An-mei Hsu, the woman who sits in the south corner of the mah jong game. Described by June Woo as a “short bent woman in her seventies, with a heavy bosom and thin, shapeless legs”(Tan 10). Like the life of June’s mother, An-mei suffered many tragedies in China. An-mei’s childhood consisted of the darkest moments in her life, her mother abandoned her and her brother when they were young. An-mei and her brother were raised by their grandmother, Popo. As An-mei grew up, her grandmother, Popo, told her that her mother was a ghost, which meant that she was forbidden from talking about her mother. Popo wanted An-mei to forget her mother completely. An-mei recalls the terrible experience in her childhood that left a permanent scar on her neck. She is told by her grandmother that her mother had committed a horrible act by leaving behind her children. Prior to meeting her mother once again, An- mei pictures her mother as happy to be away from her children and …show more content…
She displays her tenderness towards her and Popo, by attempting to heal Popo from a terrible illness. In the flashback that An-mei has she remembers the accident that occurred when she was four years old on the night that her mother left. She remembers that her mother did not leave her willingly. When An-mei’s mother returned for her children, Popo and An-mei’s uncle prevented her from taking them. During the argument between Popo and An-mei’s mother, they did not notice that the hot pot of soup was about spillover. In an attempt to reach her mother, An-mei got too close to the pot and the soup spilled onto her neck. The hot soup burned her skin severely and she was at the edge of death. Popo blamed this accident on An-mei’s mother and forced her to leave. Since that day she told An-mei that her mother had left her willingly and married someone else. All that remained from that sad day was the scar on her
Great people often arise from unlikely places. During the civil war women were barred from serving in the army; however, women did sometimes disguise themselves as men and enlisted in both the Confederate and Union armies. During the Civil War years of 1861 to 18-65, soldiers under arms mailed countless letters home from the front. There are multiple accounts of women serving in military units during the Civil War, but a majority of these incidents are extremely hard to verify. Nevertheless, there is the one well-documented incident of the female Civil War soldier by the name of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman.
Ellen just felt a distant sadness. Ellen cried just a little bit. Her grandmother was furious because Ellen showed some emotions. She told her to never cry again. After that Ellen becomes scarred for a long time.
What This Cruel War Was Over evaluates the American Civil War through the eyes of both northern and southern soldiers. By examining the conflict through this lens, Chandra Manning delivers a narrative with intricacies that explore an in-depth perspective to a greater degree than other authors have in the past. Revealing how men thought about slavery and the Civil War frames her book, and the examples she utilizes to fulfill her goal in arguing her thesis conveys an original body of work. Additionally, several of the concepts established in the author’s book are also discussed through various methods in other books.
In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Story of My Body” Ortiz Cofer represents herself narrative story when she were young. Her autobiography has four headlines these parts are skin, color, size, and looks. Every headline has it is own stories underneath it. Ortiz Cofer’s is expressing her life story about her physical and psychological struggle with her body. Heilbrun’s narrative, “Writing a Woman’s Life” shows that, a woman’s does not have to be an ideal to write a self-autobiography to tell the world something about herself and her life. Ortiz Cofer’s facing a body struggle that is not made by herself, but by people around her. Therefore, every woman is able to write can write an autobiography with no exception.
she gets flashbacks of the past incidents that occurred all because of her uncle. This story overall,
In life we go through very hard times that’s just how life circles, but do these problems really help shape your spirit to who you are today and who you will be one day in the future? In the book Copper Sun by Sharon Draper Amari overcomes some of the most complicated problems in the history of the U.S., in which I personally don’t think I would have been able to handle as swiftly and fast as Amari had. With the help of others Amari was able to create a strong backbone to carry her thought out the way and support her in her worst times. Although some of these influences weren’t always the best people such as Clay, he helped shape Amaris future and the theme of the story. Finally, how important where the minor characters on helping to shape the main character’s spirit and inner mind, and after that transaction how where they able to slowly develop the theme/message of the book?
