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Cultural influences on identity
Cultural influences on identity
Feminist theory in indian literature
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Maxine Hong Kingston and Jhumpa Lahiri’s literary works are mostly concerned with East and Mid-East Asians discourse in America. The lives of oriental Indians and Asians migrating to America were caught between their culture traditions that they have left behind and the newly founded American norms, thus they had to face an ongoing struggle with coming to a balance. It is this situation that some of the characters’ grapple with their identity, mainly the women. Indian and Asian woman immigrants faced the most complications when they came to the new word because back in their homelands they were condition a center way to act and uphold themselves throughout their daily lives woman, whereas men are able to find a balance because they had no restrictions …show more content…
Sen from “Interpreter of Maladies” assimilation leads to a traumatic failure unlike there counterparts. In “Woman Warrior” Moon Orchid enters America and faces a heartbreaking experience in regards to her inability to adapt to American culture. Moon Orchid arrives to America still in agreement with her Chinese customs because when she brings gifts to the children they are “shoes from Lovely Orchid” (119) and “paper dolls” (121). Moon Orchid gift-giving shows how out of touch she is with American culture because American born children do not like old traditional gifts they expect gifts that are fun not thoughtful and that’s why the the children grimace. Moon Orchid is deeply ingrained in her Chinese customs that she does not mind that her husband has married another woman because in Chinese culture the husband may have many wives, thus she thinks it’s perfectly fine for her return to her husband and does not consider the other woman as a barrier in their relationship. Moon Orchid fails to come to terms with the fact that in America culture a man can marry only one woman. The only way he could marry Moon Orchid is if he would divorce his current wife. The final event that makes Moon Orchid assimilation a failure is when she arrives to see her husband and he states “It’s a mistake for you to be here. You can’t belong. You don’t have the hardness for this country” (153) and when he brings up the distinctions between Chinese and American: “ I’ll mail you money I’ve always sent you. I could get arrested if the Americans knew about you” (153). In this moment the husband maliciously revels to Moon Orchid the reality of herself, and difference to American culture. Moon Orchid is to stuck into her past cultures that trying to introduce her to a new one would be a loss because her actions show that she is not able to change. This culture shock to America has left a mark
Throughout Asian American literature there is a struggle between Asian women and their Asian American daughters. This is the case in The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan and also in the short story "Waiting for Mr. Kim," written by Carol Roh-Spaulding. These two stories are very different, however they are similar in that they portray Asian women trying to get their American daughters to respect their Asian heritage. There are certain behaviors that Asian women are expected to have, and the mothers feel that their daughters should use these behaviors.
Many women find that their mothers have the greatest influence on their lives and the way their strengths and weaknesses come together. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the lives of four Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters are followed through vignettes about their upbringings and interactions. One of the mothers, An-Mei Hsu, grows up away from her mother who has become the 4th wife of a rich man; An-Mei is forced to live with her grandmother once her mother is banned from the house, but eventually reunites and goes to live in the man’s house with her mother. Her daughter, Rose, has married an American man, Ted, but their marriage begins to end as he files for divorce; Rose becomes depressed and unsure what to do, despite her mother’s advice. An-Mei has strengths and weaknesses that shape her own courageous actions, and ultimately have an influence on her daughter.
Although Mrs. Spring Fragrance has only lived in America for a short amount of time, her husband states “There are no more American words for her learning” (865). It is obvious through reading this statement that Mrs. Spring Fragrance has become quickly acquainted with not only the English language, but also with American customs and traditions. However, not every character in Mrs. Spring Fragrance adjusts to American culture as easily as Mrs. Spring Fragrance; some characters have a difficult time leaving their Chinese traditions of marriage and accepting that in America, love comes before marriage. Throughout Mrs. Spring Fragrance, Sui Sin Far describes the process that the Chinese characters experience as they slowly begin to alienate traditional Chinese culture and becoming Americanized through accepting American culture as their own.
In ‘American Translation’, The mother believes that having a mirror at the foot of the bed is bad luck for her daughter’s marriage. The daughter becomes irritated by her mother's constant findings of bad omens. The daughter and mother conflict with the ways American and Chinese women view things around themselves. In section II, the daughters ignore their mother mythical stories that represent true teachings. In section III, they realize the importance of their tales.
An Asian-American writer growing up in a tight and traditional Chinese community in California, Kingston is placed by her background and time period to be at the unique nexus of an aged, stale social institution and a youthful, boisterous one. She has had to face life as an alien to the culture of the land she grew up in, as well as a last witness of some scattered and unspeakably tragic old ideals. She saw the sufferings and has suffered herself; but instead of living life demurely in the dark corner of the family room like she was expected to, Kingston became the first woman warrior to voice the plight of the mute females in both Chinese and American societies. The seemingly immeasurable and indeed unconquerable gap between the two fundamentally divided cultures comes together in herself and her largely autobiographical work The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts.
Throughout Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, the reader can see the difficulites in the mother-daughter relationships. The mothers came to America from China hoping to give their daughters better lives than what they had. In China, women were “to be obedient, to honor one’s parents, one’s husband, and to try to please him and his family,” (Chinese-American Women in American Culture). They were not expected to have their own will and to make their own way through life. These mothers did not want this for their children so they thought that in America “nobody [would] say her worth [was] measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch…nobody [would] look down on her…” (3). To represent everything that was hoped for in their daughters, the mothers wanted them to have a “swan- a creature that became more than what was hoped for,” (3). This swan was all of the mothers’ good intentions. However, when they got to America, the swan was taken away and all she had left was one feather.
Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of America, but instead as an alien, outsider, and the like. Therefore, Asian Americans and other immigrants feel the need to mask their true identity and imitate the native language as an attempt to fit into the mold that makes up what people would define how a native of America is like. Throughout the novel, Henry Park attempts to mask his Korean accent in hopes to blend in as an American native. Chang-Rae Lee suggests that a person who appears to have an accent is automatically marked as someone who is not native to America. Language directly reveals where a person is native of and people can immediately identify one as an alien, immigrant, or simply, one who is not American. Asian Americans as well as other immigrants feel the need to try and hide their cultural identity in order to be deemed as a native of America in the eyes of others. Since one’s language gives away the place where one is native to, immigrants feel the need to attempt to mask their accents in hopes that they sound fluent ...
“Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strengths to establish realities”(5). In the book “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Kingston is most interested in finding out about Chinese culture and history and relating them to her emerging American sense of self. One of the main ways she does so is listening to her mother’s talk-stories about the family’s Chinese past and applying them to her life.
One type of effect the Chinese mothers’ expectations has in their relationship with their “Americanized” daughter is negative since the mothers are unable to achieve anything. An-Mei Hsu expects her daughter to listen and obey as the young ones do in Chinese culture, but instead receives a rebellious and stubborn daughter, “‘You only have to listen to me.’ And I cried, ‘But Old Mr. Chou listens to you too.’ More than thirty years later, my mother was still trying to make me listen’” (186-187). Instead of the circumstances improving, the mother is never able to achieve anything; her forcing and pushing her daughter to the Chinese culture goes to a waste. They are both similar in this sense because both are stubborn; the daughter learns to be stubborn through American culture and wants to keep herself the way she is, whereas the mother wants to remove this teaching from American culture and does not give u...
Oftentimes the children of immigrants to the United States lose the sense of cultural background in which their parents had tried so desperately to instill within them. According to Walter Shear, “It is an unseen terror that runs through both the distinct social spectrum experienced by the mothers in China and the lack of such social definition in the daughters’ lives.” This “unseen terror” is portrayed in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club as four Chinese women and their American-born daughters struggle to understand one another’s culture and values. The second-generation women in The Joy Luck Club prove to lose their sense of Chinese values, becoming Americanized.
The second and third sections are about the daughters' lives, and the vignettes in each section trace their personality growth and development. Through the eyes of the daughters, we can also see the continuation of the mothers' stories, how they learned to cope in America. In these sections, Amy Tan explores the difficulties in growing up as a Chinese-American and the problems assimilating into modern society. The Chinese-American daughters try their best to become "Americanized," at the same time casting off their heritage while their mothers watch on, dismayed. Social pressures to become like everyone else, and not to be different are what motivate the daughters to resent their nationality. This was a greater problem for Chinese-American daughters that grew up in the 50's, when it was not well accepted to be of an "ethnic" background.
In Noël Alumit’s novel, Talking to the Moon, he engages his readers in the life of the Lalaban family. Through the journey of the Lalaban family, Alumit lets us understand the different issues that Filipino-Americans encounter in the United States. Alumit cleverly utilizes the journeys of both Jory and Belen to provoke thoughts about family as well as different social issues; he utilizes these characters to progress the narrative arc of the novel. As the head of the Lalaban household, Jory and Belen take their journeys at times together and at times separately. Though physical journey is evident, Alumit permits these characters to travel space, time, and worlds. Through the usage of the concept of family, the journey of Jory and Belen unfold where they realizes their own realities. During this journey, the notion of the “American Dream” is contested. Alumit uses Jory and Belen’s experiences to provoke our thoughts about family, reality, and the “American Dream”. Through the exploration of these journey we understand the Filipino immigrant experience in American. These journeys also show us how different categories and identities affect our understanding of family.
June-May fulfills her mother’s name and life goal, her long-cherished wish. She finally meets her twin sisters and in an essence fulfills and reunites her mother with her daughter through her. For when they are all together they are one; they are their mother. It is here that June-May fulfills the family portion of her Chinese culture of family. In addition, she fully embraces herself as Chinese. She realizes that family is made out of love and that family is the key to being Chinese. “And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.” (Tan 159). Finally, her mother’s life burden is lifted and June-May’s doubts of being Chinese are set aside or as she says “After all these years, it can finally be let go,” (Tan 159).
It is an analogy for Brave’s sister, Moon Orchid. Moon’s husband, who is now a successful doctor in L.A., had left her behind in China and remarried in America. Brave urges her to confront him for all the pain he has caused her. As a result, Moon, who does not speak a word of English, is left alone in America. She then goes crazy and dies in a California state mental asylum. The final chapter, “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, is about Kingston herself. It focuses on her childhood and teenage years, depicting her frustration in trying to please her mother. In a moment, Kingston erupts at her mother with a torrent of complaints. However, later in life, Kingston comes to appreciate her mother’s stories. It is a fitting conclusion to a text in which Kingston combines very different cultures and creates a harmony of her
When considering that her aunt might have been raped, she highlights how women in old China had no other option than obeying the men. Furthermore, she emphasizes how women were perceived as a burden during poor economic times, since they, unlike the men, could not be sent to the United States to earn money for the rest of the family. She also describes the double standards that existed when it came to following traditions: her aunt was severely punished for breaking the traditions, whereas male family members who went to the USA have embraced the western lifestyle without any consequences. She says that the only mistake her aunt made was that she has expected to have a right to privacy in a society which did not grant such rights to its members, and that her aunt was unlucky to live during bad