Analysis of Li-Young Lee’s Persimmons Essay

Through the personal stories of his hair, love life, and behavior, Liu is able to show the effects of his assimilation. The second section deals with Liu’s struggles to conform to white stereotypes as an Asian American. With his personal anecdotes, he establishes himself as a more credible source to speak on the subject of assimilation. The second section uses narration to provide evidence about Liu’s definition of assimilation.

University of Queensland ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Course Code: MGTS 1601 Employee Resistance to Change Student Name: Yuanli Zhang (Phil) Student Number: 43401163 Course Tutor: Marissa Edwards Yuanli Zhang 43401163 Table of Content Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2 Description of Problem ----------------------------------------------------------- 2 Propose Intervention ---------------------------------------------------------------4 Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 1|Page Organisation Behaviour; MGTS 1601; Individual Essay; Employee resistance to change Yuanli Zhang 43401163 Contemporary business dynamics are pressuring

In Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Blackberries,” a youthful speaker seems to be living past the boundaries of city life and exhibits qualities of rural living. The poem tells of the speaker’s adventure of picking blackberries from a thicket and encountering the duality of urban society. Readers of “Blackberries” might at first be puzzled by the speaker’s youthful memory of picking berries, but a closer analysis of the poem allows readers to recognize that the speaker’s internal conflict originates from strict societal boundaries and the loss of his childhood innocence.

Lee’s writing is littered with descriptive and flowery visuals that truly capture both the environment and his emotions. In one such case, he recalls an evening where he “[stared] at the brightest star, viewing it not so much on this night as a beacon, something [he] wanted to believe would lead [he] out of this dark tunnel, but instead as a place [he’d] rather be” (155). His juvenile wistfulness is tangible in the words and the reader can almost feel the chill of the night air. He continues, wishing to be “anywhere but here…[wishing to have] been born anywhere but here.” (155). His yearning twists the heart with sympathy for his lonesome and pitiable plight. This moment is but a minute fraction of the incredibly intimate tale that Lee

Throughout the poem, the speaker uses specific details that show the conflict between the speaker’s son and his parents. In the first stanza, the speaker recalls exchanges of dialogue between the speaker and his or her son. For example, the speaker’s son exclaims, “I did the problem / and my teacher said I was right!” (Nye 3-4). The child validated his teacher’s opinion but ridiculed his parents’ opinion. This is further explained through more details in a later part of the same stanza. The mother explains how the son believed his parents were “idiots / without worksheets to back us up” (Nye 9-10). The speaker’s son had entrusted his teacher and thought of his teacher as highly intelligent, but believed that way because of foolish reasoning. In addition, the speaker lists examples of minor mistakes the parents made that caused the son to be embarrassed of them. Through distinct details, the speaker describes how the son’s “mother never remembers / what a megabyte means and his dad fainted on an airplane once / and smashed his head on the drinks cart” (Nye 10-12). By choosing to include these particular details, the poet outlines the foundation of the conflict between the son and his parents.

In the course of reading, the Asian American literature I was particularly amazed by the work done by Theresa Cha in the book Dictee. Despite her Asian origin and the changing of the different places they lived as immigrants, she tried her best to write about art and particularly the poems that have attracted attention by literature scholars. Interesting is her use of mimicry to show the difficulty of speech, her use of international race and nation conflicts to educate the readers as well as her uniting idea of cheap nature of language and culture to show that integration is possible even without the mastery of the native language of a place. In my essay, I endeavour to analyze Cha's use of language in her poems, the stylistic devices she

Throughout the poem, a young boy's curiosity takes control of a relationship with his father, as it reveals his regretful combative past. The boy asks questions repeatedly from many different aspects including, “why we dropped the bomb on those two towns in Japan” “where is Saipan” “Where is Okinawa” “where is the pacific” (Fairchild 5-16). The questions stand as the absences of order and by all means, progress, no answers mean no progress. As the questions continue the speaker describes the father and says “the palm of his hand slowly tapping the arm of a lawn chair,” (Fairchild 7-8). The slow tapping equivalent the slow buildup of anger and fear. Following, the speaker's description of the father’s face as his son continues mindlessly is “wooden” as his eyes freeze “like rabbits in headlights” (Fairchild 6-7). So small and helpless

In the essay Tan writes about her mother’s English and its influence. Learning a language can be very difficult because not only you have to learn the language, but you also must learn vocabulary and having to cope with a different culture. Tan’s mother is a great illustration of this adjustment to English-based American culture while in some cases proceed to think in Chinese ways. Tan to begin with thought that her mother’s English is “broken”, but she then realized that her mother’s English reflects a blend of diverse societies, and she really benefits from this blend of both Chinese and American societies through her distributed making, appearing to as a one of a kind class of Chinese American composing both in this paper and her other books. when I carefully read through this essay.

