Language Arts: Poetry Assignment - Lost Sister by Cathy Song Erinn Lee (10) 206 The difference between the life experiences of the two sisters is their vastly different lifestyles. The main difference is the amount of freedom they had. The first sister lived in China. The women brought up in the Chinese culture “never left home” and had freedom “stolen from them at birth”. This shows us that the first sister led a very restricted lifestyle under the influence of a strict culture.
Cathy was born a Catherine, the name meaning “pure” which she is shown not to be from the very beginning. She is described to go from “a pretty child” to a “pretty woman,” oozing innocence and delicacy. However, even as a child Cathy produced a “disturbance she distributed so subtly” (73). Her immorality becomes clear to the reader when it is said that “Cathy learned that by the manipulation and use of this one part of people she could gain and keep power over nearly anyone” (75). Here we see that Cathy, even at a young age, is able to see within people and use their weaknesses against them.
“Poem for My Sister” written by Liz Lochhead, is a poem describing the relationship between two sisters and their experiences. As with almost all siblings, the younger sister looks up to her older sister and strives to be like her whereas the older sister in this poem has been through numerous hardships and troubles in her life and warns her stubborn sister to not follow in her footsteps. The reader can relate to the poem as they are either an adult or a child and both ages apprehend the feelings and emotions that the characters are experiencing. A deeper meaning this poem suggests is that the experience of adulthood should be seen as advice for the upcoming generations. The poet has shown how easily influenced children are and how they strive to be like their elders by using shoes as a representation and symbol for different lifestyles.
Steinbeck describes Cathy from her early childhood. He writes that she was always a strange and fascinating child. She was born as an only child to the Ames family. She was always a liar, but not like many other children lie, her lies “were not innocent” and, unlike others, “she never forgot her lies” (East of Eden 98). She also at a very young age learnt the power of sexuality and there was one incident, when she is ten years old, in which she locks herself and ties herself in the barn with two fourteen year old boys.
Both of the birds sing for their freedom and sing through their pain. The two poems “Sympathy” written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou are so similar, yet so different. Both of the poems are very similar because they both share a single underlying theme which is Freedom. Both Dunbar and Angelou wrote their poems about a universal concept that individuals will find at some point in their lifetime. These poems show that when one fights for their rights they will face difficulties, but them having hope will help for them to overcome their pain.
She shows the true responsibility of an older sibling. She is also very sensitive because she get angry and sad really quickly. When Jason’s mother yelled at her, she said she had to use all of her strength to not cry. If a strong person was in her position I believe this person would not even be close to crying. All in all, I think that Catherine was a great character made by Cynthia Lord.
It is a custom in the Chinese culture for some families to hang a wind chime in honor of their loved ones on the day that they pass. This is what the fictional character, Sek-Lung’s, father did in the short story, “The Jade Peony” written by Wayson Choy. Choy, being born a Canadian of Chinese descent, highlighted the struggle of living in between two drastically different, and distinguished cultures through Sek-Lung. The seven year old boy narrates his everyday adventures with his Grandmama. She has experienced it all and wishes to pass on her stories and traditions to the next generation.
The poem acts as a gateway to the main topic discussed in her other poems: the relationship between her and her Chinese heritage. By providing context for the rest of the poetry book and through the use of stylistic features, Howe is able to enforce the idea of a spiritual journey. In order to fully understand the poem, one must understand the context. Sarah Howe grew up in a bicultural family with a Chinese mother and British father. While some would assume this meant she had equal exposure to both cultures, her Chinese heritage was suppressed as a result of racial bullying, leaving her identity elusive and uncertain.
Family being an important factor within Chinese society is further shown through this scene as the father is willing to hide seemingly pleasant news from his family for the sake of preserving the traditional Chinese family unit. A mother, father and children. He then goes on to say that if he had not let his son and Weiwei lie to him he would have never gotten a grandchild. This is where the theme of compromise comes to the forefront of the film, despite the fathers inherently traditional views he is able to overlook the fact that his son had lied to him because he has now for filled his duty of carrying on the family name by producing an heir. The importance of grandchildren/offspring can be linked to a contextual element that is crucial to the film, this is Confucianism.
American culture values self-reliance and expressing one’s self; “‘if you don’t talk, you can’t have a personality’” (180). By contrast, Chinese culture praises the silent and values community disposition. In Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir Woman Warrior, the narrator must learn to combine the present of the American world while simultaneously blending the past of the Chinese culture brought upon by her parents. Kingston uses Maxine’s experiences to illustrate that children often lose their voice and repress their sense of self when the older generation’s beliefs contradict to their surroundings. This struggle makes the child feel forced to conform, but will one day accept their identity.