Xiu Xiu the sent Down Girl is from the book Tian Yu, which is written by Yan Geling and directed by Joan Chen. The Chinese government is ordering kids to go around the country to start working, Xiu Xiu, portrayed by Li Xiaolu, is one of the kids sent to do so. She doesn’t want to do this, but she decided if she were to, she would take up horse training, so she can be a part of the Girls Iron Cavalry. She is sent to the mountains to train under Lao Jin (Lopsang), a once famous horseman, now injured and lives a quiet life in the mountains. Throughout the movie as the two are living together, they have their difficulties, but it seemed like they had a good time. As time passes, Xiu Xiu is growing worry, because she hasn’t received a word from her home or the government. As for Lao Jin, he realizes that he has feeling for Xiu Xiu, but due to his injury, he could do anything. Instead, he feels more like a family/ Father figure in her life. This part of the movie, is like the main character looking for hope and staying cheerful, like a child usually is.
At the middle of the movie Xiu Xiu has waited a long time to receive word about returning home or anywhere. Until, one day a peddler (Gao Qiang) comes along, and informs her that the Girls Iron Cavalry has disbanded. That informs the watcher that she has been up in the mountains with Lao Jin for a long time. As they continue to talk, he tells her that she needs to make connections with people to find a way back home, which later means having sex with numerous men. This part of the movie, there are numerous sexual scenes and you can see that she is changing. For example, Lao Jin being the father figure, must go through knowing that she is having sex with multiple men and yet he does what he can do to help her and she acts very demanding/ rude to him. This part is very hard to watch, because it tells you that the little girl from the beginning of the movie is no more. Things start to pick up, when they are fixing up their tent and then showing her throwing up, suggesting she might be pregnant. Again, you see Lao Jin rushing her to the hospital and the movie suggest she had an abortion. This part of the movie is very sad, because she as the viewer, you know she will
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor, the protagonist, is a farmer in his middle thirties. The author gives little to no detailed physical description of him, but from Proctor’s speech, we can still picture him as a strong and powerful man who is able to keep every situation under the control, the kind of personality which earns him deep respect and even fear from the people in town. On the other hand, Abigail Williams, the antagonist, plays an inferior role as an orphan who has no social status in a place like Salem. Over the course of the play, John Proctor is absolutely awakened and transformed by Abigail Williams. In the end, he overcomes the crucible by releasing himself from his guilt of
Also, their relationship is shaped by the pressure Suyuan puts on her daughter. When Jing-Mei was growing up, her mother had the need for her daughter to be smart, talented, and a respectful Chinese daughter. This pressure put on Jing-Mei resulted in misunderstanding between mother and daughter. Jing-Mei constantly believed, “that she was disappointing her mother,” because she felt as if she failed at everything her mother wanted her to do. She believed she could never be as perfect as her mother was. Therefore she doesn’t think she is worthy enough to take her mother’s place at the Joy Luck Club “They must wonder now how someone like me can take my mother’s place” (Tan, 27). Jing-Mei does not understand that her mother wanted the best for her; Suyuan wanted Jing-Mei to challenge herself because that is how one builds up character. Suyuan thinks her daughter could do anything she proposed to do but never put enough effort into anything “Lazy to rise to expectations” (Tan 31). Furthermore, Suyuan forced Jing-Mei to learn how to play the piano and then perform at a recital. Jing-Mei rebelled against her mother and refused to learn how to play the piano well. So, at the recital she ends up forgetting the music notes. Jing-Mei blames her embarrassment on her mother and states,
The witch trials in this play were based on actual events that happened in Salem in 1692. Arthur Miller’s 1953 The Crucible is a dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials. His reasoning for writing it was because everyone was hysteric about the Soviet Union and communism trying to make its way over to the United States. It was like a modern day witch hunt. In the play, Abigail Williams and a group of girls get caught in the woods. They were dancing and doing other things that puritan’s looked down upon. The girls were caught by Reverend Parris, and soon after his daughter became ‘ill’. The girls then started saying that witches came to them and told them to do bad things. They sent innocent people to hang. After studying Arthur Miller’s
In contrast, during the era of The Story Yingying, the cultural norm for a woman was to be submissive, patient, and passive. Yingying upheld all of these cultural standards. After meeting Zhang for the first time Yingying showed no interest in him at all but overtime Yingying finally gave into Zhang and fell in love and they became engaged. Unfortunately, Zhang had to leave for a year to go take a civil service examination, but he promised her he would come back to her. She waited patiently and after a year, her fiancé returned but shortly after had to leave again to retake the examination. Again she waited patiently for his return, but he never came back. After waiting for years for her fiancé to return, she became eager to
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, it takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during colonial America. Throughout the story a group of girls makes accusations a mass of people of practicing witchcraft, one of the worst crimes to commit during that period, and people are being sentenced to hang for denying witchery. In the Crucible there are many lessons that Arthur Miller wants to teach you. To me a lot of the lessons that were taught in this story are important but I feel like one of them is the most important. Arthur Miller demonstrates that one of the lessons implied in the story is people’s character and how it affects those people and others. Examples of character are Giles Corey, John Proctor, Abigail Williams.