Woo cleans the house herself and no longer has a housekeeper. With the money she saved, she hired Mr. Chong, an ancient piano teacher, who can barely hear and whose eyes are too dulled to tell when Jing-mei messes up. He is so genuine that Jing-mei feels guilty and picks up the basic skills, but she is so bent on not pleasing her mother that she continues to purposefully lack in her efforts. She hates the piano. She hates the fact that her mother is shaping her identity. She hates that her mother forces it upon her. She hates that it's everything she isn’t: disciplined, elegant, and most of all controlled. Jing-mei wants to be who she wants to be, and with the piano around, she only continues to be who her mother wants her to be, but she can not tell her mother this. She is supposed to play a piece called “Pleading Child” which is a “simple, moody piece that sounded more difficult than it was”. Even though she had not practiced and didn't know the piece, she played anyway. Halfway through, she began to realize how awful she was. The silence that followed her performance and her parent’s disappointed looks unfolded the undeniable truth, Jing-mei was not a piano
...ce near Mean Lady Ming’s where we bought shrimp lo mein. I grabbed Vonetta and Fern and we all ran off. Five minutes later of running we were at Cecile’s house. At the doorstep, I heard crying. This crying sounded like Cecile. Could she have really changed? We opened the door and ran in and hugged her. Surprisingly the door was opened. She must have went searching for us because there were two distinct footprints on her welcome mat before we entered the house and before we stepped on the mat. She really has changed. “You all better hug tight Vonetta and Fern.” I said with tears of joy. “My babies, my babies! I will never treat you that bad ever again. I am so sorry!” cried Cecile. “ From now on I will care for you and be a good mother. I am sorry for however I treated you.” cried Cecile. For the first time in forever, my sisters and I actually had someone to call Ma.
Irene’s mom was becoming sick very fast, and could not eat the food that Irene saved her. One cold and snowy day, Irene was looking for the scarf that they still owned so she could go do her work, but it was wrapped around her mother because she was cold. Olga then told Irene that their mom was dead. Their mother’s body lay alongside hundreds of other bodies. Later, her sister became very sick and weak, and could not walk.
In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter, and “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst they all have an overall lesson. The lesson that I found in these three stories is to not get caught up in the moment. In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant Mme. Loisel got so caught up in the moment of getting so much attention that she did not even notice the necklace was gone until it was too late. “She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk in pleasure with no thought for anything in the triumph of her beauty.” If Mme. Loisel would've been more cautious and not so caught up in the moment then she would not have lost the necklace in the first place. In “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter Andy got so caught up to be in
An-Mei Hsu was born and raised in China, but not by her mother. Her mother became the concubine of another man when An-Mei’s father had died. So An-Mei and her little brother went to live with there grandmother who they called Popo. At the house in which they lived they were not aloud to talk about, or even speak of there mother and soon enough, An-Mei and her little brother had forgotten her altogether. But Popo becomes very sick, and An-Mei’s mother returns to the home. When she was there she cuts a piece of her arm off and puts it in to soup for Popo. This was to show great respect, and was also a way of trying to cure the sick. "Here is how I came to love me mother. How I saw my own true nature. What was beneath my skin. Inside my bones." (pg40) This is the point where An-Mei is thought about respect and honor. She saw what her mother had done for Popo, and found it in her heart to forgive her and love her again. From then on she wanted to make sure that her daughters would have honor, and respect for the family ways. "The pain you must forget, because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones." (pg41) She saw what her mother take a piece of her own flesh and give it to Popo in order to earn her respect and honor back.
Most of the conflicts that June and her mother face are based on misunderstandings and negligence concerning each other's feelings and beliefs. June does not understand or even fully know her mother because she does not know about her tragic past and t he pain she still feels from the memory of it. Because Suyuan lost two daughters in China, and her entire family was killed in the war, she leaves this place behind her and places all of her hopes in America and her family there. She wants the very best for her daughter June. Even her name, Suyuan, meaning "long-cherished wish," speaks of this hope for Jing-Mei, meaning "the pure, essential, best quality younger sister." Suyuan tells her daughter June that she can be anything she wants to be, and that she has great talent. At first June is excited and dreams about what she will become: "In all 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. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything." (Tan 143) Suyuan pushes June to be successful in many different areas such as dance, academics, trivia, and piano.
The Narrator’s family treats her like a monster by resenting and neglecting her, faking her death, and locking her in her room all day. The Narrator’s family resents her, proof of this is found when the Narrator states “[My mother] came and went as quickly as she could.
Ann-Mei, Lindo, and Ying Ying subjugated by males because of their sex, and Chinese tradition. Ann-Mei is oppressed in many ways. Her mother is invited to spend time at the home of a wealthy merchant named Wu Tsing. During the night he comes into Ann-Mei's mother's room and rapes her. Despite emotionally scaring Ann-Mei this demonstrates the lack of respect for a woman in China.
...er learned from Lily how to cook, wash clothes, and how to clean the house. These girls learned from each other without realizing it, and had created even more of a special bond with one another than they thought. After both of the girls had gotten married and had children, the two girls did not see each other as much. Because of nu shu they were able to keep and touch and learn what was going on in their lives. “You who always knew my heart now fly above the clouds in the warmth of the sun. I hope one day we will soar together” (321). Lily wrote these words on her final entry on her fan after Snow Flower’s death. Through all of the lies Snow Flower told Lily, she still loved her and the bond they had together for eternity. Together as laotongs, the girls overcame obstacles, learned from each other, and created an eternal both between women throughout this novel.