The short story, “An offering of rice”, by Mavis Hara, is about Tatsue's transformation from having a selfish, short-sighted way of thinking, to a more selfless, mature mindset. The reader is introduced to Tatsue’s selfishness when she describes her plans of spending the extra money she will earn when she is legally able to work at the cannery. Rather than thinking about buying food or trying to treat Okasan’s asthma, she dreams about “buying cotton so sheer it would wear out in a year...wearing dresses that would never have to be handed down”(2). Tatsue’s plans are not those of what one might think when their family is making just enough money to feed everyone, but someone who is nonchalant about their situation in life and can only think …show more content…
about how they will benefit themselves, rather than the people who care and love them. However, after a summer of doing laundry with Otosan, Tatsue matures and realizes that being a family means to be able to make sacrifices for one another.
In Japanese culture, especially in the past, “a Japanese man never washed his clothes”(4). Thus, by helping Tatsue with the laundry, Otosan not only demonstrates to Tatsue his sacrifices of time and energy, but also his beliefs. The reader sees how Tatsue matures at the end of the story, where after realizing that Otosan had used her money to buy food, she starts to become angry at Otosan. But instead of becoming livid, she remembers Otosan doing laundry and making sacrifices for her and realizes that by having her money used to buy food for the family, she actually receives a satisfaction she describes, “like a circle, a round ball, an offering of rice”(4). The author uses this simile to emphasize Tatsue’s feelings by describing them as heavenly, as Japanese culture says that everything in heaven was a circle. Another way the author utilizes this simile, is to show the reader Tatsue’s thankfulness for her family, as offerings of rice are typically used to thank the heavens. Tatsue starts off as short-sighted and selfish, thinking only about buying indulgences such as dresses, rather than necessities such as food or medicine for her
family. But through Otosan’s example and actions, she realizes two important things. Being a family member means to be able to make sacrifices for each other, and happiness comes from giving, not having.
Using the detail,“Dinner threw me deeper into despair,” conveys the painful feelings caused by her family at dinner (Paragraph 5). This detail indicates that Tan was continuingly losing hope that the night would get better. Tan reveals these agonizing feelings to make the reader feel compunctious. In making the reader feel sorry for her, Tan knows she can continue to misreport details in the passage without being questioned. The detail,“What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners,” emblematizes the dishonor Tan feels towards her relatives and cultural background (Paragraph 2). This detail implies that due to Tan’s attraction to Robert, she will detract her feelings of others to better her relationship with Robert. Tan used this detail to reveal that if Tan cannot better her relationship with Robert, she will become despondent. As a result of distorting details, the passage illustrates Tan’s dishonorable feelings towards her cultural
Originally the narrator admired her father greatly, mirroring his every move: “I walked proudly, stretching my legs to match his steps. I was overjoyed when my feet kept time with his, right, then left, then right, and we walked like a single unit”(329). The narrator’s love for her father and admiration for him was described mainly through their experiences together in the kitchen. Food was a way that the father was able to maintain Malaysian culture that he loved so dearly, while also passing some of those traits on to his daughter. It is a major theme of the story. The afternoon cooking show, “Wok with Yan” (329) provided a showed the close relationship father and daughter had because of food. Her father doing tricks with orange peels was yet another example of the power that food had in keeping them so close, in a foreign country. Rice was the feature food that was given the most attention by the narrator. The narrator’s father washed and rinsed the rice thoroughly, dealing with any imperfection to create a pure authentic dish. He used time in the kitchen as a way to teach his daughter about the culture. Although the narrator paid close attention to her father’s tendencies, she was never able to prepare the rice with the patience and care that her father
Many people at one time or another will face some-sort of economic hardship; however it is safe to say that many people do not really know what extreme poverty is like. The Treviño family knows first hand what it is like to work in tedious, mind-numbing jobs for a very little paycheck. The life of a migrant worker is not anything to be desired. Simple things that most would take for granted like food variety, baths, clean clothes, and beds are things that Elva learned to live with. “We couldn’t have a bath every day, since it was such a big production. But [mom] made us wash our feet every night” (125). A simple task to any normal person is a large production for a migrant family that doesn’t have any indoor plumbing. People living in poverty do not often have a large wardrobe to speak of which means that the few clothes they own often remain dirty because washing clothes is a production too. “Ama scrubbed clothes on the washboard while the rest of us bathed. She took a bath last while the rest of us rinsed and hung up the clothes she had washed. This was the only oppor...
...taphors, and the simplistic approach are all ways she used to express the feelings of a young fifteen year old girl, wondering when they will grow into their bodies and out of the awkward stage they are stuck in. She beautifully illustrates the longing for that perfect dress which will solve all of their problems for even just one night. But even after it is said and done with, and we have grown into our skin, we will more than likely not be perfect by Cosmopolitan standards, but perfect just the way we are supposed to be.
This societal need for opulence is brought to the reader's attention through the juxtaposition of the mother's selfless actions and few possessions. When examined from a Marxist lens, the struggle between the classes, based on wealth, authority and race, is prevalent throughout the essay. The society of the American South in the twentieth century was full of racism and poverty. Walker recalls the
I also find it interesting how Rivoli described the conditions of a garment worker. She described a child in Vietnam chained to a sewing machine without access to food or water, and spoke about a young girl from India who earned 18 cents per hour and is allowed to visit the bathroom only twice per day. This young girl lived in a room with 12 other girls; she shares a bed and only has gruel to eat. She is forced to work 90 hours each week, without overtime pay, and lives not only in poverty, but also in filth and sickness.
