Language And Culture In John Steinbeck's Where The Gods Fly

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A. Where the Gods Fly

Moving to a different country can be scary and challenging, because of the new language and culture. You are also leaving your entire family and friends behind. Becoming integrated with a vastly different cultural can be difficult, where one of the cultures are traditional and the other is modern. This scenario takes place in the short story “Where the Gods Fly” written by the Chinese American author Jean. Here we follow the Pearl’s mother trying her outmost to give Pearl the best upbringing and future she can possible give. Pearl’s parents have emigrated from Asia to America, leaving her friends and family behind.
The story is told from the mother’s point of view and we only hear her thoughts and feelings, making the protagonist a limited first person . The story starts in media res, where we are presented with the core problem of the story. Here we are in the present, where the mother is determined that Pearl cannot continue her ballet career. The start of the story sums up the entire story, whereas …show more content…

In the quote “She is gifted and she is stunning on stage, I know, but these things are not for such as us. We who has lost everything - our country, our family, our culture - cannot afford to be exceptional ”. The quote indicates that her mother thinks that Pearl does not deserve this talent, especially when she is not religious as her mother. However, the mother believes that her talent brings misfortune and was the reason why her husband died, which is indicated in the quote “The gods give with one hand and take with the other ”. Here she believes that because of the daughters secularising and talent, the gods must bring misfortune to their family by giving Pearls father cancer. Therefore, she believes that the ballet school is the cause of her daughter becoming secular, thus choosing to stop her career as a ballet

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