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“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” (Mother Teresa) In Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah, Mother Teresa's words of wisdom apply to Adeline's life because she is always by herself with no one to defend her from her harsh parents, mean siblings, and the rest of the world. The memoir features Adeline as a lonely person at home and is unwanted by her parents. The book Chinese Cinderella is an inspiration of how she overcame her problems and succeeded in what she wanted to do. Adeline expresses feelings of sadness and loneliness, while also showing perseverance by getting the best grades out of her class. All in all, Adeline is abused, is poor in love and care from her family, and is unwanted.
First,
Adeline is an unwanted daughter throughout the memoir. Adeline's father doesn't even remember her name or birthday. For example, “The stewardess asked me to fill out these cards. I’m afraid I’ve forgotten your Chinese name.” (Yen Mah 124) Father should show more compassion to learn her name and birthday. Niang sends Adeline away all throughout the novel. “She whispered that Niang wanted me to pack my bag immediately because I was being taken away” Pg. 157 This is important because Niang always despised adeline and hated all her stepchildren. Second, Adeline is poor in love and care and is treated unfairly. Adeline is poor in care when in the book, her father whips her. “He ordered me to lay face down on my bed and whipped me” Pg. 104. This is important because it isn’t mentioned in the book that she is abused, but she is. Adeline is also left in Tianjin to die at a boarding school she went to in kindergarten. “I don’t think so? I heard father say to my uncle in the car yesterday they’re back to Shanghai in four days.” This is important because the way father treats her is unbelievable, he treats her like garbage, then leaves her to die. Third, and final, she is always lonely at home because most of her siblings hate her. Her siblings abuse her, and her father and stepmother too. “She slapped me with the back of her hand against my other cheek.” Pg. 115. This is important because a parental figure of any kind should be a role model to a small child or infant. All the stepchildren are disliked except Adeline, Niang and half of their family loathe her. “It was true in our family, the stepchildren’s birthdays were unknown.” Pg. 125. This is important because a child's birthday is a special day for them to know how old they are, and to make them feel special. Adeline is trying to show how much she loves her family, but her family declines her feelings and shove them in the trash. Her world is mostly getting good grades and are avoiding getting abused or in trouble, she is very sneaky for a good reason. Adeline faces hardships along her way to success, her parents, being sent away, never being allowed to have fun, and being treated like garbage. Those all made her who she is, she made her destiny like Ye Ye told her to do and went to study in England with third brother.“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.” (Henry David Thoreau)
This frustration acted as a vehicle for her to gain a desire to be more
Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang is an inspiring true story about a young girl who is forced to make an agonizing decision of country versus family. In her story of joy, sorrow, lament, resentment, and countless other perplexing experiences, she must decide whether she is her family's child or Chairman Mao's. In Red Scarf Girl, Ji-li is faced with the heart-breaking decision of her future, and finally after years of confounding peer and family pressure, she resolves to love her family. Throughout the book she is a zealous supporter of Mao, though is constantly running into contradicting encounters in the beginning, middle, and end.
In the poem pride, Dahlia Ravikovitch uses many poetic devices. She uses an analogy for the poem as a whole, and a few metaphors inside it, such as, “the rock has an open wound.” Ravikovitch also uses personification multiple times, for example: “Years pass over them as they wait.” and, “the seaweed whips around, the sea bursts forth and rolls back--” Ravikovitch also uses inclusive language such as when she says: “I’m telling you,” and “I told you.” She uses these phrases to make the reader feel apart of the poem, and to draw the reader in. She also uses repetition, for example, repetition of the word years.
This book is told from the diary of the main character, Sam Gribley. Sam is a boy full of determination. He didn’t give up and go home like everyone thought he would. He is strong of mind. After the first night in the freezing rain, with no fire and no food, he still went on. He is a born survivor. He lasted the winter, through storms, hunger, and loneliness, and came out on top even when everyone expected him to fail. “The land is no place for a Gribley” p. 9
Adeline doesn’t get much support from her family, except for two, Aunt Baba and Yeye. With the constant depressing situations in the book, Adeline has been blessed with two people who actually care. Aunt Baba and Yeye actually want to encourage Adeline to do her best because unlike the other members in her family, they do not treat her as just an unwanted child. In the novel, Chinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen Mah, Adeline is greatly supported by Ye Ye and Aunt Baba although out the book and I do not believe that she would've succeeded without them.
Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.
Amy Tan’s ,“Mother Tongue” and Maxine Kingston’s essay, “No Name Woman” represent a balance in cultures when obtaining an identity in American culture. As first generation Chinese-Americans both Tan and Kingston faced many obstacles. Obstacles in language and appearance while balancing two cultures. Overcoming these obstacles that were faced and preserving heritage both women gained an identity as a successful American.
English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan’s mother as she discusses in her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand-new kaleidoscope. She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to emphasize her belief that there are more than one proper way (proper English) to communicate with each other. Tan hopes her audience to understand that the power of language- “the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth”- purposes to connect societies, cultures, and individuals, rather than to rank our intelligence.
Most children experience agony and hope as they face the struggles of sibling rivalry throughout their childhood. This situation has been experienced by children, of whom may or may not have siblings, for hundreds of years. Several stories represent this crisis, including the Biblical story of Abel and Cain which was written over 3000 years ago. Abel of whom was forced to be Cain’s ash-brother. Cain had developed an intense feeling of jealousy of Abel when his offering to the Lord was rejected while Abel’s was accepted. This caused him great agony, but he wasn’t the only one. The fairytale “Cinderella” encompasses the ideas of sibling rivalry as well as the agonies and hopes that correspond with it.
Despite growing up amidst a language deemed as “broken” and “fractured”, Amy Tan’s love for language allowed her to embrace the variations of English that surrounded her. In her short essay “Mother Tongue”, Tan discusses the internal conflict she had with the English learned from her mother to that of the English in her education. Sharing her experiences as an adolescent posing to be her mother for respect, Tan develops a frustration at the difficulty of not being taken seriously due to one’s inability to speak the way society expects. Disallowing others to prove their misconceptions of her, Tan exerted herself in excelling at English throughout school. She felt a need to rebel against the proverbial view that writing is not a strong suit of someone who grew up learning English in an immigrant family. Attempting to prove her mastery of the English language, Tan discovered her writing did not show who she truly was. She was an Asian-American, not just Asian, not just American, but that she belonged in both demographics. Disregarding the idea that her mother’s English could be something of a social deficit, a learning limitation, Tan expanded and cultivated her writing style to incorporate both the language she learned in school, as well as the variation of it spoken by her mother. Tan learned that in order to satisfy herself, she needed to acknowledge both of her “Englishes” (Tan 128).
Culture molds the character of writers and gives a variety of different perspective on certain life experiences. In Julia Alvarez’s short story Snow, Yolanda, an immigrant student, moved to New York. While attending a Catholic school in New York, bomb drills were performed. The teacher would explain why these drills were important. Yolanda later found out that her first experience of watching snow was not the best experience one could possibly have.
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
"A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity" (See 56). A friendship comes with many challenges, but with a strong bond between one another, friends can overcome the obstacles they are faced with together. In the book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, Lily and Snow Flower are laotongs who face obstacles throughout their lives. Throughout the novel, the two girls have to follow the strict cultural practices to please Chinese Society. They are faced with the pain of foot binding, and the everyday chores women have to do. Together, the girls face big and small obstacles that make the theme of the novel about the bond between women.
The story I have chosen for my assignment is `Everything's Arranged' by Siew Yue Killingley. It is about arranged marriages practised by the Indian communities.The story is centered around Rukumani, a young maiden from the Ceylonese Tamil community whose family has settled in Malaya. Probably her father or grandfather was brought to this land by the British those days. Though Rukumani, is sent to study in the university (`MU' as stated in the story ), the thinking of her parents is just like how it was back in their motherland, Sri Lanka. The Ceylonese, however educated, still hold to their tradition, beliefs and family values so adamantly. Education failed to change their thinking. Social life is a taboo for their young sons what more for a daughter.