Major Conflict in Everything was Good-Bye by Gurjinder Basran Life consists of many challenges and barriers: at certain point in life, every individual encounters such factors in one way or another, which affects them in both negative and positive ways. However, in many cases, the family or the close ones play a vital role to eliminate the problem and guide the individual through their journey, but what happens when the family itself behaves as a barrier? In Gurjinder Basran’s Everything was Good-Bye, a heartbreaking novel about family, loss and love, and the struggle of living in two different cultural worlds, Meena, a central character’s family is one of the prime obstacle that make her life miserable. On her journey to self-actualization, …show more content…
Her mother finds writing as a waste of time and wants her daughter to do something more productive such as becoming a lawyer or a doctor. She does not want to send Meena to Toronto, because as a typical Indian mother she has no trust in Meena, thus her mother rather keep Meena in front of her eyes even if that meant for Meena to disregard her dreams. Not only that, but Toronto is also too far away from her home and requires her to go to the different city meanwhile, Meena does not have a freedom and permission to stay out late, “You are here? Why come home now? Just stay out. . . no more going out. No staying at school late, no friends. No more. . . you understand? You’ll go to school and come home. . . understand?” (74). When Meena is with Liam, she loses the track of time therefore coming home late but her this mistake demolish her limited freedom. From her mother’s perspective, Meena is a girl, therefore she should stay at home, helping with chores, but Meena’s “rebelliousness” constrain her mother to restricts her from going out or even making friends. Meena ought to go to schools simply to receive an education and talk to her sisters instead of her friends, caging Meena within her house even when she is an adult, who can take care of herself. As a young adult, age twenty-four, Meena has very few close friends and co workers but because of her mother, she still hesitates to spend time with them; “after that I made excuses for why I couldn’t go out after work, telling them that I had a headache or other plans - anything was better than telling them the truth, that at twenty-four I still lived at home, arguing with my mother about arranged marriage” (89). Her mother’s rules are so deeply engraved within Meena that even as a young, independent women
She learned to read and write at school, but that doesn't mean that other obstacles weren't thrown her way. “I am the only daughter in a Mexican family of six sons”. Being the only daughter meant that she would be spending a lot of time to herself, she needed something to keep her occupied. Who knew that writing would be the answer. When she was in fifth grade and decided to share her plans for college with her father, he had said “Que bueno, mija”. The problem is that her father had envisioned another path for her. “What I didn't realize was that my father thought college was good for girls- for finding a husband”. Just imagine how hard it was for her to go against her father's wishes and continue to follow her true calling.
In “Confetti Girl”, the narrator disagrees with her father and questions how much he cares about her and in “Tortilla Girl”, the narrator questions if her mother was taking her into account of her new plans. Tension is shown to be caused in the stories “Confetti Girl” and “Tortilla Sun” due to the parent and narrator not having the same point of view. In this story, a young girl named Izzy lives alone with her mother. One day, the mother surprises her by explaining that she is going to Costa Rica to do some research, and that Izzy is going to her grandmother’s house while she is away.
From there on she continues to talk about her adolescence where she quickly learned about the threat of physical abuse and molestation towards young girls. She did not continue with school pat the age of 9 and in her small job of working in the local market she was confronted with true and absolute poverty on a daily basis. She got pregnant at age 15. At 16 she had her first fist fight with her abusive physically brother. And at 17 met the father of her other future children. While with this man, Rafael Canales, she learned first hand the hardships of poor domestic life. She also learned to assert herself even towards her own husband.
Familial influence can have a great impact on a protagonists’ life decisions and future, whether it be a lack of paternal guidance or cultural expectations. This can be seen in the life of Yunior, the protagonist in Junot Diaz’s Drown. Yunior immigrated to the USA from the Dominican Republic when he was little shortly after, his dad left the family and went to live with another woman. This lead to Yunior’s mom becoming a single mother and the breadwinner of the house. The focus of this essay will be on the chapter in the book called “Drown”. In the chapter Yunior remembers his adolescence with his friend Beto and their life in their Dominican dominated neighborhood. The chapter showcases the financial struggles of Yunior and his family along
All through the times of the intense expectation, overwhelming sadness, and inspiring hope in this novel comes a feeling of relief in knowing that this family will make it through the wearisome times with triumph in their faces. The relationships that the mother shares with her children and parents are what save her from despair and ruin, and these relationships are the key to any and all families emerging from the depths of darkness into the fresh air of hope and happiness.
... family traditions because they are innocent and fragile compared to men, therefore dramatizing the effects of the ‘inhuman’ traditions. A maternal bond is a very crucial component of one’s life; therefore by disrupting the usual aspect of one’s life, the authors are sending their message in a strong manner. Furthermore, the ending of both novels imply a necessity for social improvement in their societies as the protagonists have to detach themselves from their repressive mothers, who represent the authorities of the old generation with their overbearing attitudes, in order to pursue their own dreams, whether it is for education, career, or love. After the protagonists break away from their mothers, Tita chases her love for Pedro and Hang leaves the country, abandoning all the traditional traditions, to continue with her college education and occupation in Russia.
