ipl-logo

Summary Of Ha Jin's The Bridegroom

645 Words3 Pages

Social Acceptance in China The Chinese culture is constantly striving for an ideal society. They seek for a structured population that expects the people to fit their image of perfection. As a reader, one can see that the author, Ha Jin, has written about the strict conditions the Chinese people are facing. The characters have been stripped of any individualistic freedoms that one may acquire in other nations, such as the United States. This story displays the realistic battles that the Chinese must endure to maintain acceptance in their social class. The Bridegroom highlights some of the issues in a controlling social class. Jin chose to have two of the main characters be outcasts among their peers to illustrate the hardship they had to go through as citizens. The marriage of Benia and Baowen was an act to try and conform to be what everyone wanted them to be. They married to fit in, not out of love. Homosexuality was forbidden, and Baowen was guilty of hiding his true sexuality. This didn’t bother Benia however, because no one else would've married her, for she had unpleasant features. The author evokes sympathy from his readers by relating these characters to modern day people. No one can chose the way they look or their sexual preference, therefore they shouldn’t be …show more content…

“Homosexualitiy originated from Western capitalism and bourgeois lifestyle. According to our law it’s dealt with as a kind of hooliganism.” (pg 233) This quote portrays that they are unwilling to accept this behavior and they won't admit there may be “faults” in their community. They blame other nations and areas for this crime to avoid any responsibility of their own citizens. Because they are ashamed of having people with this characteristic, they place them in jail to separate them from the rest of the world. The Chinese believed that they will either be punished, or they will fix them of this

Show More
Related
650 Words | 3 Pages

Jiang Ji-li is walking home for lunch and passes the police station but, she does not continue on as usual. She ponders whether or not she should stop and change her name because an article was recently published about her family that exposed the fact that she is the grandchild of a landlord that once owned close to half of the city Nanjing. Jiang Ji- li is ashamed and annoyed by her classmate’s reaction to the report in the Workers Revolt. They all immediately turn on her by gossiping and teasing her.

Read More
1180 Words | 5 Pages

Over the course of a person’s life they will grow, learn, and change. In Natasha Chang’s Memoir Bound & Western Dress, there is a character whose life story emanates this. The book is based on the interviews the author has with her great aunt – Chang Yu-i. Natasha explains how Yu-I went through many trials and tribulations throughout her life but through it all became a better person. One of Yu-I’s earliest struggles was growing up in a very traditional household. Although she believed firmly in the rules she was taught Yu-i always longed for something more.

Read More
933 Words | 4 Pages

Two protagonists of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Lindo and Waverly Jong live the lives of a usual Chinese mother, and American daughter. They live through struggles, and although both go through journeys, there are key distinctions in which the Jong family does not complete the Hero’s Journey. The Jong family does not complete the Hero’s Journey, primarily due to their lack of sacrifice for the purpose

Read More
645 Words | 3 Pages

June, however, struggled to please her mother in all she did, and never felt as if she had any worth. Their relationship becomes distant due to miscommunications. Asian culture and expectations weigh heavily on Suyuan’s mind as she worries about the path her daughter takes, one that is untraditional and looked down upon. June finally understands her mother, after it is too late. Secrets and traditions can either tear apart or build up a relationship.

Read More
1047 Words | 5 Pages

When Jin is upset on his way to his new home, he is comforted by an old Chinese parable making him feel closer to his mother. Jin is sitting in the back of his car with a tear running down his face (Yang 23). His mother tells him the story of a Chinese boy whose mother makes him move often but in each place new place he stays he can learn new skills in order to adapt to the environment (24). With the use of their culture, she is able to alleviate his worries about moving. It proves to him that no matter where he goes there are always ways to fit in.

Read More
430 Words | 2 Pages

This passage tells of the unsuccessful journey that Suyuan and her new husband go on a search for the babies. It demonstrates how attached a family is in Chinese

Read More
243 Words | 1 Pages

Jing Mei’s responses to her amassed stress instigated by her mother is often superfluous, where she always attempts to develop her identity, as she failed to comprehend the major perceived severity and benefits. For instance, when her mother “presented her tests, I performed listlessly, my head propped on one arm. I pretended to be bored. And I was” (182). This emphasizes the datum that Jing Mei was not able to understand and appreciate her mother’s goodwill of wanting her to be prosperous in her future.

