I have read the book The Joy Luck Club that was written by Amy Tam, who is a Chinese American writer. The relationship between mother and daughter in the book seems to be a struggle between liberty and authority. Mother represented the authority that tried to shape a daughter with his own idea and refuses the independence of her daughter; the daughter was a symbol of freedom that tried to deny the authority of the mother and got rid of the influence of the mother. The author described the conflicts between generation gap and estrangement between four pairs of mothers and daughters that reflected the collision and compatibility between Chinese culture and America culture. James: “unlike some people, I don’t just kowtow to the police.” In the …show more content…
Marilyn spoke without careful diction to James because she felt dissatisfied with the attitude that James spoke with the policeman. However, Both the two words of kowtow and coolies were from Chinese. Those two words showed the unbearable image of China that make James feel bad. Marilyn: The man setting his papers on the lectern was youngish and thin, but that was as he came to what they all had pictured. And oriental, she thought. She had never seen one in person before. He was dressed like an undertaker: black suit, black tie knotted tight, shirt so white it flowed. His hair was slicked back and parted in a perfect pale line, but one wisp stood straight up in back, like an Indian chief’s feather. As he started to speak, he reached up with one hand to smooth down the cowlick, and someone snickered. This is a passage that Marilyn reviewed the first time she met with James. In her mind, the word such as oriental and Harvard was a synonym of out of the ordinary which showed that she wants to be different all the …show more content…
She had made a promise and her mother had heard it and come home. She would keep her word. That afternoon, when her father had hung up the phone and said those astonishing words – your mother is coming home – she had made a decision: her mother would never have to see that sad cookbook again. The cookbook was a thing that was tied to the feelings of the mother and daughter of the times between Marilyn and her mother and Lydia and Marilyn. Marilyn didn't like the family concept that her mother showed through this book, and Lydia was unwilling to see a mother's sentimentality. Hannah: The necklace is broken now but, anyway, Hannah has promised Lydia that she will never put it on, and she does not break promises to people she loves. Even if they aren’t alive anymore. Instead she rubs the fine chain between her fingers like a rosary. The bad smells like her sister sleeping: a warm and musky and sharp smell – like a wild animal – that emerged only when she was deep in slumber. Hannah, as the youngest child at this home, she knows everything but doesn’t say anything. Lydia is not the “medium” that is the child who is most easily ignored among the typical middle-class family in the United States, but Hannah is a kind of this type of child. She always keeps the secrets of everyone.
The main character of the book, Allison Mackenzie, came from a middle-class family that owned a home off Chestnut Street. Her mother, Constance, owned a shop in town called the Thrifty Corner Apparel Shoppe. Allison was born out of wedlock and her father was out of the picture. Constance was ashamed of this fact and hide her secret past from society. The situation surrounding Allison was an example of the time period’s denial of family dysfunction.
Jackie French uses a high level of language throughout the novel to go from past to present and create a clear image in the readers mind of the characters and what time was like decades ago. The author, French uses certain language techniques such as a clear plot, character contrasts and figurative language to help to tell the story of Martins journey and how he gains an appreciation of
Hannah becomes very selfless, and she realizes how important family is. This novel reveals 2 themes: Selflessness and the importance of family. The theme of selflessness is shown in The Devil’s Arithmetic by the things Hannah did in the camps.
Jeannine had to hide with a Christian lady a little ways away from her old home. Jeannine’s mother worked as a “Christian” nurse and Jeannine’s little sister went away because she was so sick. Jeannine, though, had to stay with this Christian lady for two whole years. She was not allowed to go outside or be in the warm sunlight of the vibrant days that she had missed. Most of Jeannine’s childhood would be spent up in the attic of this new home.
