In the Novel, Lucky Child by Loung Ung 2005, Loung Ung is a girl who is chosen to go to America with her oldest brother and his wife. Chou is Loung’s older sister and stays in Cambodia. Lucky Child is a story about them trying to reunite with each other while coping with their inner demons revolving around the Khmer Rouge genocide and the Cambodian civil war. In this novel, persistence is a major character trait that allows the characters to survive and eventually thrive throughout their lives in their past, present and in the end. Despite enduring hardship during the Khmer Rouge, It is persistence that ultimately ends up playing a vital role that helps the characters survive.
One day when the Liberation Army Dancer visited, Ji-Li told her dad that evening, “I [am] an Outstanding Student, an Excellent Young Pioneer, and even the da-dui-zhang, the student chairman of the whole school” (20). Explaining she was knowledgeable, through examples of her success, meant she knew that her political background would not get in her way of participating in the Cultural Revolution. A few years later, during the Cultural Revolution, Ji- Li was in junior high,
Yang later devoted four years of her life in a pig's farm in northern China, doing manual work and grazing pigs. Though, Yang grew up loving and having faith for the Mao, the chairman of Communist party, her eagerness for revolution and loyalty to the birth of
Now Ji-LI realizes that the supporters and the red guards and hurting people and embarrassing some people. What caused Ji-li to change is she started to understand what Mao-Zedong was doing and how it was affecting her life and her family’s life. But like it said earlier in the essay she got a lot smarter and her ability to understand helped her realize that the revolution was a bad idea and she rebelled from the revolution and when she rebelled she had issue with a lot of things like thin-face looking for the letter and the guards treated her awfully because her family had a troubled
Jeremy Fink has a big fear of change. This shows that he doesn’t really like to try new things and he is not really a risk taker. Jeremy, a 12 year old, has been living without his father for five years now and that has been tough on him. That is one of the reasons he doesn’t like change, because the biggest change he can remember is living without his father. Another example is Jeremy’s food choice.
Family by Pa Chin is a captivating novel that describes what life in China was like in the twentieth century. Confucianism, a big religion in China at the time, was heavily focused on filial piety. Filial piety is the relationship of obedience, in which the elders are to be respected by the younger generation (Wu, lecture notes, 2015). This religion was one of the main structures on how the society was ran. Chin represents how the younger generation was upset with how the old traditions of the Confucian system were ran and that they were ready to change it.
Throughout the book, Ji-li shows that she grows and matures through her experiences. In the beginning of the story, Ji-li is oblivious and happy, but by the end she is mature, understanding and responsible. To begin, Ji-li thinks only of the good things of the Cultural Revolution and is oblivious to what’s bad about Chairman Mao. For example, Ji-li didn’t understand why she couldn’t tryout for the
In American Born Chinese, Jin Wang changes immensely from the beginning to the end of the story. At the beginning of the story, Jin Wang wants to fit in and break apart from his Chinese Heritage. By the end of the story, because of various external and internal conflicts, Jin has learned to accept his Chinese heritage. He has also experienced anger, happiness, regret, and guilt that all got him to the point where he learned to accept his heritage.
Mobina Shams “Benjamin, don’t underestimate the mentally ill”: The perceptions caused by others in Joon’s life. Self-perception is an element of behavior, and can be described as imperfect self-knowledge. Our self-image is created by society, its expectations, and the influence of others around us. Through the years, society has created conjectures that we need to meet in order to be accepted by others.
Where the Wild Things are by Maurice Sendak is an interesting children’s picture book. The main character is a little boy named Max, who has a wild imagination. He uses all five senses as well as thought and his actions to express his personality as well as how he reacts and interacts with his surroundings. Max’s id, ego and super-ego are greatly shown in this book through the way that the author has portrayed him. Not only is this book a children’s story, but it can also be perceived as a life lesson.
In the book “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, it’s about a little girl who is pressured by her mother to become something she doesn’t want to be. Jing- mei , the daughter, is forced to become a prodigy(child actress), by her mother, and she doesn’t want to be one. In the story, Jing- meis’ mother uses allusions such as Shirley Temple to push her into becoming a prodigy. Although at first Jing- mei is excited to become a prodigy, she later realizes its something she just doesn’t enjoy doing. Consequently, the uses of allusion in the story help Jing- mei discover to not be a prodigy and that what her mother wants for her is not always important.
In Yu Hua’s To Live, Fugui’s son Youqing is a symbol of the Chinese people living under Mao because they were child-like in their innocence, and Youqing’s journey proves that naively trusting authority leads to deception. Fengxia being taken away from Youqing reflects on the ways in which authority can be wrong, and trust can be destructive. Fugui and Jiazhen are adamant that giving away Fengxia is what is best for Youqing, and even for their daughter. This is similar to how Mao claimed that communism was for the good of the people, even though some people spoke out against this.
“A true friend accepts who you are and helps you become who you should be.” Steve and Nathaniel proved that friendship and happiness can be real in the novel The Soloist by Steve Lopez. The way friendship is portrayed in the novel is unexpected in such a way that we don’t see it happen often in our daily life. It is important to our society because finding a true friend is really difficult to find. True friendship is hard to find now in days because we expect many things in return from other people.
To be trapped in one's own mind may be the worst prison imaginable. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", the narrator of the story is constantly at battle with many different forces, such as John, her husband, the yellow wallpaper that covers the walls of her room, and ultimately herself. Throughout the story the narrator further detaches herself from her life and becomes fixated on the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in her temporary home, slowly driving her mad. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a major and dynamic character as she is the main character of the story, and throughout the story her personality and ways of thinking change drastically.
However, this determination sometimes appears to be obsessive to the point of running her daughter’s life for her. Regardless, she is only trying to help, as she encourages Jing Mei by asserting “‘You can be best anything.’” (1). Because of this, it suggests that although she is very harsh on her daughter at times, it is only to make sure that Jing Mei can use her full potential and not end up losing everything like her
