Tan's experience with the piano underscores the stark contrast between the way her mother believed fame and fortune work in America, and the way she believed they worked. She writes, "Unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me. And for all those years we never talked about the disaster at the recital or my terrible declarations afterward at the piano bench.... So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something so large that failure was inevitable," (Tan). To Tan, the goals associated with the American dream were simply so lofty, and so exaggerated, that assessing blame to the individual for failing to live-up to them was completely unjustified. Still, to the very end -- even though her mother eventually stopped pushing her to become a prodigy -- her mother held the belief…...

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Works Cited

Tan, Amy. "Two Kinds." Angelfire.com, 2007. Available:

http://www.angelfire.com/ma/MyGuardianangels/index9.html.

Reading between the lines it can be understood that one must not be influenced by the pressures of the environment and of the other people.
All in all it can be stated that a major theme in the works of May Tan is represented by the American colonialism taking place in the contemporary world at cultural level. Just as it has been stated in the beginning of the paper, language implies values. Conquering the world through its language, the U.S.A. is managing to export values that would otherwise be impossible to export. What Tan suggests is that behind language there is always an ideology to be transmitted.

Under these circumstances it can be affirmed that she becomes a militant against this type of cultural colonisation. Taking into consideration her biographical development this is easily understandable.

It can be noticed there are parental figures in her novels and her short stories. On the…...

Amy Tan and Jhumpa Lahiri
Both Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" and Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Third and Final Continent" tell stories about the cultural clash between eastern cultures and the western world of the United States. This is not the only point of similarity between these two women or their writing styles. Besides the fact that they were second-generation immigrants, both women had mothers who wished them to hold onto their heritage from the other nation while still accepting the dominant culture of the United States. This would influence their writings, as is indicated by the stories being compared here. Besides the question of cultural clash, the stories also both discuss the different perceptions of society between the generations and how those differing ideas can also cause conflict. Older generation is the embodiment of the old culture and the old ways whereas the younger generation is symbolic of the influence of the…...

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Works Cited:

Lahiri, Jhumpa. (1999). "The Third and Final Continent." Interpreter of Maladies. Mariner.

Tan, Amy. (1989). "Two Kinds." The Joy Luck Club. England: Penguin.

Amy Tan & Family
Response to Amy Tan

I have come to the United States to study and have left my family, my father, mother, and little sister, behind in Indonesia. I only meet my family on summer break now and I miss them terribly. Like Amy Tan I feel my family is with me all the time. It is the thoughts and memories of their caring that gives me the strength I need in order to succeed in this foreign country.

Indonesia is a large country rich in cultural diversity with hundreds of different ethnic groups. Each group has a unique tradition, culture and art. It also is home to a wide variety of languages and dialects. Coming from this country has instilled in me a great respect for diversity; however I miss the culture and comfort of my family constantly. I can easily relate to the thoughts and observations made by…...

For Amy Tan, however, attempting, for her parents' sake, to become simultaneously Chinese and American, without compromising either culture, or herself, was a tricky balancing act.
As E.D. Huntley adds:

Amy Tan spent her childhood years attempting to understand, as well as to come to terms with and to reconcile, the contradictions between her ethnicity and the dominant estern culture in which she was being raised and educated. She lived the classic minority experience: at home, she was an uneasy Americanized teenager at odds with the expectations of her traditional Chinese parents; at school -- where she frequently was the only

Chinese student in her classes -- she was the Asian outsider....

Amy and her brothers

To the dismay of their parents -- completely embraced the American culture that Dominated their experience outside their home. (Huntley).

The Chinese-American mother-daughter relationship riven by cultural misunderstandings is revisited within Amy Tan's second novel, the Kitchen God's ife…...

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Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. "Introduction." Modern Critical Views: Amy Tan. Philadephia: Chelsea

House, 2003. 1.

Chen, Victoria. "Chinese-American Women, Language, and Moving Subjectivity." Modern

Critical Views: Amy Tan. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadephia: Chelsea House, 2003.

She finds out how it came to be that her mother moved to America and the secret is released that Winnie has been holding her entire life.
Pearl's father, or at least the man she always knew as her father is not her biological father and she realizes through this story that her mother made choices in life that caused her great pain but later found someone who would love Pearl as his own and raise her as such (Tan, 2006).

After hearing her mother's life story Pearl gains a tremendous respect for what her mother has gone through and a renewed sense of appreciation for her own husband and children.

It is interesting to note that through it all her mother holds onto her Chinese heritage and customs. One might think that after all the abuse and sadness that Winnie suffered at the hands of her first husband she would want…...

