Parents Demands in The Good Daughter by Caroline Hwang

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It was the year when I still believed the tooth fairy was real. The famous 3rd grade year was when I started questioning my identity. It was nearly noon when the sunlight beams hit my skin as I stand outside Ms. Nguyen classroom with about 29 other students. It was our first day of ELD class and I waited for her to gesture us in. She opens her door and greets each of us as we enter. Her greetings were brief since she just wanted to know our first and last name. It was my turn…
“Shalena Le,” I answered.
“Lee? I think you mean Lê” she replied with a disappointed look.
Similar to the essay featured on Newsweek, “The Good Daughter” written by Caroline Hwang, I also face parents with high expectations and moral dilemmas. Hwang points out that her parents had a lot of authority in her choices in identity, academics, and romance, which pressured her into the “largest debt.” For the most part, children of immigrants like Hwang and I live in constant pressure from our parents’ demands.
For instance, Hwang believes that there is a special pressure on children of immigrants to keep their identity. They have to learn English and adjust to the American life, while their parents do not want their culture to be lost. They want us to remember where we came from. “My parents didn’t want their daughter to be Korean, but they don’t want her fully American, either. Children of immigrants are living paradoxes” (Hwang 16). This is a pressure that I have to live with. I speak Vietnamese at home and eat Vietnamese food at home. As school is in session, I transform into an American and I participate in the American culture such as speaking English and eating American food. It is hard to adjust to either culture without having to disappoint my parent...

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..., she goes through that hardship of struggling between “pleasing [her] parents and being true to [herself].” Children of immigrants are expected to adapt to the American life yet they still need to keep their parents’ culture. Also, they are expected to become a professional in a career path that they are unhappy in. Furthermore, their parents’ are involved in their love life. Parents need to embrace their children’s decisions. But why is it that children of immigrants feel so pressure? They feel in debt because all of the sacrifices their parents made for them. However, that does not necessarily mean that parents should make all their decisions for their children. Guidance and support is necessary, but if the children do not have passion, they are less likely to live a happy lifestyle. Children are capable of deciding for themselves as they grow older and older.

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