The Joy Luck Club

In the short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the author creates a conflict between a Chinese mother and her daughter. The relationship between the mother who wanted her daughter to be prodigy, and her daughter who refused to be prodigy is presented (43). She uses dialogue, irony, similes and metaphors to illustrate and set her writing. Tan’s main message that stands out in the story is parents-to-kids relationship, in this case mother-to-daughter relationship. With all the details given by the…

How to Create Happy Children is an article by Amy Kim, written in 2011, published in The New Yorker. It details her experiences with raising children using Chinese methods of upbringing. Throughout the article, Amy Kim uses a very vivid language that appeals to the senses. This is particularly true towards the end of the article, where she recollects an episode involving one of her daughters. It is described how “She punched, thrashed and kicked, ” which gives the reader a very intimate look at…

Each culture passes down their own irrational traditions, regardless of the absurdity. Traditions alter and mold one’s core life decisions. For the Chinese, these practices range from a variety of superstitious beliefs such as a compatibility test between horoscopes and names or an oppressive belief such as foot binding. Bound Feet and Western Dress, written by Pang Mei Natasha Chang, is a memoir that exposes the effect these traditions have on the evolving Chinese population during the early…

In “The Struggle to be an American Girl,” Elizabeth Wong explores the journey to find an identity and a sense of belonging through the eyes of an immigrant child caught between two cultures. As a child, Wong rejects her cultural heritage in favor of attempting to blend in with the society around her, a decision that haunts her into adulthood. Wong’s desire to be American leads her to reject the traditions of her family, not realizing until she is older the significance of preserving those…

“Two Kinds” is a story based on a mother and daughter, and how they had their own opinions on how the daughter should be. The mother wanted the best for her daughter, but she also wanted her daughter become something she wasn’t, a child prodigy. The daughter tried to please her mother but in the end she just wanted to be herself, to stick to her own mindset, not her mother's. She tried everything in beginning that her mother wanted her to do, but later grew out of trying to please her mom…

The rhetorical devices tone and parallelism are used in both the memoir, Funny In Farsi, by Firoozeh Dumas, and the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang in order to entertain readers and develop the over-arching theme of self-acceptance. Dumas uses colloquial and comic tones in Funny In Farsi in order to keep readers engaged and understate the impact of the hardships she faced on her road to self-acceptance. In the chapter “I Ran and I Ran and I Ran”, Dumas tells the story of…

Family are the friends we do not pick by ourselves, but are born into. “The dress” by Julia Darling is a short story about the sisters Rachel and Flora, and their mother. The story focuses on the deterioration of the sister’s relationship but also on their relationship to the mother. The story also focuses on what happens to a family when it is missing love and communication. Throughout the story, the main topic is a certain dress, and this leads to a dispute having immense consequences. In the…

In the story Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Ha is a girl who has lived in Saigon for her whole life. When the war gets dangerously close to home she is forced to flee her home. In the panic of war Ha and her family leave everything but what is necessary. With her move to America challenges follow. Bullying, racism, and lack of language skills are challenges that all refugees face. Inside Out and Back Again, provides an example of the universal experience of refugees. In Ha’s story,…

Reader-Based Analysis: “Two Kinds” focuses on a mother and daughter’s relationship. Jing-Mei’s mother faced many hardships in China. The mother lost so many near and dear to her. For the mother, America was the country to offer them great living and opportunities. Jing-Mei’s mother wanted to see her daughter as a successful person. Jing-Mei's mother classifies success for her daughter as being brilliant at something, therefore, Jing-Mei was forced to take piano lessons in order to be a child…

The legend of Mulan, a brave young Chinese girl who pretends to be a man and joins the army in order to help her old father, is an example of stories of women characters that take the non-traditional role of warrior. This figure that challenges traditional role models had been a source of inspiration for many young Chinese girls. Inspired by this legend, Maxine Hong Kingston narrates the powerful memories that she recalls of growing up in a Chinese-American family. In her book The Warrior…