Analysis Of Hunger By Lan Samantha Chang

Superior Essays
Parents always have a favorite child even if they don 't admit it. In Lan Samantha Chang 's short story "Hunger" Tian and Min have a favorite child. Tian is a musician who moved from China to start his career in New York. Min is from Taiwan but moved to New York to receive an education. They met up one day and eventually got married and had children. Their first daughter was Anna she was nothing special to either of her parents, but she behaved and cared about her parents culture. Ruth, the second daughter, was the opposite she would talk back to her parents and disobey. Ruth might be considered the "bad" daughter in the story "Hunger" because she took advantage of being the favorite daughter, she was attention seeking, she does not want to …show more content…
Home with her family for Ruth did not feel like home because he did not enjoy the Chinese culture. Ruth grew up in America and wanted to be American. She enjoyed doing American things, such as, spending time with friends after school instead of coming home, watching American television and dressing like an American. She needed her independence and wanted to be an independent American. Min says, "She often spoke of being independent- I need my independence! I 'm American, not Chinese!" (p76, Hunger) She did not like the Chinese culture and didn 't want to be apart of it because she didn 't know enough about it. However, Anna embraced her heritage and got a college degree in the Chinese culture. Min felt responsible for allowing her daughter to be so hung up on being American. Min says, "I let her stay late at school and eat dinner with her friends." (p76, Hunger) Ruth became the "bad" daughter because she never came home and acted out while her sister never went out and was always home for dinner and didn 't talk back to her parents. Another reason Ruth wanted to get out of her house was because her father always referred to her as a child. He wanted Ruth to stay a child forever so she didn 't leave him like he left his family. He knew that was soon as she left she would be gone for good. Tian would say to …show more content…
Ruth 's actions separated their family and made it difficult for them to get along throughout the story. Tian died without getting to see Ruth as a result of how he treated her growing up. Min died years after Tian from cancer and Anna took care of her. Anna finished her college degree and moved back home. Until she sold the home and moved away. Ruth ended up getting married and moving to Oakland Hills only coming back to see her family one time. She always caused arguments and her actions caused her family fall apart. Ruth might be considered the bad daughter because of the way she tore apart her family making it hard for them to get along because needed to be the favorite, the center of attention, disappoint her father, and move away never to

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Obedient daughter!” (Tan, 153). June’s mother’s intention was good for her daughter because she want her daughter to be talented, and smart, but the way she use to educate is too harsh that her daughter cannot expect. Chinese mother will force their children to do things because they know…

    • 1759 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On the contrary, Waverly’s feelings for her mother changes as her mother demonstrate a lack of knowledge of American culture. In the beginning, she would follow her mother 's rules and behave well, but becomes embarrassed as her mother grew proud of her. She feels as if her mother is showing her off like a trophy. In fact, Waverly’s feelings changed but Sophie’s feelings didn’t change. Sophie never liked her grandmother from the beginning, but even if she wants to change that she couldn’t because in the end they hardly have contact with each other.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Elizabeth Wong’s story, The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl, she reveals denial and shame towards her parent’s culture to illuminate the importance of having multiple cultures in a person’s life. Though reading this story one can discover her denial towards her Chinese culture was because she just wanted to integrate and be like the rest. The majority of children will be forced into ideas that are presented and taught by the parents. The parent is only passionate to keep the traditions that are passed down through generations. This is where high expectations are enforced by the family members which could lead to pressure.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When parents are divorced, most of the times, the child can choose whom he/she can live with. Jasira, the character of the book Towelhead, has divorced parents. At first, she lived with her mother in Syracuse, and then later, she is sent to live with her father in Houston, after her mother get jealous of her own daughter. Her life with her mother though is very different for Jasira than life with her father, but both of them have a different way to punish her, they didn’t help her when she got in her puberty, Daddy was really racist, but even with all these factors and Daddy being stupid with her the whole time, she’d rather live at Houston than Syracuse. When Jasira lives with her mother, the way she punishes her was not hitting her.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Divorce in most American homes happens due to lack of establishment of a common ground between the husband and wife. One of my very close friends had to file for a divorce because of the workload she was having and the fact that her husband was not trying to get a job at all. It became worse when he started filing for full custody of their children claiming that she was an unfit mother who was never there for her children. It was painful for me to watch the marriage break up because the real cause of the break up was the disagreement between the two cultures. Her mother-in-law did not like her at all.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The grandmother also thinks the cause of Sophie wild child antics is because of how she's being raised in American culture. In America, Sophie is care free, adventurous, and likes to have. The grandmother makes a comment that if Sophie was raised in China she would be behaving differently on then ow she is being raised in America. The grandmother throughout the whole story is criticising her daughter parenting skills on how to raise her Sophie and she is always comparing how in China the children are more behaved, more disciplined and respect their elders by doing what they say. She wants to enforce her Chinese parenting skills on Sophie, while her daughter Natalie wants to raise her daughter the way she sees fit in the american way.…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When mama found out Minerva was hanging out with Lio, even though he had communist views, she was furious. Dede remembered, “That night when Papa came home from doing his man’s business about the farm, Mama took him to her room and closed the door… they could hear Mama’s angry voice” (75). She was angry because he was not present in their family, he was too busy chasing a younger woman. As a good mother she would not let her daughters know that…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Even though Lydia barely knew Tara, Lydia disliked Tara from the moment she was born because she of her race and because of the relationship Lydia had with Tara’s mother. While Tara’s parents are on vacation over the summer, they send her to stay with her grandmother. From the first moment that Tara spends with her grandmother over the summer, it is apparent that she does not approve of her ethnicity. Tara goes at her grandmother’s house with her hair done in cornrows, and Lydia makes her take them out immediately. Lydia tells Tara, “You’re a perfectly decent-looking child, and for whatever reason your mother sends you here looking like a little hoodlum” (Evans 31).…

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Amy Chua Analysis

    • 1956 Words
    • 8 Pages

    On the other hand, her other daughter, Lulu, revolts and evokes her rethink about Chinese parenting. At the end, Lulu gets what she desires and her mother has to be supportive of her decisions even though they conflict with her…

    • 1956 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    For weeks, she ignored the changes in her body and tried to forget her brief relationship with Oscar Price, her moody classmate at Bluford High. But when Liselle's clothes stop fitting, and her brother notices her growing belly, she panics. A pregnancy test confirms her biggest fears. Unwilling to admit the truth, Liselle suddenly faces a world with no easy answers Liselle live with her mother and her brother Brian her brother has anger issues Liselle brother Brian got kicked out of school because his girlfriend cheated on him. And he started to make a riot now Brian got to go to another school which they're mother got to work another job in order to pay bills.…

    • 1252 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Decent Essays