This essay can relate best with reader from a Hispanic background, being that they come from a different country and they are not fluent English speakers. They can also relate to Cisneros’s family experiences. In contrast, Tan’s audience is Asian-Americans, because they can identify to the type of speech or fragmented or “broken language” like Tan mentions in “Mother Tongue.” The simplification of certain concepts that Tan practices in her writing allows her writing to be grasped by a wide range of readers. However, both pieces of writing deal with two female writers that are writing to immigrants from whom English is a second…
The author of Lord of the flies, William Golding, uses literary elements such as characterization to support his argument that man’s capacity for evil is revealed in his human nature. Golding uses his main characters- Jack and Ralph- as examples of inner evil. Jack is shown as unjust, mean and self-involved when “[he] took a step and…stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach” (Golding 71). Additionally, Golding describes Jack as asticious, inimical, and down-right terrible.…
The graphic novel American Born Chinese (2006), by Gene Luen Yang, is a very modern and influential piece of work that can be compared to the short indie film Two Lies (1990), directed and written by Pamela Tom, which had preceded the novel by 16 years. These two different forms of work, both utilizing their ability to teach the audience, are used as powerful venues for the topic of identity crisis among the Asian people in a majority European American world. In the film, we have Mei and her family who are all having some trouble adjusting to their lives in Southern California but more specifically we have Mei and her trouble to understand her mother 's cause and intent for having undergone double eye-lid surgery. In ABC, we have our protagonist, Jin, who is having trouble fitting into his new school in San Francisco since he is one of the very few Asian admitted to the school. Another time line in the novel is the story of the monkey king who does anything to get rid of the fact that he is a monkey in order to fit into society. The third is the story of Danny, a European American who has trouble and often becomes embarrassed with his hyperbolic Chinese cousin, Chin-Kee. This character is first introduced by saying "Harro Amellica!" while Jin 's father, carrying giant Chinese take out container says "I 'll put your luggage into your room, Chin-Kee" (48). All three of these time line show our characters having some sort of shame or embarrassment to the fact that their own image or background is different from those around them.…
In the short story, Daughter of Invention, the author Julia Alvarez also uses books and writing to help her succeed and “save her life”. When her family comes to America, she does very well in school, and she is asked to write a speech for a school assembly. When she is finally able to write the speech, her father fears her teachers will find her words disrespectful and destroys her speech. Her mother, who loves to invent, helps her write a new speech and also helps her begin her career as a writer. The two authors’ stories are similar that without the influence of books, reading and writing in their childhoods, their lives as adults would be drastically different than what they are now.…
Amy Tan allows us to deepen our understanding of her world by finding every day items and ideas that Americans can relate to such as a mother’s desire to do the best for their children, or using meals to represent a nurturing love, or a vase to represent a rocky foundation, or the pain that comes from hiding your true self. The use of figurative language in this novel removes the barriers from both the Chinese and the American cultures and customs therefore allowing us to examine each other not through the eyes of a specific race but through the eyes of one race, the human race.…
Alexie uses metaphor to illustrate his experience of reading and writing. As an Indian, he reads a large number of English books to expand his knowledge. He recollects how he becomes enthusiastic about reading when he attempts to the learn new vocabulary “paragraph”, then he begins to brainstorm and states that, “I realized that a paragraph was a fence that held words……Our reservation was a small paragraph within the United States“(16). Alexie describes that a paragraph is like a fence or a barrier to restrain or hold the surrounding things. In this case, it shows his wide and deep thinking during reading while other Indian boys struggle with basic reading. He is involved in the process of reading and it reveals his confident to make a different. On the other hand, Alexie’s metaphor indicates that he tries to break through the fence of education. He refuses to fail, and his attitude toward reading explains his aspiration to success.…
Reading and Writing. Eds. Sylvan Barnet, and Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s. 2011. 192-194. Print.…
