Marissa Woo Ms. Barwise ENG 111 10 November 2016 Acknowledgement of the Unknown: A Delve into Amy Tan’s “Confessions” Amy Tan’s “Confessions” initially appears to stand as a story of verbal and physical abuse, but later is uncovered to be a tale of the complexity of truth and unknown. The narrator describes a moment in her life when she was confronted by anger, fear, and isolation, in the face of young adulthood. She must deal with her threatening and unstable mother, who is slowly losing her memory. By the end of the story, the narrator emphasizes her mother’s Alzheimer's diagnosis and the effect is has on her, as her mother no longer remembers the past, or the abuse she inflicted on her. During the abusive encounter with her mother, Tan is threatened by her mom, who is angered enough to “push [Tan] …show more content…
As student Brianna Woo puts it, “It’s quite hurtful to hear. It could be in her favor that her mother no longer remembers retorting the harmful words at her, but unfortunately she herself does. It’s an event that is quite symbolic to her; it’s not too often that children must face death in the hands of a parent. Sadly, Tan had somehow prompted her mother to act in such a way, and she now must live remembering that she did. Her emotions are heightened because of this traumatic event and since her mom cannot remember, all Tan can do is ponder whether or not her mother’s words were intentional.” Realizing that she will never know her mother’s true intentions, Tan is left with knowing that there was a truth, which was lost with
In the novel “You Have Seven messages” writing by Stewart Lewis which is mainly told by Luna the main character of the book. Luna is a fourteen year old girl who lives with her father and litter brother Tile. The three of them live in Manhattan on the upper West Side. Luna and Tile mother who is no longer living had got hit and killed by a taxi driver. Luna was very hurt that her mother was killed
This form of rhetoric, makes the audience see through her eyes of what she had to go through compared to the other rebellious children. Furthermore, this alludes to how her experience made her assume she had to fix herself, affecting how the audience views her situation; which also influences the audience to think differently about how to treat the “others” because of Nguyen’s personal experience of being emotionally self conscious of herself.
and the conflict of her losing her family and her friends and not being able to do anything about it. She said “That’s my mama. That’s my papa. The words were stapled to her ’they’re not moving,’ she said quietly. ‘ They’re not moving’.
But I can’t bring myself to tell my mother that I think I understand how I made Abuela feel.” “(Cofer Ortiz 18-19)” This example shows that Connie made Abuela cry and stop talking which made more examples on why Connie started to understand why she needs to be nicer and more respectful to her feelings because of the way she made Abuela
She is utterly confused by their skin color and wonders why her uncles are white. When she asks Mama about it, she shuts down coldly. From this moment it is clear that Mama ignores and
“I Never asked her what she gave up to drive me, or how her day was before this chore Today, at her age, I was driving myself home from yet another spine appointment, singing along to some maudlin but the solid song on the radio, and I saw a mom take her raincoat off and give it to her young daughter when a storm took over the afternoon. (Limón, 14-23), this gives the reader insight into how the child changed throughout the story, she finally realized how her mother protected her throughout her childhood. After maturing she realizes how her mother influenced her and protected her thought-out her life, it took some time but she finally came to an understanding of how her relationship with her mother made her into the person she is
Sal already knew her mom had died, but she didn’t want to believe it. She never let herself believe that her mom has passed away. Sal’s mom died when she was going to Lewiston, Idaho. She was in a bus, and the bus tipped over killing everyone except one person, and that person wasn't Sal’s mom. Sal loves her mom and doesn’t want to think she is dead.
When she was young, she could not process the way her father raised and treated her, so she believed everything he said. When she is able to understand, her tone changes and becomes clinical and critical remembering the way he constantly let her
Examining Generational Change toward the American Dream in Two kinds Two kinds, a short story by Amy Tan, explores the relationship between an immigrant mother and her first generation daughter. The mother, who has faith in the American dream, values the belief that to be happy, you have to be famous and change yourself; Ni Kan, the daughter, yearns for a personality of her own. Tan characterize these women as foils to each other. As a result of them being foils, they’re relationship is strained and they never have a close bond until Ni Kan grows older. Tan uses these characters to show that with each generation the American dream is changed.
She struggles occasionally from day to day tasks. Since Tan’s mother English was poor, she tends to ask Tan for help “...she used to have me call people and the phone and pretend I was she” (300). Tan’s mother would tell Tan to pretend to be her to complain, ask for more information, and even
The novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a girl named Melinda, who shows signs of depression throughout the story. She has no friends and is hated by people she doesn’t even know. This is because she called the cops at a party, where she was raped. Anderson includes literary elements to show how Melinda is depressed. Throughout the novel, she uses many different literary elements to show Melinda’s conflict.
The speaker’s grandmother is originally presented in a way that causes the ending to be a surprise, saying, “Her apron flapping in a breeze, her hair mussed, and said, ‘Let me help you’” (21-22). The imagery of the apron blowing in the wind characterizes her as calm, and when she offers to help her grandson, she seems to be caring and helpful. Once she punches the speaker, this description of her changes entirely from one of serenity and care to a sarcastic description with much more meaning than before. The fact that the grandmother handles her grandson’s behavior in this witty, decisive way raises the possibility that this behavior is very common and she has grown accustomed to handling it in a way that she deems to be effective; however, it is clearly an ineffective method, evidenced by the continued behavior that causes her to punish the speaker in this manner in the first place.
For numerous amounts of people, with English being their second language, they have been described as having "Broken English". " Broken English" refers to a poorly spoken or ill-written version of the English language. One article called "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan discusses the effects of growing up with a Chinese mother who has "Broken English". In fact, Tan deliberates about the limitations and criticism of growing up with her mother. Although Tan speaks articulate English, she still can comprehend with her mother 's "Broken English".
ANALYSIS As mentioned beforehand, deception damages a child’s self-esteem. This situation often happens in a dysfunctional family. Initially, the narrator was seeing her mother for the first time since the divorce which led to result her behaviour fear. The narrator missed the tender care that the mother had shown to her family. However, she also kept in mind the mother’s reaction when the father approved the divorce and her threats of setting fire to herself with kerosene.
When she was around others she would talk differently than how she talks with her mother. “…all the forms of Standard English that I had learned in school and through book, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother” (118). Throughout her story she refers to the English her mother speaks as “Broken English” because her mother would say sentences like “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived” (119). Her mother didn’t have much difficulty understanding or reading English. When Tan was younger, she would feel embarrassed when her mother would speak because many people couldn’t understand her well.