A picture bride. The ideal idea of woman created by looks and age, specifically for a man overseas. The book, Picture Bride by Yoshiko Uchida follows the life of Hana, a picture bride from Japan. As Hana and her husband Taro experience life together, the newly wed couple struggle to live in an America filled with racism and prejudice against people of a different skin color. Hana’s fight for acceptance within her community and even her own home reveals the difference in cultures between the two countries. With strong roots in her Japanese culture, living and raising a child in America proves difficult. Hana’s own relationships with her husband and child are strained because of decisions she makes, and it is up to her to attempt to repair them. The desire for acceptance in her community and own home drives Hana, while she struggles with balancing a mix of Japanese and American culture while raising a child, which in turn lead to a relationship that is on the brink of failing with her husband and daughter. A desire for acceptance follows throughout the novel, while differentiating cultures lead to tense family and community conflicts. When combined with a relationships falling apart, the novel paints a picture of these themes from start to finish.
The growth from a young bride who settles in another country, to a mother is astounding, and this progress is shown through the eyes of Hana. Hana is not without flaws though, as not even a picture bride can be perfect. Hana vies for
In the story provided, “The Bride” written by Christine Granados tells the story of an over analyzing sister who wants to have the perfect wedding when she grows up and realizes that it may not all be perfect in the end. The perspectives on this story can differ between the readers' point of view as well as the author's message that she’s trying to portray. One of the four perspectives that is represented in the story includes a historical and cultural point of view. Starting from the first paragraph, we, the readers, can analyze and conclude that the main writer is either Hispanic or a Spanish speaking native due to the constant hints of Latin culture and language. Some given examples could be her mentioning “moño” or “trenzas”, and we gain
In the short story, “Head Cook at Weddings and Funerals” by Vi Plotnikoff, Marusa is a young, independent girl who is driven to get what she wants. She is the epitome of “perfect” in some eyes, however we find out that her character is much more than just a pretty face. Though she is a flat character and we do not know much about her, she undergoes an important change caused by a conflict, thus becoming a dynamic character. Growing up, we are expected to follow many traditions. Marusa’s mother, Aunt Florence, expects Marusa to marry into a good family because “she knows her daughter will be taken care of for the rest of her life.”
Roger Ebert once said "Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you." In the short story "The Wife 's Story" Ursula K. Le Guin creates the mood of suspense by using foreshadowing and other literary devices. Suspense is a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. The entire story is filled with the state of feeling of uncertainty as the wife solely alludes to the major event. It is also obscured in mystery.
The portrait I choose is the Faces by Nancy Burson, 1992 (figure, 22.7). The portrait is the picture of two boys, and they are twins. In the description, Nancy used a cheap plastic camera for their look. The plastic camera creates a blurry effect on the subject, which is the two boys. The twins have the same shirt with the same pattern on them, and their hairstyle is similar as well. Their face features are almost identical consider they are twins. Looks closely, their face structure seems unusual for them compared to other children of their age. For example, the size of their nose is bigger and wider than the usual size. And their eyebrow bone is more arch. According to the textbook, the unusual facial structure might cause by genetic conditions, accident or disease. The twin may or may not born like this, and there are some other unknown factors decide how they look. However, this picture shows the characteristics of the children, such as pure, kind, optimistic, curious.
In the folktale, "The Wise Old Woman" ,by Yoshiko Uchida, it shows how a harsh young lord treated elderly people with no respect or dignity. In this story, you will find yourself outraged at how this lord treated his elderly people. Nevertheless, this story will teach you lessons about life and will show you how many lords treated there elderly people differently. The story all took place in ancient China, where a lord ruled over a small village and any elderly person over seventy-one may be banished from the village and left in the mountains to die.
