There are many times in which a reader will interpret a piece of literature in a way that was completely unintended by the author. In her article, “In the Canon, for All the Wrong Reasons”, Amy Tan discusses people telling her the meaning behind her own stories, her experiences with criticism, and how this has affected her approach to writing moving forward. While this may seem ironic, considering the topic, I have my own interpretations of this article. Firstly, Amy Tan addresses how people will often tell her what her own work means and the symbolism in her writing. One student in particular took the number four, which appears frequently in one of Tan’s works, and related it to buddhism and symbols of rebirth. On this subject, Amy Tan stated: …show more content…
She wrote me a letter and asked if her analysis had been correct. How I longed to say “absolutely.” The truth is, if there are any symbols in my work they exist largely by accident or through someone else’s interpretive design” (956).
While I am sure many hours of research were poured into that student’s interpretation, this goes to show that the most complex answer is not always the correct one. I agree with Tan on this subject, as not every piece of writing has to have some extraordinary meaning behind it. Some literature is simply just a story. It can be made for entertainment first and foremost without the need for hidden motifs. That being said, many people have chosen to criticise her work, rather than search for the symbolism in it. I have dealt with criticism in my life, as I am sure everyone else has, but none of it has been as extreme as the kind Amy Tan has received. For example, in this article Tan recounts several times in which she was challenged by both professors and students about her portrayal of Chinese culture and Chinese men. However, she seems to have garnered the most criticism from other authors. On this topic, Tan
“Peanut’s Fortune”, a short story written by Amy Tan, is set in China during a turn into a new year. As the Chinese prepare for the New Year celebrations, Peanut and her sister stumble upon a prosperous fortune teller who offers to change Peanut’s fate. With Peanut’s consent, the fortune-teller takes away her fated marriage with a local man, and destines her to marry a wealthy man from Shanghai. The fortune-teller then shows Peanut’s sister a glimpse of her misfortunate future and offers to change her fate as well. However, Peanut pulls her away into the crowded market, leaving her sister to be stuck with her bad luck.
Why do authors use symbolism in their literature? Many authors use symbolism in their literature to create or to add deeper meaning in the context of the whole story. They often use objects, people, actions and words to symbolize a deeper understanding of their story and to develop their themes. They also use symbols to give clue/hints for the story in which they also develop their main characters. In the story, “It Had to be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich, the author uses symbolism to develop his story and to send a message with a deeper understanding of the story to his readers.
The author demonstrates a personal example of how communication became a barrier because of the way Tan had to assist when her mother would speak. Tan would often have to relay the meaning of her mother’s message, because her mother’s “broken English” was difficult for others to comprehend. When Amy was younger, she remembers having to act as her mother on the phone, so that people on the other end would treat her mother with the respect she deserved. On one occasion, when her mother went to the doctor to get her CAT scan results on a benign brain tumor, her mother claimed that “the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing” (Tan, 544 ). It was not until Tan had talked to the doctor that the medical staff seemed to care about any of her mother’s complications. Tan seems to come to the conclusion that a language barrier affects both sides. Not only does it affect Tan, but it also appears to affect the people around her. For instance, this happens when Tan changes her major from the stereotypical “Asian’s become doctors” to an English teacher. She eventually learns to write fiction and other writings that she was constantly told she would never be successful at.
Both Chang Rae-Lee and Amy Tan use their articles to illustrate the impact their mothers had on creating a respectable ethos as a writer. Lee and Tan are authentic and true, which are great values instilled by a mother that shine through in their writing. These articles are great examples of how much a writer’s ethos contributes to his/her overall argument. As said by Lee, "Having been raised in an immigrant family,…[one sees] everyday the exacting price and power of language…" (Lee 584).
The author’s writing style is that of simplicity but at the same time that of deeper meaning. While the author makes it easy for one to find the symbols and unravel their meaning, the author also adds a whole new weight to meaning behind certain objects and
Analyzing a symbol as a literary convention used by author, Junot Daz makes a way to identify the purpose of the device. In his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), the mechanism is used to develop an explicit character and point of view. The symbol is a sensory image that holds rich implications that are either narrow or broad. Occasionally the reader is cast off by the author with an unknown meaning of the symbol, hence is forced to create his own interpretation. The latter principle is intentionally carried out by the author as a literary hook to draw the attention of his audience to keep reading.
