Lost Sister Cathy Song Summary

This story that Suyuan Woo tells her daughter shows how deeply the Japanese invasion of China affected the identity of many Chinese people. They were forced to flee their homes and their lives with only a few of their valuables, but eventually they had to give up those up too. Those few items were all that they had left to define themselves and remind them who they were so when they lost them they lost a significant part of who they were. Suyuan Woo lost more than just her past identity, she actually had to leave her twin babies on the side of the road in the hopes that someone could save them. This shaped her identity because throughout the remainder of her life she had to wonder if leaving them behind was the right choice and if they were

Growing up is a hard time, and for the three most important characters in the short stories, “Two Kinds,” “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” and “Fish Cheeks” it certainly is no different. It makes them feel unacknowledged when all they want is just independence and acceptance of the ones that they find to be important to them. Acceptance is something every person wants to gain from everyone, it just is not something focused on commonly.

The poem ‘Morning Praise of Nightmares One’ which is written by Lauire, Ann Guerrero depicts a strong notion about abuse and elements of despair when children at tender age are dealt with extreme abusive behavior. The overall theme of the poem is around the narration of a young girl who is living a life of pain in a house where she is inflicted with torture, pains and bruises. Despite of her miserable condition nobody is helping her. She is facing each morning with screams of nightmares which are never ending and no one is there to comfort her.

In the story ‘David’, the unknown narrator is burdened by the cultural expectations of others imposed on her. This is illustrated when Asha approaches the narrator, and the narrator is forced to be polite despite her rude inner monologue in order to conform to the cultural beliefs and manners her mother-in-law and Asha expects of her. This is because she is pressured by the flashbacks to the past statements made by her mother-in-law about the young Sudanese generation’s failure to abide by their elders’ cultural expectations, with statements such as, “They have no idea about tradition and respect…You should be show us some respect, like real African children…” These flashbacks illustrate how an action in the past can directly affect what is happening in the future. However, the narrator’s rebellious attitude towards her family and her culture is perhaps because of the heavy burden of these cultural expectations, leading her to change her identity. On the other hand, Vanessa from “Perfect Chinese Children” is directly pressured to meet family expectations in contrast to the passive pressure that the unnamed narrator in David experienced, and this is illustrated in the incident where Yee Mah blames Vanessa’s mother’s poor fortune on her by saying, “Do you know why your

Culture: the beliefs, customs, art, etc. of a particular society. Being a part of a culture is amazing, diverse, and interesting until the conflict from being a part of more than one culture becomes involved. This type of conflict can even change the way you see your culture.

In the nineteenth and twentieth century, as Europe started to conquer the world, many places became “safe” to the females to travel, inspiring many female traveler writers at this time period. On October 15, 1831, at Borough Bridge Hall, the little baby girl Isabella Lucy, named after her two grandmothers, was born (Stoddart 8). Little did the family knew this girl would someday travel around the world, visit Korea, and write about her journeys. As a female traveler writer, Isabella Bird presents her journey in Korea as an opportunity for discovery, examining her journey carefully and writing everything as true as it is in an opened mind.

In the following essay I will discuss and form a clear analysis about Elizabeth Bishop’s poem ‘Exchanging Hats’ that was published in 1979. Elizabeth Bishop is an American short-story writer that was born in 1911 and loved writing poems to describe the dominating side between male and female. It addresses many things such as crossing dressing, gender roles and it brings out a deeper meaning of fashion. It refers to the world famous story of Alice in Wonderland. It is done in such a way where everything that is being describe is not being said directly but rather describing actions that symbolizes different principals of theories. The different key features also plays an important role for example the tone that is being formed by the lyrical voice that can be seen as a nephew or niece. This specific poem is also seen as an exposition of what Judith Butler will call a ‘gender trouble’ and it consist of an ABBA rhyming pattern that makes the reading of the poem better to understand. The poem emphasizes feminist, gender and queer theories that explains the life of the past and modern women and how they are made to see the world they are supposed to live in. The main theories that will be discussed in this poem will be described while analyzing the poem and this will make the poem and the theories clear to the reader.

Brave Orchid’s children are not the only ones who have to bear their mother’s impositions. There is Moon Orchid, Brave Orchid’s sister, who has newly immigrated to the United States. She is the “weaker” character and can be seen as a foil character to her sister (Hunt 9). The difference between these two sisters is that Brave Orchid willingly rejects to assimilate, whereas Moon Orchid tries but fails to assimilate into the Western society. She tries to communicate to her nephews and nieces; nevertheless, the gap between them cannot be bound due to the language barrier.