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REFERENCE

Tan, Amy. (2006)the Kitchen God's Wife (Paperback)

Penguin (Non-Classics)

Therefore, Tan and Tanner both use linguistics to prove a different point.
Even though their arguments differ, both Tan and Tannen refer to the ways women become marked. Although Tan does not use the term "marked," she implies that ethnic background is a type of cultural marking. Ethnicity can be a highly visible marker, leading to prejudices and biases. Tan's mother tongue led to her being labeled and marked just as much as her mother was. Tannen could easily have incorporated Tan's ideas about ethnicity into "Marked omen, Unmarked Men" to discuss ways the dominant culture squelches the voices of both females and minorities. Tan is therefore more concerned with how language impacts personal identity, whereas Tannen is concerned with how language influences social roles. Both authors illustrate the power of language in shaping personal identity and social norms.

orks Cited

Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Retrieved Nov 16, 2007 at http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/nyt062093.htm

Tannen, Deborah.…...

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Works Cited

Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Retrieved Nov 16, 2007 at  http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/nyt062093.htm 

Tannen, Deborah. "Marked Women, Unmarked Men." Retrieved Nov 16, 2007 at

Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan and the Lady with the Pet Dog written by Anton Checkhov. Basically the paper studies in detail the character development in the two works under discussion. The orks Cited four sources in MLA format.
Introduction to Fiction

An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama by X.J Kennedy and Dana Gioia is a magnum opus and a literary contribution that is one of a kind. This highly informative piece of writing comprises of several student essays, brief author biographies and reflections by the authors pertaining to their self-written works thereby covering a broad range of ideas, topics and literary as well as art forms and styles.

From this masterwork, the paper has selected two short stories titled A Pair of Tickets written by Amy Tan and The Lady with the Pet Dog written by Anton Checkhov for thorough analysis. In the following passages of our research paper,…...

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Works Cited

Kennedy X.J. & Gioia D. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Longman Publisher, 8th edition, August 8, 2001, ISBN: 0321087682

Janet. Planet Papers Review. Retrieved April 5, 2003 at http://www.*****/Assets/770.php

Anton Chekhov's "The Lady with the Pet Dog." Eclectic Literary Review. Fall/Winter 1998 Issue.

Themes. Monkey Notes from Pink Monkey Library. Retrieved April 5, 2003 at http://www.*****/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmJoyLuckClub46.asp

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 ife the indigenous informants "innie Louie, Helen (or Hulan), and Grand Auntie Du" in a light as unsavory..."

Ma 18) in one passage of the childhood narrative of her mother this can be seen clearly, when Pearl's mother speaks of losing her luck to Peanut, her coveted cousin, who was supposed to marry a local boy but shirked him off on Pearl's Mother and the marriage was one that greatly challenged her for years;

No I'm not being superstitious. I am only saying that's how it happened. And how can you say…...

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Works Cited

Huntley, E.D. Amy Tan: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Ma, Sheng-Mei. Immigrant Subjectivities in Asian-American and Asian Diaspora Literatures / . Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Tan, Amy. The Kitchen God's Wife. New York: Putnam, 1991.

Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston both compose fiction through the lenses of gender and ethnicity. Both authors use symbolism, imagery, and rhetorical strategies to provide unique insight into Asian American experiences and identity. Likewise, both Tan and Kingston show how gender impacts their self-concept and status within the overarching patriarchal society. Their work can and should be read concurrently to best appreciate the gamut, diversity, and breath of the Asian-American female experience. Although Tan and Kingston naturally have different perspectives based on their own personal experiences and also on their different social and political goals, these two authors share much in common in terms of their elucidation of how racism and patriarchy intersect in American society. Amy Tan’s most famous work is likely The Joy Luck Club, which focuses on mother-daughter relationships within the Chinese American subculture. The emphasis on mother-daughter relationships stresses the significance of gender to identity construction.…...

One is virtually provided with the chance to become 'friends' with the narrators as the respective individual realizes that he or she is being told personal things and that it appears that the story-tellers actually go as far as to consider that they are telling their stories to someone that they have a special relationship with.
Amy Tan is putting across averly's personal feelings to readers as she expresses her understanding of her mother's thinking. "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money" (Tan 132). hen looking at things from the narrator's perspective, it almost feels impossible not to sympathize with averly and not to consider that it would be essential for you, as a reader, to support her by using…...

