Amy Eilberg

Composers often transform texts to adapt them in a way considered to be more suitable for a desired audience and to convey new meaning. Jane Austen’s 1815 novel, Emma, has been transformed in Amy Heckerling’s 1995 film, Clueless for a modern Western teenage audience. Emma and Clueless both stand as reflections of their time; that of Regency England and postmodern America respectively. While the general plot line remains, Heckerling has adapted the refined country setting of Highbury, England to…

The Unseen Shame of Public vs. Private Conversations If you were to ask most people what the word “language” represented, you would likely be given a general and vague explanation such as, a system of letters and symbols with corresponding rules that when arranged to form words, and properly and uniformly pronounced allow individuals to communicate within their circles. The ability to communicate clearly is part of what holds a society together, it allows us to live and work together, and…

Loung and Chou are both girls living in Cambodia. what will happen when they are separated and only one can go to America? Loung went to America and Chou stayed in Cambodia although they are both visited by their dead parents frequently, through dreams and memories. Ma and Pa help Loung and Chou by being a source of comfort, helping them persevere, and sacrificing themselves for Loung and Chou's survival. Ma and Pa are a source of comfort to Chou and Loung. Ma and Pa comfort Chou by reassuring…

Like Water for Chocolate RWL #1 Throughout this quarter, I’ve deepened my understanding upon the common theme of “conflict”. Over time, as I was being given language arts content, such as the reading “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the short story “By Any Other Name” by Santha Rama Rau, and the film “The Debut” that our class all watched, my knowledge grew upon the matter and I grew comfortable identifying key types of conflict. Literally, conflict remains present within everyone; whether it’s as small…

The Unexpected Hero In Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, four immigrant Chinese women living in San Francisco start new families and are drawn to one another from the hardships of their past and the optimism of tomorrow. They form the Joy Luck Club. Author and professor of literature Joseph Campbell defines a hero as one “who [gives] his or her life” to a greater cause. The hero often discovers or accomplishes “something beyond the normal range of achievement and experience” (Campbell 1).…

There are many heroic characters in books and movies, but there is a particular hero that I would love to be, even for just a day, and her name is Fa Mulan. During her times, women were not respected in China and were only seen as wives and housekeepers. However, Mulan did not fit into either of those roles, but that did not discourage her from discovering a way to make a difference for her family and her country. She was a slim, ordinary farmer girl until her military boot camp training…

The cultural differences described by Amy Tan in her short story, "Two Kinds", stand out boldly. There are two main themes described throughout the story, which would be conflicts between mother and daughter, and cultural differences. Both play a big part to contribute to the other. Therefore, in this essay, the focus will land on the cultural differences. Such a bold statement to readers is clear when Amy Tan uses sentences such as " "You look like a Negro Chinese," she lamented, as if I had…

Silvia Zervos is an outgoing, kind, and talented person. Almost everyone has good times and bad times: Silvia is no different. The saddest moment in her life was when her grandmother died when Silvia was 7 years old. Her and her family traveled to Chicago, Silvia thinking they were going to visit her grandmother. She didn’t find out her grandmother had died until she got there. When she was told the saddening news, it broke her. “My grandmother was always there for me.” With sad times comes good…

Maxine Hong Kingston finds it hard to live in America as the daughter of Chinese emigrants because there are two different expectations of her. She criticizes the patriarchal society of both the United States and China that she is caught between: Once I get outside the house, what bird might call me; on what horse could I ride away? Marriage and childbirth strengthen the swordswoman, who is not a maid like Joan of Arc. Do the women’s work; then do more work, which will become ours too. [...]…

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” - Mahatma Ghandi. Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club tells the story of four pairs of mothers and daughter connecting with their inner self through the difficulties in culture and family. The novel takes place in pre-revolution China and twentieth century San Francisco. The American- born Chinese daughters, Jing-mei (June) Woo, Rose Hsu, Waverly Jong, Lena St. Clair, their immigrant mothers Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong,…