This Time Will Be Different Sparknotes

A True Helpful Guide Every child has a helpful guide who is an adult. Helpful guides must be able to give the guided person chances to achieve success and learn things for growth, and to show reality by talking about experiences faced in life to expose the guide to reality, not a false-reality. In This Time Will Be Different, Michelle Katsuyama is the guide for her child, CJ. CJ tries to fight against the family business being sold by Michelle. Throughout This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura, Michelle proves to be a helpful guide by giving opportunities for the guided one to grow and achieve success, and to show reality with experiences faced to expose the one to be guided to what’s important. To begin, Michelle shows to be a helpful

As the story goes on, the family business, Heart’s Desire, is threatened to be sold by Michelle. CJ and CJ’s aunt Hannah fight against it, and the story takes a new turn as racism is encountered and the fight against it. The McAllisters had bought Heart’s Desire for only 10% of its value during World War II, and the Katsuyamas bought it back in the 1970s. Nearly 40 years later, the McAllisters are exposed for doing what was done to the Katsuyamas to many Japanese Americans, and CJ and friends fight to get the school renamed to the real owner of the land the school is on instead of the McAllisters. After CJ talks to one of the McAllisters to rename the school, Michelle sits down with CJ and talks about the experience in the tech world, “‘CJ, the tech world, the work world - it punishes people for being mothers. People think that if you're not willing to prioritize work over family time, you shouldn’t have the job. They think that women won’t work as hard when we have families’” (378). In this passage, Michelle talks about how the tech world “punishes people for being mothers,” as it has happened to Michelle. Michelle says that if women are not “willing” to “prioritize work over family time,” then the women “shouldn’t have the job.” Michelle is talking about something that not a lot of people know about when getting into work, and is shedding light on an important aspect of reality. Michelle also says that people think women

An example of this is when Michelle gets firm on CJ to do the internship at the start of the novel, “‘I’m not asking if you want to be an intern, I’m telling you that you can be an intern’” (14). The argument is not wrong, Michelle is being forceful on CJ to do this internship, which is not right. But, Michelle does explain herself later, “‘The regret - sometimes I think I’m just not cut out for parenthood. And you’re suffering because of it’” (379). In this part of the passage, Michelle is admitting that the actions that were done were not right. And that Michelle knows that CJ is suffering and is trying to make up for it. A helpful guide may be firm when that is not correct, but the guide tries to make up for it and apologize. And that is what Michelle did, and that counts. Michelle just didn’t forget it and keep on doing it, which matters. Michelle knows that parenthood isn’t something that can be done well enough for CJ. But, Michelle tries to not be like the stereotypical Asian American and tries to be a loving mother who isn’t always perfect. Michelle is trying to voice her opinions on what CJ wants to do, but not in the best way possible, and knows it. And that’s what’s important, what matters, and makes this argument