Jo Goodwin Parker's 'Plight Of The Little Emperors'

In nonfiction writing, the power lies within the universal message. The universal message tells the main idea and teaches a lesson that the author believes the audience should understand and follow. Because nonfiction writing is based on the tangible world, the messages that the author attempts to convey are more applicable and relatable because the evidence the author provides have occurred, and are likely to happen again. Through the 4 nonfiction pieces mentioned, the message of the importance of cultural values is generalized where one similar concept can be applied to many different unrelated topics. In the nonfiction writings of “Plight of the Little Emperors;” “What is Poverty,” by Jo Goodwin Parker; “Too Many Bananas,” by David Counts; and “Grandmother's Sunday Dinner,” by Patricia Hampl, the literature explains the importance of cultural values. In “Plight of the Little Emperors,” the belief in constant studying plays a crucial role in the way that the Chinese …show more content…
“Many people come home to have dinner and then study until bed,” (Psychology 43) showing that the Chinese heavily value their grades. Because of this emphasis on exam scores or their cultural values, the students can attempt to get an edge when there are “only 1.6 million new college-level jobs,” (43) for “4 million university graduates,” (43). In Jo Goodwin Parker’s speech, when she dictated the difficulty of coming home after a job which is “[coming] home to find the baby covered with fly specks and a diaper that ... when [it] came off, bits of my baby’s flesh came with it.” (Parker 257). Her inability to ameliorate her life depicts that there are just some issues that one cannot solve from simply hard work; she tried to