Memari, Arian
AP Eng. Lit., I
August 12, 2016
Cultural Transcendency
As she ascends into the new world, the shadows remain persistent. Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, demonstrates the main character, LuLing’s, escapade into Americanism but it is coupled with the benevolent remembrance of her quondam home. Throughout the novel, LuLing’s difficulty with settling in America cultivates through her cultural assimilation and familial relationships. She undergoes the tragedies from the absence of communication, her literal “voicelessness,” as well as her family’s exodus--all the while she bestows endearment for her family.
The predominant conflict that arises within the novel is the immigration of LuLing’s family from China into America and
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“Mother believed Great-Granny was still around, haunting the outhouse and making sure everyone still followed her rules,”this shows how family is an integral part of LuLing’s life. This theme is most notably displayed with the symbol of bones. Throughout the story, dragon bones are shown to display ancestry and family, and the old broken bones the scientists find show how her family is breaking in the modern times. This shows a parallel between the American culture and the Chinese culture; scientists had found ancient bones in China and Precious Auntie assumes that they are cursed, similar to the American culture where the bones are “breaking” because her family is falling apart, due to multiple circumstances. Within the theme of familial relationships comes the consequence of death. Due to lack of communication within the relationships comes mortality--LuLing and her biological mother both long for death at different parts of their lives, and it is in part of their troubled personal relationship. When Precious Auntie ends up committing suicide, this shows the theme of lack of communication because since the two women frequently talked about death, it was inevitable that it would occur. The symbolism of the title of the novel …show more content…
Throughout the novel, the author illuminates the larger meaning of the work by connecting all of the events that occur to the characters to her whole life. This novel, in a sense, is a memoir of Tan’s life, because she connects all of the personal details to herself. Tan herself shows that in her own life, the themes of familial relationships and lack of communication have consistently shown up, from Precious Auntie’s own suicidal thoughts, to the difficulty of settling in a country you know a meager amount about. While in China, superstition, tragedy, traditional values, and “the old,” are the eccentric to America's “new beginning,” modern, and voicelessness. Whether the instances are flashbacks or mere foreshadowing, Amy Tan is able to aid the reader in unraveling the “secrets” of the novel. LuLing is Tan’s orchid: “delicate, but thrived on
we are told that this story is about a girl or a woman and perhaps her
Over the summer, after taking a break from reading a novel just for entertainment, I sat down to read How to Read Literature like a Professor and it was the exact novel to refresh and supplement my dusty analysis skills. After reading and applying Foster’s novel, How to Read Literature like a Professor, towards The Bonesetter’s Daughter I found a previously elusive and individualized insight towards literature. Although, The Bonesetter’s Daughter is full of cryptic messages and a theme that is universal, I was able to implement an individual perspective on comprehending the novel’s universal literary devices, and coming upon the unique inference that Precious Auntie is the main protagonist of the novel.
Chang portrays the complexity of Henry’s character by showing the conflict that he faces both in his personal and professional life. His confusion towards his own Cultural identity is noticed in his relationships with his co-workers as well as with his family. His personal relationship with his family, especially with his father and his wife exemplifies the clash between the two cultures which seems to tear Henry apart. Leila, Henry’s wife, seems to epitomize the traditional American Culture which Henry tries very hard to be a part of. Her forthright nature along with the independence and individuality contradicts the stereotypical qualities of an Asian wife. However, Henry’s desperation is seen in his forgiving attitude towards Leila’s action and behavior. His deter...
Her novel ‘Lucy’ explored the characters Lucy’s life experience in flashback of growing up on a small island and her present life in the United States as well as the relationship between the mother and daughter. This portrayal echoes similarities to that of Kincaid life. Like Kincaid, the cha...
Amy Tan used symbolism to reveal the cultures and how it interacted with the conflict of the story. One example was she used the game of chess as more than just a game. She illustrated it as a game of life and a way of her adaptation into her new American culture. This was demonstrated when Waverly’s mother read the rules of chess but did not understand them. Mrs. Lindo said, “Every time people come out from foreign country, must know rules… They say, don’t know why, you find out yourself” (502). This quote demonstrated the culture gap in the family, because the mother grew up with Chinese beliefs. Symbolically, when they received the American game of chess for Christmas they were excited and
... emotional and mental growth from what happened to her through her artwork. Like Melinda had said in the book, she had gone through different phases in her art pictures from ones with dead, leafless trees to trees with cubism and beautiful leaves and branches. This shows her growth and recovery from what happened that night at the party. In the end, as this relates to Melinda, life is like a tree. You start off a little seed and then become a sprout. You learn from your mistakes and life lessons and begin to grow into a tall, strong, and mighty tree wear no one can harm or stop you from being yourself.
The second and third sections are about the daughters' lives, and the vignettes in each section trace their personality growth and development. Through the eyes of the daughters, we can also see the continuation of the mothers' stories, how they learned to cope in America. In these sections, Amy Tan explores the difficulties in growing up as a Chinese-American and the problems assimilating into modern society. The Chinese-American daughters try their best to become "Americanized," at the same time casting off their heritage while their mothers watch on, dismayed. Social pressures to become like everyone else, and not to be different are what motivate the daughters to resent their nationality. This was a greater problem for Chinese-American daughters that grew up in the 50's, when it was not well accepted to be of an "ethnic" background.
