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] An example of an autobiographical essay/personal narrative
Examples of personal narratives
] An example of an autobiographical essay/personal narrative
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There are different types of people in the world that people may know. Sometimes we may see two different sides of people. One, a person can be a leader, an innovator, or a role model to set an example of how to be independent. Another way we can see is how a person or anyone may control their lives. Sometimes people force others to be something that they are not really meant to be. Amy Tan went through a phase where her mother wanted her to be something than herself, but showed her mom that she does not have to be a certain way to be successful. Amy wrote a short story called “Two Kinds” and explains what happens in her life and how her mom wanted to be a child of prodigy. People can be creative and become successful in their own ways if they …show more content…
Jing starts off her story by saying “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 down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous. Of course, you can be a prodigy, too,”(Tan Paragraph 1). This quote is stating that if one can put their mind to anything that they believe in, they will become successful and rich in time. A prodigy is a person, endowed with exceptional qualities or abilities. Her mother thought Amy would be the next Shirley Temple because her and her mother would watch old movies on TV as if they were going to help Jing later on in life (Tan paragraph 2). Jing-Mei was using her imagination to see what kind of prodigy child she could be. She thought to herself that she could be a ballerina, Christ child, or being Cinderella. Jing felt that being a prodigy was a waste of time. She said “If you don’t hurry up and get me out of here, I’m disappearing for good,” it warned. “And then you’ll always be nothing” (Tan paragraph 3). It seems Jing is feeling disappointed in herself and wants to prove to her mother that she can be better and become the child of …show more content…
Jing and her mother saw a Chinese girl that was about nine years old that was playing the piano in a little white dress. The mom was impressed with the Chinese girl performance; she hired a piano teacher, Mr. Chong, to teach Jing how to play the piano (289). A fierce struggle ensues between the mother’s desire to make her daughter into a prodigy (more to satisfy her own ego), and the daughter’s resistance to her mother’s efforts to make her into someone she is (289). Jing felt like her mother was trying to punish her and make her life miserable. Jing had argue with her mother because she felt her mother did not appreciate her, did not accept her for who she is, and Jing was frustrated (Tan paragraph 4). Mr. Chong was a very old man who retired from teaching piano. Mr. Chong and Jing would have altercations about how he teaches to Jing. It had seems Mr. Chong wanted Jing to be perfect as possible no matter the outcome. Mr. Chong and her mother have talked about signing her up for a recital. She lies about her practice time and does only what she has to do during her lessons. Subsequently, her mother has no idea how poor and undisciplined a musician she is. At her piano recital, her awful, unpracticed playing embarrasses herself as well as her mother (289). Jing felt ashamed that she did awful in her piano performance and she can see her mother feeling disappointed. Jing had thought she was done with the piano lessons but her mother said
“Like many immigrant offspring I felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new, approved of on either side of the hyphen” (Lahiri, My Two lives). Jhumpa Lahiri, a Pulitzer Prize winner, describes herself as Indian-American, where she feels she is neither an Indian nor an American. Lahiri feels alienated by struggling to live two lives by maintaining two distinct cultures. Lahiri’s most of the work is recognized in the USA rather than in India where she is descents from (the guardian.com). Lahiri’s character’s, themes, and imagery in her short stories and novels describes the cultural differences of being Indian American and how Indian’s maintain their identity when moved to a new world. Lahiri’s inability to feel accepted within her home, inability to be fully American, being an Indian-American, and the difference between families with same culture which is reflected in one of her short stories “Once in a Lifetime” through characterization and imagery.
In the beginning, Jing-mei, is “just as excited as my mother,”(469). Jing-mei was eagerly hoping to make her mother proud. However, her mother’s obsession with becoming a prodigy discouraged Jing-mei. The daily test began to aggravated Jing-mei because they made her feel less sma...
Jing-mei 's mother wants Jing-mei to be a prodigy and get popular. Thus, the mother rents a piano for Jing-mei to help her achieve this. Many years later, Jing-mei finds the piano in a broken state, so she decides to have it repaired. She starts playing the song she used to play, “Pleading Child.” But to the right of “Pleading Child,” she finds a second song named “Perfectly Contented.” She starts to play both songs, “And after I [Jing-mei] had played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.” (6) Jing-mei’s mother tells Jing-mei that there are two kinds of people: the respectful kind and the disrespectful kind. At that time, Jing-mei also finds out that there are two kinds of people inside her. She could choose to be the kind where the person is a prodigy and respectful, or be the kind that is ugly in the eyes of people. When she plays “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented,” Jing-mei realizes that her identity had changed completely because of her laziness and beliefs. Jing-mei learns that there are two kinds of people in the world, and she should choose the right
...ies, she goes back to the piano and finds two songs. She begins to play “Pleading Child,” the song that caused the breaking point of her relationship with her mother. This song, with its fast and aggressive melody, best represents the mother’s aggressive attitude towards her daughter. Then Jing-mei plays the song next to “Pleading Child,” called “Perfectly Contented.” It turned out to be lighter and slower. It is a much happier song. Jing-mei’s determination to be herself, “Perfectly Contented,” corresponds with this song. “And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.” (499). Like the ying-yang and the songs, Jing-mei’s relationship with her mother may seem disastrous and apart, but together they share a strong bond that makes them whole. Even though the two disagree, like the songs, they form one beautiful song.
