.” Her mother is not only bothered by the fact that she speaks English so well but also incredibly bothered by the fact she does not know what her daughter is talking …show more content…

Just as her mother describes when she sees her dance for the first time “She flew, she turned and leapt like water in motion, weightless and infinitely powerful. She had been made of stone and now was freed.” The mother is aware that doing ballet is something that brings her daughter incredible joy and it pains her that she has to deny her from continuing it. “I know this will be the blow hat finally severs already the tenuous bonds between us.” She sees the relationship between her and her daughter as strained and blames this on herself and that she spend too much time working at the factory and wasn’t there enough for her daughter. Maybe also because her daughter has a more western

Show More
Related
1001 Words | 5 Pages

In ‘Chang’ there is practically no common language between Carlos, the father, his wife and daughters. The narrator speculates about the beginnings of the relationship between her mother and father. She says: ‘How did they communicate? She had had a little English in school. He learned a bit of German.

Read More
448 Words | 2 Pages

When she was young, she could not process the way her father raised and treated her, so she believed everything he said. When she is able to understand, her tone changes and becomes clinical and critical remembering the way he constantly let her

Read More
576 Words | 3 Pages

She explains that it was important to part her life. Next, in “Confetti Girl” the tension comes from the point of view of school. Her and her father have a very different outlook on school. For example, in paragraph 13 it states that things are good until her

Read More
992 Words | 4 Pages

Hence, it explains why Carmen does not want her daughter to get a college education, since she is too influenced by the tradition, she thinks it is the right thing to do. As a result, tradition like this can hinder people from achieving their

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

While reading the story, you can tell in the narrators’ tone that she feels rejected and excluded. She is not happy and I’m sure, just like her family, she wonders “why her?” She is rejected and never accepted for who she really is. She is different. She’s not like anyone else

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

The film “Speaking in Tongues” (2010) obtained the students, parents, and communities perspective towards bilingual education. The students interviewed were all mainly towards learning how to speak a second language. The students felt they could benefit in learning a second language or in expanding their home language. In the film, Kelly Wong stated she loved speaking Chinese to her grandmother. Kelly could practice, learn, and get corrected by her grandmother while speaking Chinese.

Read More
472 Words | 2 Pages

The story has a conflict that is related to opposition. The narrator disagrees with what her mother wants her to be, since the narrator felt that her mother was controlling her for years. For instance, the mother in the story suggests that her daughter would become the perfect girl and she would become famous. The traditional daughter relates to the American icon, “Shirley Temple”. Furthermore, the narrator goes through a rough time during the story because her mother feels like she can be good at something and stick to it.

Read More
748 Words | 3 Pages

In many parts of the novel she is described as a demon child or elf-child. She is mean, obstinate, and has a fierce temper. Hester says, “She is my torture!”(109) Hester is literally saying that Pearl is not only a blessing but also a curse. Pearl is often evil to everyone even to her mother, but was this Pearls nature, or was it just a reaction of her being isolated and looked down since childhood?

Read More
1854 Words | 8 Pages

This role has diminished through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but the need to be masculine remains in countless men. Makeup, tights, and ballet shoes are not considered manly. Therefore, a subsequent stereotype has become prevalent. Persistently, people erroneously believe all danseurs to be gay, weak, and feminine. Frequently, male dancers are left to feel inadequate and are discouraged from their art because their manliness is questioned.

Read More
1635 Words | 7 Pages

To be orphaned from my native language felt, and still feels, like a crucial decision” (Lin 6). Yiyun Lin is caught between letting go her native language and wishes she can speak both because they both identify her. She struggles on choosing one of them and having one of them as a memory or a dream. This not only becomes a struggle for her, but an eye open decision on solving the problem of how she can combine a private language into a public language. “English is my private language.

Read More
1764 Words | 8 Pages

She thinks if you are in America you should be speaking English and if students are learning another language in school it takes time away from other curriculum. During the San Francisco School Board meeting, many people shared their thoughts having all San Francisco public schools students become bilingual. Dr. Ling-chi Wang, a scholar and activist, shared that knowing a second language stimulates and enhances learning in other subjects. Another man mentioned how only knowing English places limits on his job (ie. business). The business industry can be worldwide and not knowing a second language can create obstacles for people to do

Read More
1159 Words | 5 Pages

Nevertheless, as the story unfolds, Tan explains in more detail of the relationship of the mother and her daughter. In which the mother fully believed her daughter would become this great prodigy. Therefore, pressuring her daughter

Read More
1101 Words | 5 Pages

The reality of the situation was that she had no control over her father’s death. There was nothing or no way that she could have prevented the events that took place. Although she was extremely angry with the situation at hand she learned that she had other things to be grateful for. She wanted people to know that even though something or someone has passed away you can’t stay stuck in the state of depression forever. You have to step back and look at your life because the reality is, life still moves on.

Read More
1309 Words | 6 Pages

Jing-Mei was immersed in American culture as she attended school every day, as opposed to her parents who were both born and raised in China. As a young adult who experienced two cultures, the barrier (including language and culture) between Jing-Mei and her parents contributed to “vigorous [denial] that [she] had any Chinese whatsoever below [her] skin” (Tan 147). Still, her mother was convinced that Jing-Mei would eventually come to “feel and think Chinese” (Tan 147). Although she disagreed with what her mother said, Jing-Mei knew deep inside that she was right, frequently realizing the tendencies she had that were so alike to her mother. She listed that “haggling with store owners, pecking her mouth with a toothpick in public, being color-blind to the fact that lemon yellow and pale pink are not good combinations for winter clothes” were some of the things that her mother did that the naive fifteen-year-old Jing-Mei identified with being Chinese.

Read More
1720 Words | 7 Pages

Identifying a specific gender with certain activities limits the ability for all people to participate. Society views one gender more dominate than the other, thus when the non-dominate gender associates with the activity, society judges them. Association of gender tends to create stereotypes that alters personal views of the activity. Gender association appears most common in ballet, as the art form popularizes itself mainly with females. Male dancers receive a terrible reputation because the female domination in ballet feminizes the art form.

Read More

More about Jean Kwok's Short Story 'Where The Gods Fly'

Related Topics

Open Document