It is this action of neglect that damages their relation with her. Hannah Lee is the most neglected kid in the Lee family, and this is shown in her actions, which are comparable to real-life children who suffer from neglect. For instance, the children welfare government site says that “Maltreatment can cause victims to feel isolation, fear, and distrust, which can translate into lifelong psychological consequences that can manifest as educational difficulties, low self-esteem, depression, and trouble forming and maintaining relationships” (Children’s Bureau 3) it is isolation, that Hannah demonstrates. Hannah was so isolated that “They set up her nursery in the bedroom in the attic, where things that were not wanted were kept, and even when she got older, now and then each of them would forget, fleetingly, that she existed” (Ng 97). In the case of Hannah, her relationship with her parents is not so much about the interactions they have together but the lack of interactions.
While making bread, her mother would “pick [the book] up, sit by the kitchen window and find her place, with one eye on the oven.” Welty’s mother does not let her life interfere with her reading. Welty’s vivid remembrance of the details of her mother’s reading habits reveals the value of reading her mother had shown her at a young age. Welty recalls her mother enjoying her reading to such an extent she would do it during anything. Her mother’s love for reading passed onto Welty through her experiences of what her mother did when Welty was a child.
With the unintended coming out as bisexual to her grandmother and creating a bond with her that they’ll cherish for life, this book truly does answer the question as to why cooking brings us together. Yasaman’s first step in learning how to cook is because her girlfriend, Hannah, “just [wants] to eat some homemade
Diction is an important literary device used to shape Melinda’s character and mannerism. Diction is the author’s choice of phrases to express ideas in their work. Anderson uses this to depict Melinda’s thoughts, such as,“ I grab a seat. Another wounded zebra turns and smiles at me.” The author’s word choice of “wounded zebra” communicates Melinda’s thoughts; or voice, through her clouded interpretations of her peers.
He mentions that, “every few seconds” she would throw around words such as “ridiculous” and “totally,” often misusing both terms (Laymon 53). This girl’s use of language is one that leaves an impression with the reader of a girl who is perhaps void of true substance or depth. Through these means, she is
Jacqueline uses figurative language, symbolism, and inner thinking to give the theme of your identity can be found in what you are passionate about. In the beginning, Jacqueline uses figurative language to show her anger towards the fact that she cannot write and read like her sister can. For example, Jackie’s unhappiness when she can’t write well like other people shows when she says, “ / I am not gifted. When I read, the words twist/twirl across the page / When they settle, it is too late.
Hannah gets the privilege to open the door for the prophet elijah. When Hannah opens the door she is transported back in time to 1942. Hannah then has to live through the harshness of the concentration camps, like her grandpa and aunt did. Hannah figures out that she is living the life of her aunt Eva’s friend that passed away at the camps. She also gets to see her grandpa and aunt at the camp.
Marilyn’s troubled past promoted her decision to pressure her daughter, which eventually led to her demise. For example, after Lydia said that she lost her mother’s cookbook, Marilyn thought, “It was a sign, Marilyn decided. For her, it was too late. But it wasn’t too late for Lydia. Marilyn would not be like her own mother shunting her daughter toward husband and house, a life spent safely behind a deadbolt.”
Incompatible Interracial relationships are difficult to maintain in the United States because of differences in cultural upbringing as well as racism and xenophobia. The book The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan focuses on four Chinese mothers who describe their past hardships and adjustment to the United States as well as their relationships with their American born daughters. The mothers try to save their children from experiencing the same things that they have been through. In the book, there are a few interracial couples such as Rose Hsu and Ted, Waverly Jong and Rich, and Ying Ying St.Clair and her husband Clifford. They all have trouble loving and understanding each other.
So she had difficult to understand people. Then time has passed, she was homeless and didn’t have nothing to eat and no money. Then this one lady passed by and she told the girl “Why you poor thing here are $20 dollars to go get you something something to eat.” But Hannah didn’t understand her so she wrote on a paper that she can’t understand her good but she
Then Ligniere, the town 's drunk, speaks to Christian, after seeing him stare at Roxane, for what seems like forever. “Ah! I fear me she is coquettish, and over nice and fastidious!”, Hearing this Christian is frightened, and becomes nervous because he is talking about his crush, he stammers, “who am so poor of wit, how dare I speak to her--how address her? This language that they speak to-day--ay, and write--confounds me.