Tian Tan Buddha

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…

Apple Pie Fourth of July: Picture Book Analysis The picture book Apple Pie 4th of July. Written by Janet S. Wong and illustrated by Margret Chodos-Irivine, is a piece of literary work that presents itself with many important themes that any child may, at one point in their early lives, find themselves struggling with. Wong does a very excellent job of trying openly address the issue that is confliction of identity and of having to conform to societal ideals or in our protagonist’s case the idea…

Everybody goes through major conflicts. It’s a part of life. It could be as small as what clothes you should wear today, or it could be as big as what college you should go to. Conflicts can arise from anything. In The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, many of the characters go through internal and external conflicts that greatly affect their life. Eventually, they resolve that conflict. For example, the relationship between Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong has some conflicts that go along with it. They…

Joanna Dreby, author of The Burden of Deportation, and Hyeyoung Kwon, author of Intersectionality in Interactions, both discuss the unique, yet different, challenges that non-White children of immigrants face in the U.S. Dreby discusses the challenges of forced separations, children’s families struggles, and the threat of deportation, while Kwon discusses the challenges of passing as American adults, shielding parents from racialized nativism, and posing like middle-class adults. In Dreby’s…

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a novel written by Lisa See about Chinese life and culture in the 1800s. Not only is this book about life in general but mainly the hardships and struggles of being a woman and living within a culture such as the ancient one depicted in the novel. Being born in China in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, Lily was exposed to a lot of Chinese history originating from various ancient dynasties in Chinese history. (thesis) As people have learned over time, not…

The Same Sky and The Secret Language of Sisters, are two novels that have many similarities and differences regarding many diverse topics. The Same Sky, written by Amanda Eyre Ward, is a two storyline book where the main characters face very difficult times in both of their lives. On one end of the story, Carla, a eleven-year-old girl dreams of crossing the Mexican-American border; escaping violence and conflict. On the other end, Alice, the wife of a popular chef of a well-known BBQ restaurant…

Amy Tan’s essay, Mother Tongue, Tan discusses her struggles growing up as an Asian-American born to Chinese immigrants. She examines certain aspects of the language she speaks and writes, against the language her mother speaks and writes. Amy has a keen grip on “proper” English, most likely due to her being raised in America. Alternatively, Tan’s mother speaks in fragments of English due to her being an immigrant who fled China’s Cultural Revolution (Amy, 1990). Tan realises her different…

the hardships that Tan and her mother deal with she enjoys “the challenge of disproving assumptions made” about her. (4) Since Tan has experienced the limits and stigmas that were made of her mother because of her broken English, she was determined to overcome those barriers herself. She majored in English and became a writer, but as she became better she no longer thought of language “Like others,” that “have described it to people as ‘broken’ or ‘fractured’ English.” (2) Tan began to shift in…

Can you survive in the woods, alone, in the cold? In order to survive in conditions like those you have to have extreme survival skills. In the articles “My escape from N.K.”, “Trapped,” and the movie “Lone Survivor,” these characters had these skills to survive. It takes courage, endurance, and intelligence to be a survivor. Courage is used in survival because if you don’t believe in yourself then you won’t think that you are going to survive. Courage is used in the story, “My escape from…

The poem “Mama” by Claire Kageyama introduces the reader to the life of a Japanese immigrant who immediately becomes a wife upon her arrival to America. The poem goes through the stages of her life as wife, mother and grandmother. The poem is told from the perspective of the “rice child”, (the youngest grandchild in the extended family). The “rice child” shares with the reader the many stereotypes the world has about families from different culture. “I followed her/ to Save & Save/ where we…