In the 1950’s, women weren’t respected for doing anything besides being an outstanding wife and mother. Women and men weren’t on the same level when it came to rights in the eyes of the law. Also during this time, mental illnesses were not accurately researched, and since doctors weren’t fully aware of all the information about mental illnesses, patients did not always get the best treatment and were treated as freaks. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, both of these elements are present. Gilman did a wonderful job portraying how women are not taken seriously and how lightly mental illnesses are taken. Gilman had, too, had firsthand experience with the physician in the story. Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's believes that there really was no difference in means of way of thinking between men or women is strongly. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman who has a mental illness but cannot heal due to her husband 's lack of belief. The story appears to happen during a time period where women were mistreated. Women were treated as second rate people in community during this time period. Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows the thought process of the community during the time period in which “The Yellow Wallpaper” is written. Using knowledge on equal rights between women and men, one can carefully study “The Yellow Wallpaper” by
In “Why We Take Pictures,” Susan Sontag discusses the increase use of technology and its ability to impact the daily lives of mankind. Taking pictures is a form of self-evolution that slowly begins to shape past and present experiences into reality. Sontag argues how the use of photography is capable of surpassing our reality by helping us understand the concept of emotion, diversity, and by alleviating anxiety and becoming empowered. Moreover, according to her argument, people are able to construct a bond between the positive or negative moments in life to cognitively release stress through reminiscing. Therefore, Sontag claims that photography itself can help with reshaping individual’s perspectives of reality by being able to empathize with the emotions portrayed through an image. Thus, giving
Picture Bride, released in 1995 and directed by Kayo Hatta, tells the story of many women living in Japan who were chosen to be brides by Japanese farm laborers living in Hawaii. The choice of the bride was based on their pictures. In this movie, Riyo wanted to leave Japan because her parents were killed by tuberculosis. She had heard great things about the paradise in Hawaii, and she agreed to be a picture bride. Riyo’s new husband was Matsuji, and based on his picture he seemed to be young, maybe in his twenties. Riyo was disappointed to find out that he had given her an old photo, and he was actually forty-three years old; older than Riyo’s father. Riyo was also disappointed to see her home as a shack. She continually
Immigrants arriving in America for their first time are initially devastated at their new lives and realize their “golden lives” were simply fantasies and dreams of an ideal life in America. Immigrants from foreign countries, including those mentioned in Uchida’s Picture Bride, faced countless problems and hardships, including a sense of disillusionment and disappointment. Furthermore, immigrants and picture brides faced racial discrimination not only from white men, but the United States government, as well. Immigrants were plagued with economic hardships lived in deplorable living conditions. Though nearly every immigrant and picture bride who came to America fantasized about an ideal life, they were faced with countless hardships and
Adversity can be seen in many different ways. Some people look at adversity as a learning experience, while others view adversity as a situation marked with misfortune. When a person is faced with adversity, rather than viewing it as something to hate, they should see it as a opportunity to grow. In the stories by Doris Lessing, W.D Wetherell and Alice Walker, they all show different types of challenges each character had to over come and their journey to do so. These stories all shared similar outcomes, they demonstrate how each character used an obstacle they were faced with, and turned it into a beneficial experience and how it shaped them into the person they are today.
Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.
treats her like a child and just like a child she is kept in this
For centuries, women have had the role of being the perfect and typical house wife; needs to stay home and watch the children, cook for husbands, tend to the laundry and chores around the house. In her short story “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid provides a long one sentence short story about a mother giving specific instructions to her daughter but with one question towards the end, with the daughter’s mother telling her daughter if she had done all the instructions to become a so called “perfect” woman, every man would want her. Kincaid’s structuring in “Girl,” captures a demanding and commanding tone. This short story relates to feminist perspectives. The mother expects a great deal from her daughter to have a certain potential and she does not hesitate to let her daughter understand that. As a matter of fact, the story is about two pages long, made into one long sentence - almost the whole time the mother is giving her daughter directions to follow - conveys a message to the reader that the mother demands and expects great potential in her daughter. The daughter is forced to listen and learn from what her mother is telling her to do to become the perfect housewife. Throughout the story, Kincaid uses the symbols of the house and clothing, benna and food to represent the meanings of becoming a young girl to a woman and being treated like one in society. Women are portrayed to appeal to a man to become the ideal woman in society, while men can do anything they please.
From that moment on, she no longer belongs to her own family. She then has to obey and serve her husband’s family because that is what the ideal woman was supposed to do.
In 1997, Dorothy Ko published an article in the Journal of Women’s History called “The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeen-Century China”. The article is organized with a brief introduction as to what footbinding is, the negative outlook on this practice due to problematic archives, and then she discusses the examples she gives to support her thesis. Ko’s thesis was “Chinese elite males in the seventeenth century regarded footbinding in three ways: as an expression of Chinese wen civility, as a marker of ethnic boundaries separating Han from Manchu, and as an ornament or embellishment of the body.” Since Ko is a celebrated and established author on women in early East Asia, the article “The Body as Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeen Century China” is an accurate and useful source if one is trying to study that area.