Mother to Mother “That deep, deep, deep, ran the hatred then. In the nearly two centuries since, the hatred has but multiplied” (Magona, 176). Years of hatred and oppression can lead one to make drastic decisions and to not fully understand the effect and consequences of their actions. In times of oppression, the thought of becoming free or finally having your needs met could lead one to make a decision that, under normal conditions, would be uncharacteristic. I will argue that Mxolisi’s key role in the "raging storm of the Black Youth" and the years of oppression were the leading factors to the murder of Amy Biehl, and under normal circumstances, he would not have committed the crime. In order to fully understand how the “raging…
She 's twenty-six, (don 't look it) and is married to the same man for 5 years. They have three kids together and she told me she don 't buy her kids toys. She said she doesn 't buy them toys because they are just going to break it. So that money for toys just goes for clothes. She has a very unique personality. Pretty much she’ll speak what 's on her mind and don 't screw her over. She told me she pour sugar in someone 's car gas once. Michelle started a couple of weeks after I did and she was…
Assignment Option 1: Single Character Analysis “Two Kinds” is a chapter in the book “The Joy Luck Club”, written by Amy Tan in 1989. The story, which somewhat mirrors Amy Tan’s own childhood and upbringing, tells of the difficulties in mother-daughter relationships, specifically the conflict between a Chinese immigrant mother, Mrs. Woo, and her American-born daughter, Jing-mei. In the story, we quickly learn that Mrs. Woo believes that America is the “land of opportunity” and feels…
Mean Girls is a film, which premiered in 2004 with starred major actress: Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Lindsay Lohan. The film begins with a sixteen-year-old girl named Cady Heron who just moved to Evanston, Illinois from a twelve year research trip in Africa with her parents. Cady begins her first day of public school, since she was homeschooled, and she meets a group of three girls who are very popular and they are known as the Plastics: Regina the Queen Bee of…
In “Let It Snow”, David Sedaris retells a seemingly innocent story of being in fifth grade and having a week off from school because of snow days. On the fifth snow day, Sedaris’ mother has a breakdown and ends up kicking Sedaris and his siblings out of the house so she can have time to herself. Sedaris and his siblings take the opportunity to go sledding and after returning a few hours later, realize their mother is still refusing to let them inside. As day turns to night, panic sets in and the…
In the same first experience, she would see this as one of the greatest opportunities to have. She believed that you could be anything you wanted to be in America. Unlike Jing-Mei, her mother felt like this was the prodigy that Jing-Mei should live up to. She would have done anything to make sure Jing-Mei would become a piano genius. In the second experience, she expected her daughter to play astonishing, which was quite the opposite of what it really was. It was obvious that Jing-Mei’s mother…
Close Reading Assignment #1 The relationship between Laura and Lizzie is one that is strange and somewhat undefined. When reading the text one could safely assume that the two sisters have a form of a mother-daughter relationship in which Lizzie is representative of the mother figure and Laura; the daughter. Even though the ages of the girls is not stated, a reader could more than likely conclude that Lizzie would be older than Laura by a few years. However, embedded in the third stanza there is…
veryday life, conflicts arise that pose the decision of whether or not to tell the truth. In the New York Times article titled “How Honesty Could Make You Happier”, Judi Ketteler explores the effect being truthful has on her own morale and happiness/satisfaction. Ketteler’s 6-year-old daughter once claimed that telling truths made her feel “gold in her brain”. Inspired by this, Ketteler decided to test her daughter’s theory by keeping a truth journal. For several months, she recorded any…
Amy Tan wrote a short story, “Two Kinds”, about a Chinese immigrant mother and her 1st generation American born daughter. Centering around the mother and daughter’s relationship during her childhood in Chinatown, SanFrancisco and into her adulthood. This story is written in the daughters Jing-Mei ‘June’ perspective. Specifically the time when her mother signed her up piano lessons. It had all started because, Suyuan, her mother, wanted her to have a better life than she had in China, because…
Two Kinds is a short story written by Amy Tan. It is centered around a family (the Mother and Daughter in particular) that moves from China to the United States of America in hopes that their daughter will one day grow up to be a star. The Mother not knowing where Jing-mei’s (the daughter) talents lie decides to test her in various subjects like geography and arithmetic however, Jing-mei does not accel in any of these areas so her mother, after seeing a Chinese girl about the same age as…