In Trinh T. Minh-ha’s film, Surname Viet Given Name Nam, Vietnamese women are interviewed about the constant repression they faced during the time of the Vietnam War, yet what is repeated throughout the film, and as the title suggests, is that being Vietnamese, despite what they struggled through, will always remain a part of their identities. The series of interviews given in the film recount hardships experienced by women and show what they had to endure in Vietnam on a daily basis in regards to their gender identity. The expectations for women to marry and have children were unforgiving and provided another means for them to be scrutinized under even more regulations. Minh-ha’s use of song throughout the film gives the viewer a sense that

There 's a subtle wonderfulness to this story. It 's such a relatable story that involves day to day recounts of activities, Kimberly and her mother 's struggles and strives, financially and culturally. Especially from Aunt Paula. Once she said: “You can release your heart, older sister” (148). And another conversation is that “I am too smart to cheat….It is under me” (157).Even though Kim’s mother suffered loneliness ..she is such a bold character to suffer and sacrifice though she got hardships and rejection from Aunt Paula. . “You may need to change your dreams. My little heart, listen. But sometimes our fate is different from the one we imagined for ourselves. (56)”Once Ma told to Kim. Jean Kwok talk about Girl in Translation and earned a new found respect for her work. Kwok

The Paper Menagerie is a short story written by Ken Liu. This story is written from first point of view and it has a plot of a child named Jack becoming more mature through his mistakes made during his adolescence. Author Ken Liu uses characterization to demonstrate the universal truth of pain of our human need to belong. There are two important points the author made. The first Point is associated with Jack’s alienation, how he got excluded because of his looks and food. The second point connects to Jack’s mother’s experience of being an orphan, because her parents went missing.

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston addresses prevalent topics faced in America today. How should women act? Should women be treated differently from men? In her memoir, Kingston faces many obstacles with her Chinese-American identity such as finding her voice as a young woman. In “White Tigers,” Kingston tells her own version of a popular Chinese ballad, “Fa Mu Lan,” while incorporating her own reality back into the section. In her literary criticism, “Empowerment Through Mythological Imaginings in “Woman Warrior”,” Sue Ann Johnston comments on Kingston’s use of myths in the memoir, and believes that myths are Kingston’s most effective means of conveying messages to readers. Although these myths are effective, Johnston overlooks Kingston’s incorporation of these myths back into her own life. As demonstrated in “White Tigers,” Maxine Hong Kingston reveals that a woman warrior requires strength, dedication, independence, and confidence through her mother’s talk-stories and personal struggles during her life.

“Two Kinds,” by Amy Tan, essentially revolves around the struggle of Jing Mei and her constant conflict with her mother. Throughout her life, she is forced into living a life that is not hers, but rather her mom’s vision of a perfect child; because her mother lost everything, which included her parents and kids, so her only hope was through Jing Mei. Jing Mei’s mom watches TV shows such as the Ed Sullivan Show, which gives her inspiration that her daughter should be like the people and actors. First her mom saw how on the television a three-year-old boy can name all the capitals of the states and foreign countries and would even pronounce it correctly. Her mom would quiz Jing Mei on capitals of certain places, only to discover that she would

With a cultural identity as unclear as her own, Sarah Howe grew up questioning the human condition, specifically regarding the idea of belonging. Yet despite her great efforts in discovering what it means to have a bicultural heritage, her journey of understanding is forever ongoing.

In the poem, "When I Was Growing Up”, Nellie Wong relates the struggles of a Chinese girl growing up, searching to find her voice in a predominantly white cultural majority. The speaker begins the poem with, “I know now that once I longed to be white,” (1). This speaker longs for the privileges she attributes to being a member of the cultural majority. Ashamed of her darker Asian skin and Chinese culture, the speaker laments, “…I could not change, I could not shed / my skin…” (49, 50). The poem details the feelings of the speaker as she was growing up in America, while simultaneously being immersed in Chinese culture. She wanted to be part of the American white culture as it was depicted and glamorized by the media and movies. "When I Was Growing Up", utilizes literary devices such as diction, imagery, and symbolism to create friction and express the theme of shame and regret that the speaker feels about her longings to be white.