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Works cited:

Baldwin, James, "Sonny's Blues," (Klett International, 31.01.2000 )

Bierce, Ambrose, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," (Forgotten Books, 1948)

Selvadurai, Shyam, "Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers," (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 07.04.2005 )

Tan, Amy, "The Joy Luck Club," (Penguin 2006)

Chapter 3 elucidated clearly on this point, highlighting Weili's tendency to think of a setback once a solution emerges from a problem; these series of setbacks resulted to her inability to decide for herself, for in all of these setbacks, another person's welfare was put into consideration, rather than Weili's own welfare (70-1).
Adams (2003) considered Weili's psyche as a response to her previous past, specifically, when she was raped by Wen Fu in the midst of the Sino-Japanese War. Adams drew an analogy from this event in Weili's life, illustrating how the supposed "Rape of Nanking" was made more concrete and specific to her experience, depicting Wen Fu as the Japanese who invaded Nanking, and Weili epitomizing her fellow Chinese women, who became the direct victims of this historical tragedy (12). Weili's coping mechanism, which is the creation of made-up histories, became her response to the two kinds of…...

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Bibliography

Adams, B. (2003). "Representing history in Amy Tan's the Kitchen God's Wife." MELUS, Vol. 28, No. 2.

Dunick, L. (2006). "The silencing effect of canonicity: authorship and the written word in Amy Tan's novels." MELUS, Vol. 31, No. 2.

Lee, K. (2004). "Cultural translation and the exorcist: A reading of Kingston's and Tan's Ghost stories." MELUS, Vol. 29, No. 2.

Tan, a. (1991). The Kitchen God's Wife. London: Flamingo.

In the same way that she discovered her father's 'human' character, June also discovered, albeit already too late, how her mother had once shown her vulnerable, desperate side, which happened when she was about to make the hardest decision in her life, and that was to leave her daughters in order to survive the war. This story made June realize that she was lucky that her mother did not leave her, and cherished her as her daughter despite her longing for her other daughters in China. Her guilt for treating her mother unfairly was mirrored in her confession, when she said, " They'll think I'm responsible, that she died because I didn't appreciate her."

This statement has a ring of truth in it: it was indeed possible that her mother was gradually dying inside due to emotional hurt because June never understood and never tried to understand her. Suyuan's frustration at…...

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Work cited

Tan, A. (1989). The Joy Luck Club. NY: Ivy Books.

Through Tan's stunning use of character, however, readers are left to question Waverly's metaphor and her conclusion that her mother is her opposition. One reason for this is Waverly's mother's stunning wisdom. Although she speaks in Asian-flavored broken English, Waverly states that her "mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers and me rise above our circumstances" (Tan 1). Furthermore, it is clear that Waverly's mother's words were often filled with wisdom. Indeed, Waverly credits the women with imparting to her the rules of chess, the secret for winning chess when her mother taught her "the art of invisible strength," what was "a strategy for winning arguments, respect from others, and eventually…chess games" (Tan 1).

Like the ying and the yang, however, Waverly's mother's positive characteristic of wisdom is balanced by a negative characteristic of pride. The woman is fiercely prideful, demanding that her sons give back…...

..I ask you, isn't that fate meant to be?" Now, Pearl realizes that Winnie's fatalism is not all negative. That, too, she has not understood about her mother and what keeps her going. Pearl recognizes the strength never left her mother. For the sake of her daughter, she kept on going. Her greatest fault: becoming disillusioned with life. But now, she can perhaps work on those feelings, because she will not be bearing them alone. She will also have Pearl's strength to help her as she becomes older.
As she tells Pearl her life story, Winnie feels so much weight being lifted off her shoulders. She first apologizes for not having told Pearl about how her grandmother abandoned her six-year-old daughter. This has to be the most difficult thing for Winnie to talk about, since she, like Pearl, did not want to admit things to herself that were too hurtful.

Finally, Winnie…...

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References

Bloom, Harold. Amy Tan. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House, 2001.

Huntley, E.D. Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Lee, Ken-Fang. Cultural Translation and the Exorcist: A Reading of Kingston's and Tan's Ghost Stories. Mellus (2004). 29.2

Nelson, Emmanuel S. Asian-American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000: 105+.

From the Refreshing to the Filling, Salads Can Do It All

Introduction

Salads have long been recognized for their versatility and nourishing qualities in literary works. From their refreshing simplicity to their ability to satisfy hunger, salads have played a diverse role in shaping culinary experiences and cultural narratives. This essay will delve into the literary depictions of salads, exploring their multifaceted benefits and the ways in which they contribute to the broader themes of health, satisfaction, and social well-being.

The Refreshing and Revitalizing

In literature, salads often embody a sense of freshness and vitality. The crisp greens, vibrant colors, and tangy dressings create....