To be an American has a big picture that can be described in many ways. Personally, to be an American is to achieve everything; however, the person next to may have a different opinion about it. History, America has been attracting immigrants from different parts of the world to live the full freedom and opportunity. To be an American means much more than living in the United States is to be able to expand the beliefs ones have. That is why people view the American Dream. The American Dream is an idea on were a perfect freedom is given to all people no matter social group or race. Many people have a definition of their mind on what is an American Dream. American are viewed as a person who can do the unlimited things. People freedoms and discoveries
As the story unfolds, Tan suggests that the piano symbolizes different things. For Ni Kan, it is the unwanted pressure her mother inflicts upon. She argues, “Why don’t you like me the way I am? I’m not a genius! I can’t play the piano” (751). However, her mother sees it as a way for her daughter to become the best. Ultimately, the young girl decides to rebel against her mother’s wishes. During her piano lessons with Mr. Chong, her piano teacher, she learns easy ways to get out of practicing. Ni Kan discovers “that Old Chong’s eyes were too slow to keep up with the wrong notes [she] was playing” (751). As a result, Ni Kan performs miserably in a talent show where her parents and friends from the Joy Luck Club attend. Feeling the disapproval and shame from her mother, she decides to stop practicing the piano.
According to Steinberg (1996) many believe that biculturalism is more successful than the other four. With biculturalism minority youth have access to the norms of the majority and minority culture depending on the situation.
Throughout Jing-mei’s childhood, she never truly appreciated how much her mother, Suyuan, had done for her. Purchasing an expensive piano and working away to get Jing-mei piano lessons are a couple of the many things her mother has done for her. When Jing-mei became an adult she finally understood how considerate her mother is. Once her mother had passed she grew an appreciation to the physical objects her mother had given her “...sentimental attachment to the piano, and one day she plays Schumann’s piano pieces “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented” and discovers that they are “two halves of the same song”” (Wang). Due to the difficulty of communication, the message of the two songs Suyuan wished to depict was not evident to Jing-mei at the time. Similarly, Jing-mei only valued her mother’s necklace after she passed. Once Jing-mei accepted her mother’s necklace she began to wear it in hopes to absorb and understand Suyuan, “June accepts this as a deep expression of her mother’s love, despite the fact the intricate carvings are opaque to her, carrying secrets she supposes she will never understand” (Gerhardt). If it wasn’t for the troubled relationship they share, then the mother and daughter could have conversed on a deeper
The two pieces of textual evidence I have to support this claim are both from paragraph #67 in the reading. The first one is whenever Jing-mei and her mother get into an argument about not wanting to play piano anymore. Jing-mei's mother shouts “Only two kinds of daughters!” and then she goes on to say “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!” These two pieces of evidence from the text are crucial to the story as a whole. They are important because Jing-mei’s mother wants Jing-mei to follow the chinese culture, and play instruments, and to be a talented young girl like the ones on T.V. While Jing-mei’s mom wants her to follow the chinese culture, Jing-mei is growing up in america, and wants to follow her own mind, and she wants to do her own thing. This causes big conflict between the two during the story. So her mom does kinda force culture onto Jing-mei and that’s where culture is noticed, but Jing-mei also has personal experiences at school that make her want to express her own thoughts and be herself and do what she wants to do, making her not listen to her mom that
Jing-mei and her mother have conflicting values of how Jing-mei should live her life. She tries to see what becoming a prodigy would be like from her mother's point of view and the perks that it would bring her as she states in the story "In all my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and f...
Jing-Mei was forced to take piano lessons; this only further upset her as she felt that she was a constant disappointment. Her mother was mad at her on a regular basis because Jing-Mei stood up for herself and explained to her that she didn’t want to be a child prodigy.
Being able to identify with a certain group has been an issue that individuals hesitate with daily. Am I Black, are you a girl, what religion do you practice? These are all common questions that society has forced individuals to concentrate on. Should an individual have to pick a side or is it relevant to the human race to identify with any group? One may believe not, but for others having and knowing one’s own identity is important, because it is something that they have been developing their entire life. Along with how their identity influenced their life chances and their self-esteem. This can also affect how society interact with whatever identity an individual chooses to live. Which is why it was important to recognize how identifying
Having a strong foundation is something that has been passed down from our ancestors post slavery, which was used to help my family form their ethnic identity as African Americans. Ethnicity refers to a social group’s distinct sense of belongingness as a result of common culture and descent (Organista, Marin, & Chun, 2010). This influenced my family to raise me with awareness of family structure, old fashion southern culture, and valuable beliefs that molded me into the woman that I am today. Along with my family’s ethnic identity, I also have my own self -identity, which is my identity as a mother and a student. However, my family’s ethnic identity along with my own self-identity was not always seen as socially excepted or
The theme seems to be about how the expectations of a parent can lead to resentment from the child when the child fails to meet those expectations. The theme is partially set in the opening paragraph with the statement, "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America" (Tan 1), and again in the second paragraph, when the mother tells the daughter, "Of course you can be prodigy, too" (Tan1). Throughout the story, the mother constantly insists on making of Jing Mei a child prodigy. In the beginning, Jing Mei is excited about the possibility. She even likens herself to Jesus saying, "I was like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity" (Tan 1). When Jing Mei realizes she isn’t succeeding, she loses hope and so chooses not to succeed. In this she resents her mother for constantly trying to make of her something she is not.
Heterogeneous cultural groups have evolved into distinct racial groups that individuals misrecognize as natural instead of a social construction. Historically, people did not primarily identify according to race, but rather ethnic group, language, and kinship. Ethnicity is the identification with an ethnic group based on language, religion, historical experience, geographic isolation, kinship or race. Race is phenotypically dissimilar groups in some sort of long-term unequal power and/or economic relationship where the dominant group justifies its position through some kind of legitimating ideology. Although, race has no biological reality, it is culturally real and operates as a principal identity at local and national levels. The United