Technology weeds out the week families and leaves destruction in the eyes of the children who were exposed to family destruction. When a kid gets stuck in a bad family he acquires a different kind of family- not of blood relation but of respect and love relation, but the wounds are supposed to heal from previous experiences of a bad family, but if a ...
As if to forsake her femininity and forego a life of confinement and housework, the girl reveres her father's work and condemns her mother's duties. The sum of the girl's respect seems to lie with her father, as is evident in her reference to his work outdoors as "ritualistically important" (468). On the other hand, while the girl recognizes that her mother is busy, she still considers her mother's "work in the house [to be] [·] endless, dreary and peculiarly depressing" (468). The division between her parents' tasks is especially apparent in the girl's reaction to her mother's presence at the barn. She feels threatened by her...
The average person wants one thing more than anything else, and that thing is to belong. Usha, a young girl from Calcutta, is no different. Already trying the find her place in the world, Usha must now assimilate into cultural society within the United States. Usha’s uncle, Pranab Kaku, came from Calcutta as well having first come to America, his experiences start off worse than Usha’s, which causes him to join the family in an act of social grouping. With the Old World trying to pull them back and the New World just out of reach, both must overcome tradition and develop their own personal values.
A cultural conflict in addition to a generational gap can extremely hinder a familial relationship such as that between Suzette and her mother. Understanding where their differences in viewpoints, experiences and morals spur from help the reader to understand why the author feels the need to follow her mother around the city for an extended period of time. Suzette doesn’t understand where her mother’s “crazy” views and actions come from. She also probably feels ashamed of her mother – ashamed of her culture, her appearance (pg. 2), her lack of assimilation to American society (pg. 1), and her lack of understanding towards her own daughter (pg. 3). This is why seeing her mother carry herself with such dignity and purpose surprises her. For probably the first time, she sees her mother in a completely new light and realizes that there is much more to her mother than she always thought. Viewing her in this new situation opens Suzette’s eyes to the way her mother actually lives life, not the way that Suzette has always assumed. By the end of the narrative, she understands that she shouldn’t be ashamed of her mother because her culture makes her who she is – someone who is very kind and
The emotions and change in behaviors that Tan embraces are the growing pains of a child lost in her own adolescence. We see Tan’s relationship with her mother fall during her pubescent years, when most of our relationships with our parents fall. The relationship that Tan tries to make with the reader is almost a recommendation on how the readers should take their own parents advice into consultation while growing up. Despite the harsh form of motivation that her mother practiced, she only wanted the best for her daughter.
Family is forever. As it’s said blood is thicker than water but it is not always the best, because sometimes the people closest to us can do the most damage. Family members bring pressures and sometime standards to live by, and this can often can be selfish to try to live by another’s standards whether they want you to be like themselves or be like someone they know; they will always expect and compare you to the best “Everyday use” by Alice walker is a story about family from the south, the narrator is a mother of two daughters who are driven by opposing forces; one shrouded in beauty and praise while the other lives neglect. While Amy Tan’s “Two kinds” is a tale about a girl named Jing Mei who’s on a journey of exploration in an attempt to find her identity, exploring her memories and her past to find a solution to her inner conflict; which will help her character and persona become stronger.
“Running in the family,” is a fictionalized memoir, written by Michael Ondaaji. Michael Ondaatje is a writer from a Ceylonese origin. Due to his parents’ divorce, He was forced to leave his native country with his mother at a young age. After living in Canada for twenty five years, he decides to visit Ceylon; and learn about his family and ancestors. The memoir represents glimpses of the author’s family history. It presents a story about the author’s great grandfather, who is an immigrant physician. It describes his grandfather, a rich lawyer, and his extravagant Grandmother Lalla. Furthermore, it contains multiple stories from the author’s childhood. It predominantly focuses on the author’s parental conflict. It indicates his father’s dipsomania and solitude; as well as, his mother’s suffering.
“To live anyhow is better than not at all” (Chekhov 1) , the short story, The Bet commenced with the conflict when the person had no choice but to choose between the death penalty or life in prison. The Bet was originally written by Anton Chekhov, a profound Russian short-story writer who concentrated a lot on human values and the reflection of the extravagantly selfish Russian nobility. And through The Bet he was able to express all those ideas in two sides, the banker and the lawyer with the conflict along the story line.
Indian-Canadian writer Anita Rau Badami has penned a few widely praised books managing the complexities of Indian family life and the cultural gap that rises when Indians move toward the west. A nostalgic mother-daughter story told by two women from the Moorthy family, Badami's Tamarind Mem is a novel about the energy of memory and narrating. The Washington post surveys the novel as being “splendidly evocative.... as much a book about the universal habit of storytelling as it is about the misunderstandings that arise between a mother and daughter.” Lisa Singh calls her reading experience of Tamarind Mem as being “bittersweet…. with often stunning, poetic prose, [Badami] gives us an intimate character study of two women” (Star Tribune).