Family Dynamics Expressed Through Chinese Culture Family dynamics are a very interesting thing. We all have to deal with them. There while are there many different cultures and many different ones. Amy tan does great job of tackling through the lens of Chinese culture while also relating the subject to family’s what aren’t in said culture. This is a classic story about parents v. child and the choices they, or we if you have kids, make for their children. Often, parents want the very best for their children—especially if they come from poorer backgrounds of life—and they only want the best for them. The thing about wanting the best and expressing. The mistake that is often made is that they end up placing so much pressure on the kid that …show more content…
Right of that bat we can see the optimistic hopes that the mother has for this country as well as what she wants, or wants for her daughter. She mentions how you can get a good job, buy a house, become rich and become famous. The mother has a very naive optimistic view of what people can achieve in America and while she is not wrong she is over simplifying her desires. But who can blame her since we learn in the very next paragraph that she has lost everything and everyone. “After losing everything in china: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband and two daughters, twin baby girls.” This is a woman who has put tremendous faith in the American dream. Her problem is that’s he is so infatuated with the idea that her daughter can, and will be famous and talented, she often leaves her daughter out of any decisions she makes for her. We can see how this begins to affect how the daughter begins to see herself. She (find out girls name) begins to imagine herself as perfect for her mother. Which is a stressful burden for a little girl. Hoping her parents would adore her. I think that the mother begins to be more frustrated with herself rather than her daughter. Reason being is that she begins to see how hard it is to become “famous” and how talent just doesn’t ooze out. When we see her giving formal test and she starts failing …show more content…
She is disobedient at every turn and every corner her mom tries to better her in any way. Now as a kid we can see where this all came from she was pressured to become her mother’s trophy which is an idea she played around with in her head that she once could be the perfect daughter, she is quickly turned off by the idea and justifies her disobedience by saying that her mother should accept her for who she is. Which is true, she is not wrong but her mother is not completely wrong in her actions nor is what she doing particularly bad. The mother is sacrificing a lot by exchanging her cleaning services for piano lessons. That is time she is dedicating in order to give her daughter and opportunity that the she, or many other kids, do not have. showing some type of She gets so stuck in the mind set the she can’t do it that it becomes her most defining trait; disappointment. She lets it hinder her throughout her life. At first it is an minor problem but then it quickly get old and becomes a lame excuses. Which is really unfortunate because it seems she is able to do what she puts her minds on sadly her mind is son the fact that she can’t do
Chinese parenting is competent at times but there are other times where it is more suitable to follow other forms of parenting such as the Western style.These findings have important consequences for the broader domain of parent-child relationships. Whether it is Chinese parenting or Western parenting the relationship between family members is crucial. According to Amy Chua, Chinese parenting is more effective in helping the child attain a better future through the parents’ interests, while Western parenting style reflects mainly the interests of the child.
Because Zhang and Chen are ekeing out a living, they are forced to sacrifice a healthy family life. Since they only are only allowed to be absent from work during the Chinese New Year, they are forced to place their children in the care of their grandmother. It is evident in the film that Yang and Qin being raised by a grandmother is not ideal. Due to the absence of their parents Qin and Yang lack a normal happy childhood. Constantly being pressured to do well in school, so they can support their parents, leaves them feeling used. Before the parents come home Yang and Qin are succeeding academically. However, the conflict arises when the parents arrive, and Qin being a teenager, rebels thinking she does not need to listen to her parents, due to their absence. Prior to their arrival, Zhang and Chen admit their struggle with parenting saying “When we are home we don’t even know what to say to our kids.” Due to their absence as parent figures they can not relate to their kids, yet still try to act as authority figures. The parents, especially the father Zhang, seem like they are exploiting their their kids by stressing the importance of their academic success. This is shown many times through the film, like when the Chen calls Qin, and the first words uttered out of her mouth are “did you get your report card,” and followed by “did you do well.” Qin
All through time, successive generations have rebelled against the values and traditions of their elders. In all countries, including China, new generations have sought to find a different path than that of their past leaders. Traditional values become outdated and are replaced with what the younger society deems as significant. Family concentrates on this very subject. In the novel, three brothers struggle against the outdated Confucian values of their elders. Alike in their dislike of the traditional Confucian system of their grandfather, yet very different in their interactions with him and others, begin to reach beyond the ancient values of Confucianism and strive for a breath of freedom. Their struggles against the old values lead to pain, suffering and eventually achievement for the three of them, however at a harsh price for two brothers.
The daughter alludes to an idea that her mother was also judged harshly and made to feel ashamed. By the daughters ability to see through her mothers flaws and recognize that she was as wounded as the child was, there is sense of freedom for both when the daughter find her true self. Line such as “your nightmare of weakness,” and I learned from you to define myself through your denials,” present the idea that the mother was never able to defeat those that held her captive or she denied her chance to break free. The daughter moments of personal epiphany is a victory with the mother because it breaks a chain of self-loathing or hatred. There is pride and love for the women they truly were and is to be celebrated for mother and daughter.
She honored her parents as she should, but longed for them to pass. In the beginning of the story she said "I had never expected my parents to take so long to die.” She had taken care of them all of her life she was in her fifty’s and her parents in their ninety’s. She was ready to live and break free of all the rules and duties put upon her, they were like chains binding her and holding her down. She was ready to explore to go on journeys and adventures she was already aging all she wanted was to be free. Her parents’ death let her run free, she left Hong Kong to start over and maybe find love, in any way possible, maybe even through food or luxuries. She wanted to be rebellious of her parents I’m sure she knew they wouldn’t approve but she didn’t care she wanted change. All her life she had followed so many rules, she had to fight to teach, to learn, to be with friends, her fight was finally over. She now had no one to rebel against, she now had the freedom to
"My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America" (491). This ideology inspired Jing-mei’s mother to work hard to create a better life for herself and her family in a new country. The search of the American dream exerts a powerful influence on new arrivals in the United States. However, realizing that they may not achieve the dream of material success and social acceptance, parents tend to transfer that burden to their children. It is a burden where dreams usually fall short of expectations.
