How would it feel to be forced to spend an entire childhood as a prodigy by a parent? Or to lose one? In "Catch the Moon" and "Two Kinds," the main characters, Luis and Jing-Mei, deal with their losses through rebellion. In this essay, the characters and their rebellious actions in these stories have many similar qualities that will be compared and contrasted. The first character to compare is Luis. Luis is the main character of "Catch the Moon" and a young, Hispanic boy living alone with his father, and working in his junkyard. After the death of his mother, he started a high school gang and involved himself in criminal behavior. When he is caught breaking into a house he is sent to juvenile detention, and is sentenced to six months …show more content…
In "Two Kinds," Jing-Mei struggles with the plans her mother forces on her and the path she wants to create for herself. She spends her entire childhood doing everything her mother makes her, so that she can become a prodigy. Her mother has her take tests, classes, and learn skills she does not want to just so she can be successful. As a result, Jing-Mei rebels by not paying attention during her studies or by not attempting the quizzes. She spends her entire childhood being mediocre to the point she does not really know how to try when she wants to. It takes her until her mother dies just to find closure. By that point she had not even been rebelling it was just forced into her character. Luis and Jing-Mei might have rebelled for different reasons, but the reasons for their parents to push them were incredibly similar. Luis and Jing-Mei are similar to each other. Both Luis and Jing-Mei started rebelling as kids, Luis before high school, and Jing-Mei as a child. Both were each pushed to this rebellion by their parents, who just wanted the best for them. They lived their lives with an incredible amount of stress and pressure on them. Eventually they both found a resolution and even ended their rebellion. Both of them suffered the loss of a parent, but at opposites times in their life. They both lead interesting lives with many similarities and just as many
AP English Literature and Composition MAJOR WORKS DATA SHEET Title: A Raisin In the Sun Author: Lorraine Hansberry Date of Publication: 1951 Genre: Realistic Drama Biographical Information about the Author Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930. She grew up as the youngest in her family. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a real estate broker.
Some similarities are obviously that they are both slaves who are trying to escape their misery. The characters also have a good relationship with their fathers because they taught them how to care for themselves and what to do when they need
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life. The beginning of the book starts out with Liang’s typical life, which seems normal, he has a family which consists of three children, two older sisters and him the youngest, his two sister’s reside in Changsha 1. his father has an everyday occupation working as a journalist at a local newspaper. Things start to take a turn early in life for Liang Heng, his family politics were always questioned, the mistake made by one of his family members would impact his entire family and it would be something they would have to suffer through, it was impossible for them to live down such a sin.... ...
The idea that resulted in the Little Seamstress leaving the mountain maybe viewed as ironic by the reader. The ideas of being different and individual, that Lou held and put to practice were what communist Leader Chair man Mao Zedong originally feared. This was why the texts were originally banned in the first place, and viewed as revolutionary trash. As it was thought that they may result in an u...
The novel 'Mao's Last Dancer', is a gripping story about the author, Li Cunxin and his story to success as a professional ballet dancer in communist China. The story shows how hard work, determination and hardships lead to the achievement of goals. Throughout the book, Li suffers from a number of physically and mentally challenging struggles that test him and push him to become stronger and more determined. Both mental and physical struggles are equally as difficult to overcome and both play a big part in different stages of Li's life.
Jing-mei 's mother wants Jing-mei to be a prodigy and get popular. Thus, the mother rents a piano for Jing-mei to help her achieve this. Many years later, Jing-mei finds the piano in a broken state, so she decides to have it repaired. She starts playing the song she used to play, “Pleading Child.” But to the right of “Pleading Child,” she finds a second song named “Perfectly Contented.” She starts to play both songs, “And after I [Jing-mei] had played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.” (6) Jing-mei’s mother tells Jing-mei that there are two kinds of people: the respectful kind and the disrespectful kind. At that time, Jing-mei also finds out that there are two kinds of people inside her. She could choose to be the kind where the person is a prodigy and respectful, or be the kind that is ugly in the eyes of people. When she plays “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented,” Jing-mei realizes that her identity had changed completely because of her laziness and beliefs. Jing-mei learns that there are two kinds of people in the world, and she should choose the right
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry has many interesting characters. In my opinion, the most fascinating character is Ruth because of her many emotions and captivating personality. She goes through extreme emotions in the play such as happiness, sadness, anger, stress, and confusion. Ruth is very independent, firm, kind, witty, and loving.
Jing-Mei was forced to take piano lessons; this only further upset her as she felt that she was a constant disappointment. Her mother was mad at her on a regular basis because Jing-Mei stood up for herself and explained to her that she didn’t want to be a child prodigy.
Jing-mei and her mother have conflicting values of how Jing-mei should live her life. She tries to see what becoming a prodigy would be like from her mother's point of view and the perks that it would bring her as she states in the story "In all my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and f...
In the beginning, Jing-mei, is “just as excited as my mother,”(469). Jing-mei was eagerly hoping to make her mother proud. However, her mother’s obsession with becoming a prodigy discouraged Jing-mei. The daily test began to aggravated Jing-mei because they made her feel less sma...
real reason he got blind. He knows that seeing the eclipse without protection wasn't the
The novel Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding. Golding wanted the story to be about a group of young boys whose plane crashed on an island, trying to escape war. The whole concept of this was so that he can show what a group of people can become given a set of inflicting conflicts that can change them for better or for worst. He gives great detail on how they go from sane to insane in a matter of time and turn into someone completely different all together. One of the boys on the island is named Simon. Simon’s personality and traits are similar to Jesus Christ because they both posse a form of insight, spirituality, and compassion.
...dice that the Chinese encountered as immigrants in America. Although the Chinese resented the fact that they were being discriminated against, they continued to immigrate because they felt that their opportunities in the United States of America were still better than in China. Together they endured poor treatment because they knew they had nothing if they went back home to China. The Chinese resisted such horrible conditions by sticking together as a community and establishing their own businesses and towns such as Chinatown, in San Francisco. After studying the Chinese we can draw the conclusion that many Chinese made the journey to America in search for freedom and for a better life, but instead were detained and treated poorly. Together the Chinese community made their voice heard by challenging laws, starting their own businesses, and becoming self-sufficient.
You shouldn’t change who you are just to impress someone. The Narrator in “Catch the Moon” learned this by confronting his emotions. The Narrator in “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant” learned this by realizing that it is not important to impress people. The stories are different because they have different themes. The stories are alike because they both deal with a guy trying to impress a girl.
The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald representing the life upon which Jay Gatsby lives; Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as a young man who rises from poverty to riches in order to gain attention from his long lost lover. Having only one dream and trying to recreate the past ultimately leads to the dreamers downfall. Gatsby tries to create the illusion of a “rich Gatsby” to attempt and reinvigorate the love that Daisy and him had in the past, losing in sight everything he built for himself. For every dream there truly is a cost and in the novel Gatsby does everything possible to attain this dream disregarding the cost in the long run.