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Role of setting in story
Role of setting in story
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The Use of Setting in A Pair of Tickets and Everything that Rises Must Converge
All Stories take place at a certain time and place, a certain setting. The setting of a story helps us to better understand the characters involved in the story. The setting also gives us insight as to why the characters feel, act, and react as they do. The setting in Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets" and Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge" explores the relationship of place, heritage, and ethnic identity to give us better insight into the feelings and actions of the characters. The more we know of the setting, and of the relationship of the characters to the setting, the more likely we are to understand the characters and the stories themselves.
Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets," especially, explores the relationship of setting to place, heritage, and ethnic identity. Jing-Mei Woo, the main character, has trouble accepting that she is Chinese, despite her heritage. Jing-Mei Woo believed, at fifteen, that she had no Chinese whatsoever below her skin. If anything, she perceives herself as Caucasian; even her Caucasian friends agreed that she "was as Chinese as they were." Her mother, however, told her differently, "It's in your blood, waiting to be let go." This terrified Jing-Mei, making her believe that it would cause her to suddenly change, "I saw myself transforming like a werewolf." Jing-Mei Woo finally realizes that she has never really known what it means to be Chinese because she was born and has lived in America all her life. After her mother's death, Jing-Mei discovers that she has two twin sisters living in China who have been searching for their mother and that s...
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...to take it anymore. Julian's mother didn't realize this, she thought she was being "gracious." The stroke Julian's mother receives at the end is a direct result of her failure to adapt to her current setting.
"A Pair of Tickets" and "Everything That Rises Must Converge" are good examples of how setting explores place, heritage, and ethnic identity to give us a better understanding of the characters. In "A Pair of Tickets" Jing-Mei Woo discovers for herself what makes her Chinese and the setting played an important role in helping us understand how she came to this discovery. The setting in "Everything That Rises Must Converge" gave us a good understanding of why the characters acted as they did to the situations presented. The setting in both of these stories greatly contributed to the understanding the characters better and in general the whole story.
What is in a story if you can’t take something out of it and relate to your everyday life? The book “Typical American” by Gish Jen, gave me something that I never fully, and I probably still don’t, comprehend: foreigners, and their struggles in making a new life in another country. I have been on my share of trips, both domestic and abroad, but was never in a distant land long enough to feel the effects of the unknowing these people felt every day. The manner in which this story was presented has given me a new insight into, not only foreign nationals, but more importantly, how one goes about presenting emotional feeling not just through words, but setting, characterization, point of view, conflict, and theme.
“The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different. I can feel the skin on my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course, my bones aching with a familiar old pain. And I think, my mother was right. I am becoming Chinese. (179). In the story A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan, the protagonist character, Jing-mei, finds herself in several difficult situations due to how her social and cultural upbringing has shaped her. She finds herself pulled between her Chinese DNA and her American background. While she was raised being told that she was Chinese and “it’s in her blood”, she does not identify as such, because she grew up in America and only sees herself as an American. After her mother’s passing,
While using fictional events in these stories we see the connection to real life events that happened during the time periods in the stories. For a story to become interesting it is better to relate it to a certain time period for readers to become interested in the topic. In Let the Circle Be Unbroken we see segregation and racism is realistic situations that families actually went through even in the white families having to choose what to do in the battle of racism. In Dragonwings the transition and struggle of being a Chinese immigrant in America during that time period is clearly shown in fictional
June-May fulfills her mother’s name and life goal, her long-cherished wish. She finally meets her twin sisters and in an essence fulfills and reunites her mother with her daughter through her. For when they are all together they are one; they are their mother. It is here that June-May fulfills the family portion of her Chinese culture of family. In addition, she fully embraces herself as Chinese. She realizes that family is made out of love and that family is the key to being Chinese. “And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.” (Tan 159). Finally, her mother’s life burden is lifted and June-May’s doubts of being Chinese are set aside or as she says “After all these years, it can finally be let go,” (Tan 159).
