Summary Of Saving Sourdi By May-Lee Chi

The story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan explores the deep familial emotions between a mother and her daughter. Jing-Mei’s mother had left China to come to America after losing her family, and had been raising Jing-Mei in America with her second husband. Despite her mother’s grand hopes for Jing-Mei to become successful in America by becoming a child prodigy, Jing-Mei did not share the same opinions. This disagreement quickly became a source of resentment and anger for both of them, but Jing-Mei and her mother were unable to resolve this conflict because of their different backgrounds and experiences. The story showcases how relationships between mothers and daughters can be strained because of differences in culture and a lack of communication.

“The Other Family” by Himani Bannerji, can teach people a life lesson about appreciating the culture they come from and that they should stay true to who they are regardless of what others think is right. In “The Other Family” when the little girl came home from school, she showed her mom a picture she drew of their family. When the mom saw the picture, she was very disappointed because the picture showed a white family, not theirs. The little girl said she drew a white family because all the books she read showed only white families. “I drew it from a book…all our books have this same picture of the family.” (Bannerji, page 161.) The mother became furious because her daughter did not portray her family truthfully, “dark-skinned, dark-haired.”

In “Saving Sourdi” two women tend to fall in line with the stereotype that surrounds them and one breaks the mold.  Just as any Asian mother stereotype, Ma falls right in line with it.  She is strict, she believes that her children should obey and listen to her and she believes that there is always a job to be done.  These traits were passed down to Sourdi having her as the daughter that obeys and knows that when she is told to do something she must do it.  Nea is nothing like this.  She is opinionated, she is always going to do whatever is right in her mind and she is headstrong.  In the story, Ma runs a family owned restaurant.  This is important because as author Pratibha Parmar states in their article, “Gender, Race and class: Asian women in resistance”, “It is also important to look at how common-sense images of West Indian and Asian women have helped to socially construct certain roles for them in the labour market.”  Ma being such a strong female character in this story has its purpose.  Ma knows how to do hard work and how to make it count.  Just as the “roles” Parmar is talking about, asian females are typically known to be hard workers, and they do not take anything lightly.  They will work until the job is

The mother-figure had an immense effect on shaping the personality of the two protagonists. Despite the fact that both protagonists having hard working mothers who always wanted the best for their children, the mothers had different responses to their

According to Evelyn Nakano Glenn, family has multiple definitions—the most popular being “a unit in a household consisting of a mother, father, and children residing together.” Another definition of family is “two or more people related by birth, marriage, or adoption residing in the same housing unit” (Glenn 87). In both stories, it can be seen that the role of a mother is an important role in the family. One characteristic that both mothers resemble in the stories is that of a caring mother. In the story, Sticks and Salt, Nguyen’s mother showed love and compassion toward Nguyen (as a child) during their dangerous boat ride to America. According to Nguyen, his mother stated, “We're almost there son. Don’t worry,” as they faced the life-threatening and frightening conditions of the sea (Nguyen 21). As any other loving mother would, Nguyen’s mother comforted him during the dreadful event. In addition, Nguyen stated that his mother repeatedly told him a proverb as he was growing up: “Loving your child means giving them sticks and salt; hating your child means giving them sweetness and candy” (Nguyen 27). This proverb helps show that Nguyen’s mother only raised him as she did because she loved him. Likewise to Nguyen’s description of his mother as an important individual, Gonzalo shares her views and describes the importance of mothers. In the story, she states, “It was women, after

The short stories, "Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan and "Royal Beatings" by Alice Munro are both about a young girl dealing with a mother/ mother figure daughter relationship. The stories are written from different points of view. Tan wrote the Rules of the Game in first-person and Munro wrote Royal Beatings in third-person omniscient. Although the authors use different points of view they still make us feel the tension build between the protagonist and their mother/mother figure starting with a vulnerability which leads to misunderstanding and grows to resentment that turns into disrespect and finishes with punishment.

Have you ever stopped and thought are you really being you? Many people in this world are also struggling like you to find their identity and where they fit in. Being someone else to fit in is not staying true to yourself and being who you are. Many short stories made by many different authors people are struggling to find their identity in life and end up being someone they are not. In the short stories “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, “The Bass, The River and Sheila Mant” by W.D.Wetherell and “Papa’s Parrot” by Cynthia Rylant, the characters learn about their identities through significant moments.

The relationship between a mother and a daughter holds a special bond of love and care. While mothers truly care for their daughters, this act of devotion can lead to conflicts. The strength of their bond is the determining factor in overcoming and being able to tolerate periods of disagreement. The excerpts in Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom and Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club both display the reality of mother-daughter relationships. The attachment and deep affection that the mothers give to their daughters provoke arguments between the two. While Chua gives off a tone of irritation to express her relationship with her daughter, Tan displays a more harsh, resentful tone.

This story shows the conflicting values between the elderly and young generation in Southern area of America. The mother in this story is a representative of

Everyone knows what love truly is, but cannot define it. The word itself does sound delicate and nerve-wracking. The question of the universe is, what is love?

In the Igbo community, many men thought that being weak was being feminine. Women were being treated like pieces of property or toys that you can play with (Shmoop Editorial Team 2008). They were being beaten and abused (#312513, Answered by niyonkuru j #312513 on 4/3/2013 12:15 PM, Answered by judy t #197809 on 4/3/2013 11:57 AM, & Answered by jill d #170087 on 4/3/2013 12:01 PM). It seems like women were not valuable. The women did not have free will. They were told what to do and they did it. Women had an important part by nurturing their children and always being there for them but that was it. That is one thing that men would not do because they did not want to be portrayed as weak or be called agbala, which is a woman or man with no title.

The criticism the daughters received from their mothers was beneficial because they respected their mother’s opinion and cultural. Jing-mei’s relationship with her mother was fragile due to her mom passing away due with the thoughts in her head the father assumed. Suyuan Woo had a horrible life with the Japanese coming into Kweilin trying

the huge importance of mothers love and the need for mother-child contact to be unbroken.

In modern society, more and more people concert about the influence that parents affect their kids. So there are two stories which catch people’s eyes. In the story “Two Kinds” and “Tiger Moms” which wrote by Annie Murphy Paul and Amy Tan, the heroes of stories are Amy’s mother and Amy Chua respectively. The difference is that Amy Chua is crueler than Amy’s mother. However those two characters both hope their kids have wonderful career in the future.

The Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong is an autobiography about her being the fifth daughter of a Chinese family. The novel is written in the third person as she tells the readers her story of being born and raised in Chinatown, San Francisco. Throughout her story we watch her grow as she portrays her life growing up as kid and becoming an adult. Education plays the largest role in Wong’s journey to adulthood in both a formal and informal manner. She helps the readers understand the morals of Asian families, and the conflicts that the normal Chinese community and person may face when dealing with foreign issues. What I liked the most about her book was that even though it is her autobiography she chose to write it in third person in