Daughters

When modernization is often discussed in classes, it is usually depicted as a rapid welcomed event of progress for the society involved. However, in “A Daughter of Han” by Ida Pruitt, Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai’s autobiographical account illustrates China’s gradual modernization against its reluctant conservative society. Modernity is defined by the presence of themes such as: industrialization, the increase of global integration, the expansion of political participation, the expansion of mass society,…

“Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the story of a youthful man named Giovanni, who falls in love with a poisonous girl. Giovanni knows there is something dangerous about Beatrice, as she is living in a strange garden with her science obsessed father. However, he is overtaken by Beatrice’s beauty and he ignores any danger letting his passion control him. According to Hawthorne, man’s greatest flaw is the difficulty one has controlling the strong emotions and desires that come…

Anita Desai's first novel Cry, the Peacock (1963), is about Maya, a dissenting female who battles against three traditional forces in her life: male authority expressed by her husband; her female friends who play stereotypical submissive-wife roles; and her religion's beliefs in karma and detachment. Being over-sensitive, sentimental and imaginative Maya is a total contrast to the rational, logical, Gautam. By making a beautiful use of the symbolic technique, Anita Desai has delved deep into the…

Longitude by Dava Sobel is a book about how the first accurate clock for determining longitude was made. The book starts off by describing the longitude problem which is about how difficult it is to determine longitude at sea. In order to determine longitude, two clocks are needed, one from the home port and one based upon the local time of the ship. The difference in times allows for the longitude of the ship to be determined. However, it is very hard to make accurate clocks at sea due to the…

My name is Anaya and I am the first daughter. I live in the tallest castle there is and I have 24 pyramids. I am also the pharaoh’s daughter. You would think that being me is the best and easiest thing in the world. But guess what it’s not. I have to pick out cultural clothing for special occasions and really expensive jewelery. It can get so annoying when every single place I go someone is waiting to help me. I hope they know that some things I can do on my own. You asked me what I eat.So I…

Gathering evidence from diaries, memoirs, letters, and other contemporary material, Mary Beth Norton examines the impact of the Revolution War had on the women residing in the thirteen colonies from 1750 to 1800. Liberty 's Daughters provides historical evidence of women 's daily lives, domestic activities, marriages, pains of pregnancies, and the difficulties women of this era had in defining a sense of feminine independence before, during, and after the Revolutionary War. Norton takes an…

Bobo’s discussion of audience’s reactions to ‘Daughters of the Dust’ highlighted the significant difference to my own (Dash, 1991). I struggled with this film, it did not resonate and although I thought it was quite beautiful and because of that, mesmerising, I did not understand it. I found the dialect difficult to comprehend and the narrative, unfamiliar. I tried to decipher this text in two ways. Firstly, I attempted to take what I was seeing and place it within a context that I felt I…

The poem, “Pain For A Daughter” written by Anne Sexton, does not solely focus on the daughter’s pain. This is about the family’s suffering. Every stanza in the poem suggests a sequence of events leading to the point that the mother dies while birthing the daughter. The title “Pain For A Daughter,” is not just a reflection of the pain inflicted on the daughter, but to the difficulty the family experienced in bringing her into the world. The first stanza begins with, “Blind with love”; which…

In Galileo’s Daughter, Dava Sobel assembles an account of Galileo’s attempt to prove the heliocentric model of the universe in a world where mans’ logical reasoning is potent, yet second to his devotion to God, and by relation, the Catholic Church. Sobel writes about Galileo’s tendency to question the reasoning of those around him. Though it may not be apparent, Galileo was born into a world of great similarity to the modern day. In Galileo’s time, Science was seen as blasphemy and a tool to…

in hand we begin our day. Mundane tasks of laundry and dishes turns into your adventure of, "How much of a mess can I make?" You always seem to be right under my feet and I'm tripping. I'm tripping and falling. Falling -in love- with you. Dearest Daughter, I see myself in you. Today you picked up a fallen leaf in your tiny fist and stared at it, in awe that so many beautiful colors could exist on one thing. I giggle and think about all the things you do not yet know. Like the fact that our dog,…