Amy Tan’s “The Pair of Tickets” expresses an unique story of a woman named Jing Mei who is travelling through China. She was raised in San Francisco California as American Chinese. But after her mother, Suyuan Woo passes away, she embarks on a journey to China to discover her Chinese family root, finding her twin sister. During the travel, she meets family members in China including the twin sisters whom she have never met before. By utilizing symbolism and imagery, Amy Tan weaves the theme of the story that Jing Mei who previously rejected her Chinese identity is finally becoming Chinese (179 Tan) into the elements of the story. We can see that Jing Mei is starting to discover her mother’s story in China. And when she does, her life soon begin
...nterpretation of the story would be distinct with each setting. For example if he was to choose to write this story with a lower class, African-American social setting the interpretation the audience would acquire would much different. It could be to represent the enslavement era or the civil rights movement. Thus, setting is extremely crucial to the ultimate interpretation of the story.
...found experiences and feelings that the reader can somewhat relate to. The narrator was changed from only seeing herself as an American and only seeing herself and her mother’s daughter to being Chinese and being a part of her mother. Setting can create: a better understanding of the characters experiences, the challenges they’ve had to work through, and the longevity of their being. Without the proper use of setting one can only assume that any story could be only dialogue followed by the feeling of being stuck in a blank room with nothing more than the characters. Therefore, setting should never be overlooked or thought as less equal to any other storytelling element.
The setting of a story can change its plot and character development dramatically. For example, take two short tales, “Old Man of the Temple,” by R.K Narayan and, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Both of these stories have strong cultural settings and characters that are influenced by their surroundings. Setting influences characters and story events by changing the way characters deal with situations, changing cultural understanding of characters, and different settings can change a character’s voice.
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
Setting is an extremely important element in literature. Setting could completely change a story. Changing settings can even add irony, humor, sadness, a whole new meaning, and so much more to the story. The setting of a story can also tell a lot about the characters by telling where they live and what time period they are in.
see Jing-mei struggles with her identity for over 30 years, but it finally is resolved once
The setting or settings in a novel are often an important element in the work. Many novels use contrasting places such as cities or towns, to represent opposing forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. In Thomas Hardy's novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the contrasting settings of Talbothays Dairy and Flintcomb-Ash represent the opposing forces of good and evil in Tess' life.
In the book Insurgent by Veronica Roth, setting is one of the most important and influential aspects of the story. The setting of a book or story is one of the most important things to the reader as it allows them to imagine the environment surrounding the characters. It creates a tone and an attitude which change the way the reader feels as they continue further into the writing. Roth is able to use the setting of Insurgent as a parallel to the book’s plot and her character’s emotions which helps the reader relate to them. The setting foreshadows most of the plot and helps to develop the characters/factions through small amounts of symbolism.
After his mother was punched, Julian gets upset with her and states “You got exactly what you deserved” (O’Connor 456) and “I hope this teaches you a lesson” (O’Connor 457). The dramatic irony can be seen while he is scolding her and he does not realize that both the incident and his harsh words cause his mother to have great pain that her mind reverts to her childhood memories. In a sarcastic tone, he tells her “I hate to see you behave like this” (O’Conner 457) and “Just like a child. I should be able to expect more of you” (O’Conner 457). When she said “Home” (O’Connor 457), Julian thought at first that she wants to go back to their house, but in her mind, she wants to go to her grandfather’s plantation. She acts like she is not aware of her surroundings and sees Julian as a stranger. When his mother asks Julian to tell the people of her past “to come get me” (O’Connor 457), he starts noticing something is wrong. Earlier in the story, the narrator mentions that the mother’s doctor wants her to lose weight to stabilize her blood pressure, which implies the mother is not in good health. When she collapses from a stroke, the narrator describes it as “A tide of darkness seemed to be sweeping her from him” (O’Connor 457). According to Harbour Winn, “Ironically, then, Julian learns that the lesson has proven costly [not only did he lose his mother,
Setting is one of the most significant elements in a story. The setting goes far beyond the simple physical attributes and external face value. It seems "Eveline" solely takes place in Dublin in an old room, but the setting actually plays a key role in the story. The setting in "Eveline" helps the reader to better understand the behavior of the main character. The setting in "Eveline" is paralyzing, and this helps the reader to understand why Eveline does not go with Frank to Buenos Aires.