She married a Chinese-American and had several sons and a daughter. Of the four women, she had lived the longest time in America. As a result, she was the most assimilated of the four women. She also had the help of her husband, who had been struggling with assimilation for quite some time.
Lindo is on a quest to reconnect with her lost Chinese identity. On a visit to mainland China, she is treated like a tourist by the locals. She struggles to connect with her native Chinese identity and to pass on these traits to her daughter. She realizes that her daughter is more American, than Chinese and fears that she will not remember her Chinese heritage in a positive way. Lindo's struggle serves the purpose of presenting the struggle that Chinese face with issues such as loss of identity. Not surprisingly, Lindo's daughter shows even more independence and American attitude than her mother.
Ying-ying is the most traditional of the Chinese women. She is meek and gentile, to the point of repressing her own feelings. Ying-Ying makes many decisions in her life because she believes it is her fate, but not necessarily what she wants. Ying-ying's marriage in China brings to light the amount of abuse towards women that it tolerated by the Chinese culture. Ying-ying meets an American, but she quickly falls into the weaker role, once again. She is the epitome of the fair and gentle Chinese wife, who knows that her place is beneath that of her husband.
This portrayal of the weak Chinese woman appears to be exaggerated at times, but it does get the point across about this stereotype and its prevalence in Chinese society. Ying-ying acts exactly as one would expect the perfect Chinese wife to act. Ying-ying also portrays the struggle to break free of this stereotypical role, as she is horrified to find that her daughter has taken on this role for herself. She wants her daughter to break free and to live a more independent life than the traditional...
Joy Luck Club and American Culture Section One (1-2 paragraph summary). Introduce and summarize the main plot of the movie. Describe the main story and characters involved. To do this in 1-2 paragraphs, you will need to be brief and focus on the main events in the movie. The Joy Luck Club (1993) was based on Amy Tan's 1989 novel and deals with issues of culture, assimilation and generation conflicts between a
While America prides herself on her multiculturalism and acceptance of those from all lifestyles and cultures that is not always the case, as the readings and personal experiences clearly indicate. America has been multicultural or multiethnic for centuries, white Americans still are the majority in most areas, and their ideals, beliefs, and even prejudices dominate all of society. To fit in, immigrants must assimilate to the predominate way of thinking,
Huntley 16) The imagination and the old standards and emphasis on luck and fate either good or bad drives the narrative account of Pearl's mother in the work, as she navigates through the traditions of the culture of women plotting to alter their own fates and in so doing changing the fate of others. "Tan first presents in the Kitchen God's Wife the indigenous informants "Winnie Louie, Helen (or Hulan), and
It is more likely that there will continue to be many varied and constantly changing definitions of the American family, and this will continue to confuse those learning English as they attempt to make concrete connections between words and concepts from their own language and those of the new -- and constantly developing -- culture and language they have adopted. When making cultural comparisons, it is important to refrain from
A further stereotype about Asians that cannot be ignored is that regarding the sexuality of the Asian female. "Asian Pacific women have generally been perceived by Hollywood with a mixture of fascination, fear, and contempt....If we are 'good' we are childlike, submissive, silent, and eager for sex or else we are tragic victim types. And if we are not silent, suffering doormats, we are demonized dragon ladies -- cunning, deceitful,
Family therapy believes that problems that the individuals evidence stem from the fact that problems occur within the family unit itself and that the family is divided into several component parts. To address these problems the therapist, as it were, therefore steps into the family unit, becomes "a part of it" and intervenes. His doing so not only enables him to see the family patterns from the inside; thereby understanding
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