There are big differences in how Chinese mothers act towards their children compared to Western mothers including the expression of feelings and approval, the worth of their children, and what is best for them. Amy Chua (2011) incorporates her own personal experiences of being a Chinese mother within her article and compares that to what she witnesses in America.
This was the illustration of this entire story. As the story goes it present a lot perspective and though of the mother and very little of the girl. More importantly, the story shows that the mother doesn’t really care about how the girl feels about her advice; it wasn’t a choice either she take her advice and become a good daughter and a good wife in the future or she will become known a “slut” who doesn’t follow her tradition. This story will make you wonder if the girl will ever become the perfect girl that her mother wants her to be or if she gets use to the American tradition and not be the perfect girl her mother ought her to
In her own mind the little girl only sees that she herself had been waiting on her mother “to start shouting, so I could shout back and cry and blame her for all my misery.” Even though the girl doesn’t want to see all the pain she inflicts on her mother as she gives up, that doesn’t stop her from seeing how her mother’s “face went blank, her mouth closed, her arms went slack, and she backed out of the room, as if she were blowing away like a small brown leaf, thin, brittle, lifeless,” when the child shatters all the dreams her mother had for her. The point of view is also crucial to understanding the tone of the story and how the girl moves from being restless to defiant and then finally to being at peace with her decisions. Her rebelliousness is the driving point of her mother’s dissatisfaction, but it is also caused by her mother pushing her to be a prodigy. As the girl becomes fed up with her mother’s attempt to make her great, she starts thinking about the possibilities that could be hers instead. One day when she is done with all of the testing and practicing, she looks into the mirror and “the girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. This girl and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts, or rather thoughts filled with lots of won’ts.” The
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
In the beginning, both the narrator and her mother had a delightful time spending time together, trying to figure out the narrator’s talent. Although the narrator soon began to dislike all the test and activities her mother would put her through. After failing each of the tests she was given she would see the disappointment on her mother’s face and “something inside me began to die” (Tan, 96). While the narrator refused her mother by saying that she was not a genius her mother replied by saying “who ask you to be genius? Only ask you be your best. For you sake” (Tan, 97). The narrator’s mother worked hard for her daughter giving her options to grow and succeed in life, but the narrator felt as if she was going to be created into something she was not. Despite the time that passed the narrator still believed that she wasn’t talented enough but the mother knew that her daughter had “natural talent. You could be genius if you want to. You just not trying” (Tan, 102). The narrator was her own biggest enemy and her mother was her biggest support, which made their views so different from one another. The narrator had a mother that loved and encouraged her to be the best that she could be. She was able to live a good life, but wasn’t able to appreciate the good life that she had because she was focused on what
America was not everything the mothers had expected for their daughters. The mothers always wanted to give their daughters the feather to tell of their hardships, but they never could. They wanted to wait until the day that they could speak perfect American English. However, they never learned to speak their language, which prevented them from communicating with their daughters. All the mothers in The Joy Luck Club had so much hope for their daughters in America, but instead their lives ended up mirroring their mother’s life in China. All the relationships had many hardships because of miscommunication from their different cultures. As they grew older the children realized that their ...
The novel “Family Life”, written by Akhil Sharma, is a sorrowful story that follows a family that had moved from Delhi. Akhil does an amazing job narrating the families’ ups and downs throughout the story. Even though the story has a heartbreaking background, he does a phenomenal job managing to keep the reader’s attention. There were points where the book was so hard to put down, because of the suspense of what is going to happen next. The story is told masterfully, from the dialog and actions of the characters, to the beautiful description of the scenery of the story. When your reading “Family Life”, it’s almost as you’re watching this heart-stopping story unfold right in front of your very eyes.
The television sitcom Modern Family produced by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd shows the many different types of a modern American family. According to Andrew Hampp, “The show is among the most-viewed scripted programs in prime time in its second season, averaging 11 million viewers during original airings and often ranked as the most DVRed program most weeks” (2). The television show is a frequently watched show and is liked by many viewers. Modern Family's storyline helps the families of viewers by being an influential and relatable show to different types of families. The show is about the lives of three different families that are all related. In the show there are Jay and Gloria, an intergenerational couple with two sons-- Manny (from Gloria’s previous relationship) and Joe, their new baby. Jay’s adult son Cameron is married to his gay partner Mitchell, and they adopted Lily from Vietnam. Finally, Jay’s daughter Claire is married to her heterosexual partner named Phil and they have three children. The show is influential to our culture today because it shows these different types of families and addresses controversial themes such as gay adoption, the different family connections and communications, intergenerational coupling, and acceptance of diversity within an extended family. The family is easy to relate to while watching because it is based off of real family situations.
In the story, the daughter exclaims, “you want to be someone that I am not,” showing that it was the break of how not all people can fulfill the expectations of what America is. America is seen as a holy grail for immigrants who have experienced trauma in their homeland and in this story it was her mother. She had the expectations that America is where anyone can be anything that they want to be, but her daughter hit her with reality like a truck. . For example, the piano represents the hard work and grit most Americans need to have to reach the expectation of what the American Dream. The daughter needed to show more “you need more practice,” towards the piano, meaning she needed to put more work into it and improve so she can be a success that her mother wanted her to be. Most people don’t have the grit to power through the hard things to reach success which is the American Dream, and people don’t just become anything when they move