Where the Gods Fly
When cultures collide, no one knows what will happen. The clash of cultures and civilizations is what has shaped all of history and by an extent of that, the world we live in today. But the clash of civilizations also happens on a much smaller scale. It happens every time someone for some reason or another decides to migrate from their home to another country. Because through this migration one does not only have to accept new physical surroundings but new rules, norms. This challenge is portrayed in Jean Kwok’s short story “Where the Gods Fly”.
The structure of the story is quite interesting as it not only begins in medias res but also begins with the ending of the short story, the starting quote, “I kneel here before …show more content…
The rest of the short story is merely a description of what led to this and how the mother reasons to herself that this decision is the wisest. After this beginning the reader is introduced to Pearl’s family’s situation. But the story is mainly about the mother remembering key points in her daughter’s upbringing and her slow but steady development towards becoming an American. This development is seen from the quote, “(…) when she slowly, awkwardly began to make friends and her classmates would ask her to play at their houses”, to the quote, “Suddenly popular she was invited to movies, get-togethers, holiday dinners (…)”. The transformation that is seen from the first quote to the second is exactly what the mother of Pearl is afraid of, her being Americanised. The mother also realizes that the fact that her daughter is losing her Chinese background could be her own fault, due to the fact that she was never present for her daughter in childhood, “I suppose I left Pearl too much alone in those early years. She had nothing to hold on to...so she never learned the value of such things.”. Furthermore the mother is afraid that Pearl felt …show more content…
It displays the great gaps between not only widely different cultures but also between old and young. The mothers very foreign ways, not only in the upbringing of her child but also her attitude towards work and life goals seems very odd in a western world picture. The short story ends with the mother saying that they should not be exceptional but merely have enough to be able to live. But one could argue that her own struggle, trying to fit in and trying to live, by working in the factory and taking care of her husband is exactly what drove her away from her daughter and tore the family
When cultures collide, no one knows what will happen. The clash of cultures and civilizations is what has shaped all of history and by an extent of that, the world we live in today. But the clash of civilizations also happens on a much smaller scale. It happens every time someone for some reason or another decides to migrate from their home to another country. Because through this migration one does not only have to accept new physical surroundings but new rules, norms. This challenge is portrayed in Jean Kwok’s short story “Where the Gods Fly”.
The structure of the story is quite interesting as it not only begins in medias res but also begins with the ending of the short story, the starting quote, “I kneel here before …show more content…
The rest of the short story is merely a description of what led to this and how the mother reasons to herself that this decision is the wisest. After this beginning the reader is introduced to Pearl’s family’s situation. But the story is mainly about the mother remembering key points in her daughter’s upbringing and her slow but steady development towards becoming an American. This development is seen from the quote, “(…) when she slowly, awkwardly began to make friends and her classmates would ask her to play at their houses”, to the quote, “Suddenly popular she was invited to movies, get-togethers, holiday dinners (…)”. The transformation that is seen from the first quote to the second is exactly what the mother of Pearl is afraid of, her being Americanised. The mother also realizes that the fact that her daughter is losing her Chinese background could be her own fault, due to the fact that she was never present for her daughter in childhood, “I suppose I left Pearl too much alone in those early years. She had nothing to hold on to...so she never learned the value of such things.”. Furthermore the mother is afraid that Pearl felt …show more content…
It displays the great gaps between not only widely different cultures but also between old and young. The mothers very foreign ways, not only in the upbringing of her child but also her attitude towards work and life goals seems very odd in a western world picture. The short story ends with the mother saying that they should not be exceptional but merely have enough to be able to live. But one could argue that her own struggle, trying to fit in and trying to live, by working in the factory and taking care of her husband is exactly what drove her away from her daughter and tore the family