Knowing about the writer of a literary text can shape significantly the way that it is read. Consider the effect of the writer’s context on your understanding of The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.
Symbolism “acts as webbing between theme and story. Themes alone can sound preachy, and stories alone can sound shallow. Symbolism weaves the two together” (Hall). Symbolism uses the story to convey the theme. Darkness is used in the novel to show the secrecy and lies that the story has. The whole story involves secrecy among two women and a man. Without symbolism the story would just have a very dark house and two very mysterious and disturbed women. Instead there is a feel of secrecy right from the beginning. Symbolism gives the story excitement, while also providing the reader with a good read. The author can read the first few pages and determine the story is not a happy
Years ago, Sister Mary Corita Kent, a celebrated artist and educator of the 1960’s and 1970’s stated, “A painting is a symbol for the universe. Inside it, each piece relates to the other. Each piece is only answerable to the rest of that little world. So, probably in the total universe, there is that kind of total harmony, but we get only little tastes of it” (Lewis "Quotes from Women Artists"). Nowadays, a painting is not the main form of art humans appreciate. In fact, literature of all sorts can be considered a different form of art and often found in literature are symbols. A "symbol" is an object, person or action which represents an abstract idea (Warren “English 102”). In literature, a symbol or set of symbols can have a wide range of meanings. For example, color is a universal symbol; some may say it is a general symbol for life. However, each color separately can symbolize something different depending on the context. Analyzing five piece of literature for symbolism, one will be able to gain a deeper understating of symbols.
Chinese-Americans authors Amy Tan and Gish Jen have both grappled with the idea of mixed identity in America. For them, a generational problem develops over time, and cultural displacement occurs as family lines expand. While this is not the problem in and of itself, indeed, it is natural for current culture to gain foothold over distant culture, it serves as the backdrop for the disorientation that occurs between generations. In their novels, Tan and Jen pinpoint the cause of this unbalance in the active dismissal of Chinese mothers by their Chinese-American children.
On the other hand, keeping silent due to pressures from the white population means being shunned by the members of the Asian American population. I disagree with Chin’s ascertation that “years of apparent silence have made us accomplices” to the makers of stereotypes (Chin 1991, xxxix). I agree with Hongo’s argument that Chin viewpoint “limits artistic freedom” (Hongo 4). Declaring that those writers who do not argue stereotypes of the good, loyal, and feminine Chinese man or the submissive female, are in any way contributing to or disagreeing with them is ridiculous. Chin’s opinion that politics should be included in some aspect of every Asian American piece eliminates choice from writing topics for other writers. Authors are the voices of the people (whichever people they choose to represent) and should not be criticized for choosing to discuss issues other than those that Chin deems necessary.
Lindo Jong provides the reader with a summary of her difficulty in passing along the Chinese culture to her daughter: “I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? I taught her how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it's no lasting shame . . . You do not have to sit like a Buddha under a tree letting pigeons drop their dirty business on your head . . . In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. . . . but I couldn't teach her about Chinese character . . . How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best”(Tan 289).
The first theory used to analyze this magazine is the semiotic theory, developed by C.S. Peirce. This theory is used to find the meaning of signs and claims it is all in the meaning of the signs used. “A sign refers to something other than itself – the object, and is understood by somebody.
...ch as time, dates, and the exact relationships between the different characters are is not spelled out. This active involvement of the viewer is necessary for the work of art to stand on its own. This takes the challenge thrown out by modernists to reject easy conventions and make new ones, and pushes it further to the point where conventions become a joke. Those who understand the references get the joke, and this creates a new kind of meaning beyond the surface meaning of the narrative.
Literary criticism is used as a guideline to help analyze, deconstruct, interpret, or even evaluate literary works. Each type of criticism offers its own methods that help the reader to delve deeper into the text, revealing all of its innermost features. New Criticism portrays how a work is unified, Reader-Response Criticism establishes how the reader reacts to a work, Deconstructive Criticism demonstrates how a work falls apart, Historical Criticism illustrates how the history of the author and the author’s time period influence a text, and last of all, Psychological Criticism expresses how unconscious motivations drive the author in the creation of their work as well as how the reader’s motivations influence their own interpretation of the text (Lynn 139, 191). This creates a deep level of understanding of literature that simply cannot be gained through surface level reading. If not one criticism is beneficial to the reader, then taking all criticisms or a mixture of specific criticisms into consideration might be the best way to approach literary