Lost Sister Poem Analysis

We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born." These lines reveal the erasure of her aunt’s existence by her family in order restore honor for the actions of a woman who delineates from Chinese, patriarchal customs in the pursuit of love. The story of No Name Woman serves as a backdrop for Kingston 's own

The resulting generational gap animates the narrative, as mothers and daughters seek to appreciate each other, and their individual efforts diminish and contain the traumas depicted as precise of the maternal, Chinese culture. 1. Chinese Heritage and the American Dream The Joy Luck Club comprises a series of short-story-like vignettes that moves back and forth in time and space, between the lives of four Chinese women in pre-1949 China and

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.

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. In an effort to discover her identity, she embarked on a spiritual journey, writing poetry along the way. Mother’s Jewellery Box writes of the beginning of her lifelong expedition. The poem is riddled with various stylistic features that play into the idea of the poem being in the bildungsroman genre. The first words of the poem are “the twin lids”, instantly addressing her

“After losing everything in China…She never looked back with regret.”(Chunk 1 ¶3). Jing-Mei’s mother is a Chinese immigrant with the typical ‘everything is better in America’ mindset. Jing-Mei, being raised in America, had more of an American mindset. “You want me to be someone i’m not…I’ll never be the daughter you want me to be!” (Chunk 6 ¶10). Jing-Mei feels as if she will never be able to please her mother because of their cultural differences.

. . she was always waiting right around the bend with a new way to prove to me how little the whole thing mattered to her” (278). Sissy craves nothing more than her mother’s love and attention, but she realizes that Rose can never give her them. In her childhood, Sissy did not care if the attention she got from her mother was good or bad, as long as Rose acknowledged that she was there.

Jing-Mei comes from China and Chinese background has to adapt comfortably with being in American culture. “Only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind; only one kind of daughter can live in this house, obedient daughter.” What I interpret from this text is that the obedient daughter in Jing-Mei's mother’s case is the Chinese daughter, while the daughter who follows their own mind is the American daughter. The mother wants Jing-Mei to be the obedient daughter. Culture can detrimentally change a

The Little Chinese Seamstress in ‘Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress’ is illiterate and has no real ambitions in life,until she meets Luo and the narrator who change her life with the writings of Balzac. At the start of the story, the narrator asks Luo if he is in love with the Little Chinese seamstress and he replies that she is “not civilised, at least not enough for me!” (Sijie,pg.27)“With these books I shall transform

For example Annie's feet hang off the bed inferring that she's had the same bed since childhood, which in a way isn't that abnormal but the fact that she outgrew it and a new one wasn't bought tells me that they don't have the funds for it, also Marita shares a room with her mom, it isn't necessarily bad but it's all her mother can afford being a single mother. They also both grew apart from a close friend, Annie had grew apart from age and basally getting sick and somewhat despising her, and then in Maritas case hers was lost from

Connie’s relationship with her sister, June, was probably the most stable, although it still wasn’t very healthy. Connie had ill feelings toward June because she wasn’t as pretty, worked at the same high school Connie attended, and was favored by her mother. Due to her poor relationship with her family, Connie did not want to ever be around them. In the story is says that during summer vacation she went out “several times a week” (87) with her friend. Then on what appears to be Connie’s last day alive, she refuses to go to a picnic with her family and ends up meeting Arnold Friend and Ellie Oscar, who eventually will take her