M. NourbeSe Philip’s ZONG! commands the attention of its readers with the physical appearance of the words on the page. The immediate introduction of the distorted text causes the initial reader to want to investigate more about the significance and meaning behind the text. Philip successfully forces the reader to educate themselves on an issue that would have otherwise went unnoticed in history. I immediately opened it up and flipped the pages and it sparked confusion, but it was a good confusion. It was the type of confusion that caused me to want to know more about what the author was trying to communicate. The misconstrued text forced me to search for answers for why the book was written in this form before I could even continue on. I found myself anxious for the answers. After I began to read the back of the book that explained the history and purpose for this text it became a little more clear. The author is trying provoke an emotion and feeling within the reader of confusion. This confusion and

Lee was a vital character in East of Eden as he prompted some of the most meaningful conversations and questions for other characters and readers, themselves. Many critics view Lee as the stereotypical, “inscrutable, wise Oriental man” because of the times when he was robustly Chinese. Although, in Part two of the story, Lee tried to convince himself that he was “American”, but acted Chinese as it was what people expected from him. Lee said to Samuel, “Pidgin they expect, and pidgin they’ll listen to. But English from me they don’t listen to, and so they don’t understand it.” (Steinbeck, 163) Lee thought it was best for him to stick with his status quo, and he did with the way he spoke and the way he looked.

Lee then transitions back into talking about his sixth-grade class with his teacher in the fifth stanza. The class was given a persimmon, which the teacher refers to it as a “Chinese Apple” (line 43). This specific phrase is italicized making it stand out, maybe it being referred to a “Chinese Apple” sounds odd, but because Lee is from a Chinese culture, he knows more about this fruit than his fellow classmates (line 43). He discusses how he knows that this fruit is not ripe and he chooses not to eat it. This specific instance seems like this is a time in which Lee

Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of

In Li Young Lee’s Persimmons, the idea of cultural identity is a protruding theme throughout the poem. Lee begins the poem as a student from another country, speaking a different language and is immediately shamed for his language barrier. Lee’s initial interaction with mentioning the stark cultural differences he is presented with is the beginning of his struggle to find his own cultural identity. Lowe discusses the importance of recognizing two cultures and mentions the idea of cultural hybridity to help describe literature surrounding being Asian-American (33). Lee’s poem is exemplifying the notion of this cultural identity and goes along with Lowe’s explanation of cultural hybridity by “refus(ing) static or binary conceptions of ethnicity, replacing notions of identity with multiplicity and shifting the emphasis for ethnic "essence" to cultural hybridity.” (33). Lee takes the reader on a journey of discovering his own cultural identity by recalling moments in which he did not necessarily pertain to one culture or the other. Each memory is essential to the creation of his own cultural identity. Another important factor found throughout the poem is the mention of the persimmon which is found in almost every stanza. I will be dissecting this poem into how the different memories interact with each other to dispute this notion of culture as a binary concept, and how the persimmon acts as a conduit to recognize the differences in the culture but also unifies them through the memory of the persimmon.

In the “Two Kinds” story the author illustrates the struggle between her American cultural identity, and her mother’s Chinese culture, as like the characters in the story. The author shows what is the struggle and the conflict that cultural differences creates. The author also uses symbolism, to address the conflicts between the characters in the story.

(AGG) “The darkest nights produce the brightest stars” (Green). Some people use the light of the stars to find guidance in their lives. (BS-1) In the book “Under the Persimmon Tree”, Najmah, the main character, views the stars by the way her family has influenced her to think of them. (BS-2) Throughout the story, Najmah loses a lot of hope during her journey, and stars reflect this by their invisibility. (BS-3) Stars represent hope and this helps Najmah get through rough times. (TS) Suzanne Fisher Staples uses symbolism throughout the book “Under the Persimmon Tree” to make the reader understand the internal conflicts Najmah faces.