Joy Luck Club And Only Daughter Comparative Essay

In order to accomplish something in this life, a person must dream about it first. However, dreaming is often not enough, sometimes a person must also overcome obstacles that stand in the way of achieving those dreams. In both stories of The Joy Luck Club and Only Daughter, they find themselves faced with barriers to their goals. However, they eventually find a way to make their desires a reality.

To begin, in Only Daughter the protagonist is Sandra Cisneros and her dream is to be a writer. Sandra’s motivation is for her dad to appreciate her hard work and what she wants to be. Cisneros states,“What I didn’t realize was that my father thought college was good for girls—good for finding a husband”(Cisneros, par.4). This influenced the way

A conflict that Cisneros faced while trying to pursue her dream was feeling unappreciated as the only daughter in her family, especially by her father. Cisneros says, “In a sense, everything I have ever written has been for him, to win his approval even though I know my father can’t read English words,”(Cisneros, par.8). This influences the way the audience sees how the conflict affected Sandra and her dream because she's desperate for her fathers acceptance. Another conflict that Cisnceros faced while trying to pursure her dream included being the only daughter in a family of six brothers. She states, “Being an only daughter in a family of six sons forced me by circumstance to spend a lot of time by myself because my brothers felt it beneath them to play with a girl in public”(Cisneros, par.3). This part of the story influences the way the audience sees how the conflict affected Cisneros and her dream because she had to grow up

Jing-Mei’s motivation is for her parents to adore her. She found out that the best way to accomplish this is to be her parents' perfect daughter She says,“In all of my imaginings I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect: My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach” (Tan, par. 10). This influenced the way the audience sees the importance of the dream to Jing-Mei because she's forcing herself to be flawless in order to gain admiration from her parents. A conflict that she faced in trying to pursue her dream was pressuring herself too much to the point where she felt self-pity. She states,“But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient. "If you don't hurry up and get me out of here, I'm disappearing for good," it warned. ‘"And then you'll always be nothing"(Tan, par. 10). This influences the way the audience sees how the conflict affected Jing-Mei and her dream because she starts losing her self-confidence. Another conflict that she faced in trying to pursue her dream included her mother being dissatisfied with Jing-Mei being her own person. She says, “after seeing, once again, my mother's disappointed face, something inside me began to die”(Tan, par.15). This evidence influences the way the audience sees how the conflict affected Jing-Mei and her dream because it made her sad that she couldn’t be what her mother wanted her to be. The obstacle