First of all, ‘The Lovely Bones’ is about a girl named Susie Salmon and tells a story of how she died and how people get along together and live without her. She was a normal fourteen-year-old girl when she was murdered in the novel 's opening pages. She narrates the rest of her story from heaven, often returning to Earth to watch over her loved ones; mostly family, some friends and Mr. Harvey and the other people he kills. ‘Lovely Bones’ is represents Susie’s body the connection of heaven to earth, earth to heaven. This is main symbolism of this book as Susie. ‘She began to see things without her and the events that her death will influence her in heaven and her family and friends in earth.’ In this passage, the author talks about her life
Amy Tan, in ?Mother Tongue,? Does an excellent job at fully explaining her self through many different ways. It?s not hard to see the compassion and love she has for her mother and for her work. I do feel that her mother could have improved the situation of parents and children switching rolls, but she did the best she could, especially given the circumstances she was under. All in all, Amy just really wanted to be respected by her critics and given the chance to prove who she is. Her time came, and she successfully accomplished her goals. The only person who really means something to her is her mother, and her mother?s reaction to her first finished work will always stay with her, ?so easy to read? (39).
When she arrives, she feels somehow proud to be Chinese. But her main reason why she went back home is to reflect her mother past life on her present life. Through the setting and her relatives, Jing Mei learns the nature of Chinese American culture. The main setting takes place in China, effects of the main character’s point of view through changing her sense of culture and identity. The time period plays a large role on the story, there is disconnect between the mother and daughter who came from different culture. In “A Pair of Tickets”, we learn it’s a first person narrator, we also learn detail of what the narrator is thinking about, detail of her past and how life compared to China and the US are very different. The theme is associated with the motherland and also has to deal with her mother’s death and half sisters. Her imagination of her sister transforming into adult, she also expected them to dresses and talk different. She also saw herself transforming, the DNA of Chinese running through her blood. In her own mind, from a distance she thinks Shanghai, the city of China looks like a major American city. Amy Tan used positive imagery of consumerism to drive home her themes of culture and identity, discovering her ancestral
There are multiple reasons why a book can be banned or challenged. Book banning causes the removal of materials in schools and libraries due to “inappropriate” content. The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, was banned due to sexual content and language.
Their Aunt’s persona is obscure before she arrives, and once she is their full caretaker, they begin to realize that her behavior is contrasting to their formulated notion of domesticity. The entrance of Sylvie puts a strain on the two inseparable sisters. Sylvie represents the opposite of Lucille, who mimics the ideals and values of Fingerbone,therefore; She represents the paragon of a female within the 1950’s. With opposing views such as the matters of schooling ,feeding, cleaning, and responsibilities the relationship is severed between the sisters. For example, the heaps of unwashed dishes, burnt curtains, opened cans reflecting trash to Lucille and art to Sylvie, and the lights that are rarely turned on. Lucille set on finding an escape from her grandmother’s house and rejecting transience, allows Ruth to no longer base her identity to the one her sister and the town has construed for her. With the severing of the relation and Lucille leaving to home economics teachers house, Ruth is liberated from the bondage of her sister who expected her to be her shadow. With the diversion of ideals between Sylvie and Lucille, the differences between permanence and transience is highlighted through the use of the two. This is noted when Ruth says “Lucille hated everything that had to do with transience”(103).And after this statement we
Regretfully, though readers can see how Mama has had a difficult time in being a single mother and raising two daughters, Dee, the oldest daughter, refuses to acknowledge this. For she instead hold the misconception that heritage is simply material or rather artificial and does not lie in ones heart. However, from Mama’s narrations, readers are aware that this cultural tradition does lie within ones heart, especially those of Mama’s and Maggie’s, and that it is the pure foundation over any external definition.
In conclusion, Amy Tan uses many literary elements such as characterization, symbolism, and conflict to display the themes of independence and the battle within Waverly between her Chinese heritage and becoming Americanized. The characterization shows just how much young Waverly changes from beginning to end, and how she grows further and further from her family. The struggle between being an American and Chinese is portrayed with the symbolic properties of the good luck charm from her mother, the wind she hears while playing chess, and the game itself. By using the element of conflict, Tan shows the extent of the conflicts between the two cultures and ways of life, and also between Waverly and her mother.
The protagonist Tan-Tan and the other inhabitants of the planet Toussaint have descended from ancestors who had left Earth to forge a new society free from the racist premises inextricably bound up in terrestrial communities. Toussaint is run by an Internet-like information system, known as “Granny Nanny”, invented by the Marryshow Corporation. Each person on the planet is injected with nanomites at birth that allow them a mental access to Granny Nanny. This access takes the form of an eshu, functioning as the local Artificial Intelligence that becomes a mental voice within the head, and performs multiple tasks and provides information upon request. Tan-Tan spends her childhood in Cockpit County, until her father, Antonio, poisons his wife’s lover during Toussaint's annual Jonkanoo Carnival. Knowing he will be punished by the all-seeing Granny Nanny, he escapes with Tan-Tan to the penal dimension, New Half-Way Tree, where Granny Nanny cannot reach him. At New Half-Way Tree, a douen (the lizard-like sentient species that is native to the planet) named Chichibud, leads them into the nearest human settlement, Junjuh. At Junjuh, Tan-Tan’s life takes a disturbing turn when her father begins to exploit her sexually. This traumatic experience causes a split in her personality. Tan-Tan becomes