When the world is at its worst, we as humans tend to lean on literature. It gives us hope and understanding of our lives. It teaches us that we are not alone. Everything we face another is facing it with us. Works of literature hold the truth of our past, present and future. If we look at the content and theme of similar works such as “A Rose for Emily” by William Faukner, and “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It outlines the ways of our own lives and has us connect to the stories. Despite their obvious differences in content and theme, “A Rose for Emily” and “Yellow Wallpaper” both ultimately show our own lives mirrored to them, and tell the story of the human experience.…
Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” both use symbols to highlight significant meanings in the characters’ lives. This essay will examine two differences and one similarity in the authors’ use of symbols:…
When Amy Tan falls in love with the minister’s son at the young age of fourteen, she takes for granted what her mother was trying to show her about life. Young Amy’s trying to impress her boyfriend by appearing as a traditional American girl not wanting to appear in any way Chinese American. Tan, still not experiencing life yet, had not grasped that being different is what makes someone who they are. It wasn’t until many years later that she came to realize that all her mother was trying to express to her was that she should be proud of her Chinese heritage. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” (117) She was not appreciating the diversity of different cultures and how both cultures have their own richness and value. Tan was embarrassed the whole time at Christmas dinner when she was trying to impress her young love Robert not realizing that her mother was making the meal for her. “For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.” (117)…
From the founding of the United States to its keeping, wars have been fought- some lost some won- but by re-examining history, some decisions about going to war or capitulation have been learned and questions asked. Could they have been avoided and other strategies sought? Analyzing the relationship between the United States and the North African Barbary States in the 1800s conveys the author’s main purpose in this article by showing how a young nation at that period in time was taken advantage of by the Barbary States and made to pay frequent ridiculous tributes to sultans, yet its citizens imprisoned, killed or enslaved. The eventual consequence was the pursuit of reciprocity: respect and honesty in trades. The author takes us on a journey from the beginning to the crest and the nadir through the experiences of some exemplary individuals of how the United States eventually got what it wanted.…
Images are a universal language that appeals to a wider audience through techniques that give the pictures meaning. Consequently, an individual is able to perceive the image in their own way depending on their level of knowledge. As a result, the audience is able to interpret both simple and complex ideas within the pictures according to their own understanding. John Marsden and Shaun Tan’s picture book The Rabbits demonstrates the different ways an individual may interpret narratives through techniques such as allegory, anthropomorphism and symbolism. Through these techniques, simple and complex ideas are communicated, and depending on a person’s knowledge, this reflects different ideas that the person may gather from the pictures in the book. Through the analysis of both visual and literacy techniques, a picture book’s ability to address both simple and complex ideas will be discussed.…
I never thought I’d be an All American. After losing my “sure thing” state finals match, I didn’t think I would ever achieve the title. The loss was a shock after going 38-1 on the regular season with my only loss stemming from a shoulder injury early in a match. I wrestled my way through states with pins, one over opponent who beat me the year earlier, up to face the Chilhowie senior in the finals. I had a three point lead in the first period before I, in non-wrestler vernacular, screwed the pooch. I pushed a move too much and got turned to my back and pinned in the first period.…
In Ken Liu’s short story “Paper Menagerie” Jack, a naive Asian-American adolescent, lives alongside his family in America. Unlike Jack’s father, his Chinese mother was a significant figure throughout his childhood. She was his shoulder to cry on, someone who could lift him up when he was down. That was until he conformed to the matrix of society and they grew distant from each other. Caught up in his own self-righteousness, Jack’s mother passes away rendering him sorrowful. Liu utilizes symbolism and foreshadowing such as, Laohu, the buffalo, the shark, and the title itself to develop Jack and his Mother’s relationship.…
Human nature is consistently displayed through the eyes of authors in literature. Whether it be the desperation of children whose lives are at the mercy of a beast of an island, or the perseverance of a young boy, crippled and disheartened; literature often conveys the determination, inner conflict and perseverance that makes us who were are as a race.…