George was a very smart and able man who had taken responsibility of a mentally-challenged man named Lennie. George could have found a good steady job for which he could have stayed at and made good money, but when he went to work with Lennie, Lennie made a mistake that got both of them in trouble. George was a very good person for taking care of Lennie. Lennie was very dumb, but he always remembered the dream he and George shared. The main dream that George possessed was to be happy, and he realized that even though taking care of Lennie was hard work at times, he was happiest with Lennie. George would repeat their dream to Lennie. The nicest thing George ever did for Lennie was giving him hope, and that’s what mentioning the dream farm did. Lennie always wanted to “live of the fatta land” (81), and “have rabbits, and puppies, go on George.” George saved a man’s life, and in return he got nothing. George’s d...
The Tuohys, especially Leigh Anne, begin to notice how different economic differences between them. For example, during Thanksgiving dinner, Michael takes rolls and puts them in his pants pockets to save for later, indicating that he doesn’t know where his next meal is going to come from. Leigh Anne is obviously disheartened when she learns that he has never enjoyed the simple things in life, such as owning his own bed, having a mother that read children’s books to him, or growing up with his
The fisherman states, “I am not rich or poor, but I am happy” (29). The fisherman believes that Allah determines if someone is rich or poor. This man brings in only enough money just to keep himself from not being hungry and his boat running, and is okay with every aspect of his life. Even though the poor might are tight on funds, they have their own meaning of what it is to be rich. Vollmann encounters a prostitute named Angelica in Mexicali and asks why some people poor are and why some people are rich, she states “that there is no such thing as being rich or poor, are just humans” (Vollmann 43). She also points out that to see yourself as rich you must have a precise goal. Angelica does not believe that she is poor because she is able to work and make money. She also brings up that individuals should spend their money on beneficial things and not on things they truly do not need or require. Vollmann’s encounters an elderly Japanese man at a camp who responds that his description of poverty was not because religion or predestined life, but instead the absence of his capability to work because of old age. Concurring to Vollmann, concludes for the reason that he is a bystander, he relates to their everyday life to his personal, as well as the city he lives
Since the story uses a certain object, the Jacket, as the meaning of several issues, it primarily focuses on the narrator's poverty-stricken family. First of all, an example of the poverty is demonstrated when the narrator complains that the jacket "was so ugly and big that I knew I'd have to wear it a long time"(paragraph 3). It is clear that his lack of money was a problem in which he would have to keep the jacket because he could not afford a new one. The narrator then feels embarrassed and upset by the jacket by stating "I blame my mother for her bad taste and cheap ways"(paragraph 10). By mentioning his mother's "cheap" ways he is conveying that he is aggravated because of his mothers option to choose bad and ugly clothes in ord...
People in these Montana prairies had an isolated life where “Every generation relearns the rules its fathers have forgotten”, cursed nature when it threatens their livelihood, yet realized that “This land owes you nothing” [p. 60]. This was a time and region where the difference between what was expected of men and women was paramount. Children grew up working hard, knowing their place in their society and grew up quickly as a result. Being somewhat of a tomboy, Blunt could handle farm equipment and chores as well as her brother, yet was still expected to learn how to cook, clean and care for the men. As with previous generations, it was expected that she follow a planned path to becoming a rancher’s wife. But Judy Blunt always felt there was something more to this hard, bleak life and began a long journey towards breaking clean from the constraints of her upbringing.
In her short story "Two Kinds," Amy Tan utilizes the daughter's point of view to share a mother's attempts to control her daughter's hopes and dreams, providing a further understanding of how their relationship sours. The daughter has grown into a young woman and is telling the story of her coming of age in a family that had emigrated from China. In particular, she tells that her mother's attempted parental guidance was dominated by foolish hopes and dreams. This double perspective allows both the naivety of a young girl trying to identify herself and the hindsight and judgment of a mature woman.
In “The Flowers,” Myop is portrayed as an archetypal innocent blind to the harsh world around her. In the beginning stages of the story, the author explains, “The harvesting of the corn and cotton, peanuts and squash, made each day a golden surprise that caused excited little tremors to run up her jaws” (Walker 5). Although the new harvests excite Myop, exhibiting her child-like innocence, the cruel reality is that she is part of a sharecropper family, suggested when Myop is, “Turning her back on the rusty boards of her family’s sharecropper cabin” (Walker 5). Most sharecroppers could not make enough money to buy food or clothes. As a result, sharecroppers took to taking loans from landlords, causing an eternal debt. The author’s purpose behind this is to exhibit Myop’s blindness to her family’s harsh state of life.
From dreams deferred to identity affirmed Lorraine Hansberry’s, “A Raisin in the Sun,” presents readers with many differing themes. The most prevalent and reoccurring theme is the effect money plays on society’s views of manhood and happiness. Readers are shown multiple characters with a diverse view on manhood. From Walter Lee with his matching societal views that a man should be able to provide whatever his family needs or wants to Lena whose views are a biased compilation of her late husband’s behavior and her own ideals, that a man should maintain his honor and protect his children’s dreams.
The life of a tenant farmer is not an easy way to live. They some how are able to get by on what little they have. Things start to go bad when foreigners come and start to modernize their little village. They struggle at first but managed to adapt to the new. The author of Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya was influenced by her early life as a journalist, her homeland and the culture around her.