Read More
1685 Words | 7 Pages

Throughout the story, we learn details about how the narrator is thinking changed and as well as details of her past life. Basically, story told from the Jing- Mei point of view, who is also the protagonist in the story. As we read the story, we will see how the narrator moves back and forth between her past and present to learn about her culture and her mother’s past with her half- sisters. We saw that Jing Mei searches through her mother past to learn about her sister and tries to become more in touch with her chinses roots. When Jing-Mei, the main character, learns that her late mother has twin daughters living in China and she has to make the decision on how to tell them that her mother is passed.

Read More
521 Words | 3 Pages

As seen by the mothers’ and daughters’ behavior towards each other in The Joy Luck Club, it is difficult to preserve one’s culture when one is exposed to a new environment or country. With a difference of two distinct generations between them, the four main pairs often come across cultural collisions. Other than facing the age gap, these mothers and daughters also have to deal with a language and communication barrier. Already, at the beginning of the story, Jing-Mei Woo is able to understand how the mothers of the “Joy Luck Club” are displeased with their daughter’s rejection of their Chinese culture. She speaks to herself, admitting that “they are frightened.

Read More
760 Words | 4 Pages

Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club is an amazing representation of what Chinese immigrants and their families face. The broad spectrum of the mothers’ and daughters’ stories all connect back to a couple of constantly recurring patterns. These patterns are used to show that how the mothers and daughters were so differently raised affected their relationships with each other, for better and for worse. To begin with, the ever-present pattern of disconnect between the two groups of women is used to show how drastically differently they were raised.

Read More
1177 Words | 5 Pages

Mother knows best. And yet so many daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club feel slighted by what the matriarchal figures in their lives have in mind for them, or rather, what they believe their mothers have in mind for them. A perfect storm of expectation, true and false, about love, about success, about being Chinese. The souring of mother-daughter relationships in The Joy Luck Club stem from unrealistic or ill conceived expectations that both parties hold for the other.

Read More
1225 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the entire novel, the mothers and daughters face inner struggles, family conflict, and societal collision. The divergence of cultures produces tension and miscommunication, which effectively causes the collision of American morals, beliefs, and priorities with Chinese culture which

Read More
595 Words | 3 Pages

This clearly reveals how important of the family pride and reputation is to a Chinese family. As a Chinese girl growing up in a Chinese family, I know what it is really mean to my family exactly. I was taught to be a loyal and responsible person since I was a child. I know my family will be responsible for my wrongdoings, so I always follow the rules that my family gave to me because I do not want them to be ashamed of me. Hence, to some extent, we cannot avoid the influence of culture because it is invisible but powerful in different aspects of our

Read More
1026 Words | 5 Pages

In The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, we are introduced to Suyuan and her daughter Jing-Mei “June” Woo. As with any relationship, there is conflict between Suyuan Woo and her daughter, as it seems that Jing-Mei doesn’t understand her mother’s Chinese culture and ambitions. In the Chinese culture, women are seen as inferior and often lack basic rights such as the right to marriage or financial holdings, thus deprived of their potential. This is why the rights in the U.S. are seen as privileges to Chinese women, among other minorities, and why Suyuan endeavored for her daughter to become a prodigy and excel in anything and everything. Yet as Jing-Mei was forced into this ideal, and the more her mother tried to enforce this idea, the further she begun to despise her mother for attempting to turn her into a “fraud”.

Read More
1598 Words | 7 Pages

Chinese tradition is opposed to individual glorification and considers anyone who desires personal enhancement as a threat to collectivism (Pye, 1982). Chinese are more group-oriented, they value respect and friendship. China is more Egalitarian, meaning that they share power and share authority and spread the authority out evenly. They do not expect all power as some cultures do. Next is Performance orientation, which means when the community encourages and rewards good things done and completed.

Read More

More about Summary Of Ha Jin's The Bridegroom

Related Topics

Open Document