The name of Xin-hua translates to New China and it was her powerful belief for a new China that made her determination so strong. Throughout Forbidden City her determination seemed to grow. It required a lot of guts and determination for the powerless ordinary people to take on the all-powerful government. Determination, though not her only characteristic, was certainly the strongest one, but through her determination she showed Alex a different world. To die for your country is not as heart rending than to be executed by an army who used to die for their country instead of killing their people. Xin-hua, though fictional, was one among thousands of people who died for their beliefs and still had no effect on China's Communist Party.
Sophie Biyoya Ciardulli is the main character in the book, “Endangered”, by Eliot Schrefer. She is the daughter of Florence Biyoya, who is Congolese, and an Italian-American dad. Her mother had always thought of protecting bonobos as her top duty in life, so it was no surprise when she chose staying in Congo to develop her bonobo sanctuary rather than returning to the U.S. with her husband and daughter, after Sophie’s dad is transferred to Miami, Florida by his company for a job. Sophie attends school in America, but spends summers with her mother. Sophie had always been angry and hurt by the fact that her mother was the reason her parents divorced, but when she meets Otto, she transitions slowly in opinion and grows in acceptance of her mother’s
In the chapter “Waiting Between the Trees” Ying-ying’s past in China that she has kept from her daughter is revealed. When she was young she believed that she was too good for any man, however eventually she realized she had to settle and married an indecent man, despite her being extremely vain. She had given up herself for this man, only for him to
Early in childhood Jing Mei dreamed of finding her prodigy and being a famous Chinese American, mostly because of the views and actions her mother placed on her. Her mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. (pg 405) Her mother was always pushing new tests and talents on Jing Mei. She even went as far as having her daughter Jing Mei models her physical appearance and actions after a child-star Shirley Temple. Her other was always testing her with many different things trying to discover Jing Mei’s talent. Later Jing Mei started to feel like her mother was just trying to make her into someone she was not and started to just fail and not try to do anything right hoping her mother would give up. When her mother died she had realized what her mother had been trying to do. Her mother had only wanted her to do her best. She had then to realize what her mother had
De-hong asks to be a part of the communist movement but she’s found too young. A short time later, she begins distributing Communist literature. The economic situation is so bad that the family has no savings and Dr. Xia, now nearly eighty, is worried about what will happen when he dies. Extortion is rampant, food is scarce, and the money that does exist has almost no value. De-hong becomes friendly with a Kuomintang general. Using his military freedom, they travel outside the walled city occasionally and De-hong leaves messages for her Communist counterparts.. The Communists then start regular bombardment of the city, including one dud shell that crashes into the home of De-hong's family.
For the majority of the story, the characters remain static and flat. There is no growth of the characters as they remain locked in their "battle of wills." This type of characterization makes the reader focus more on the theme rather than on the individuals themselves. The only growth exhibited by any character is at the end. Jing Mei realizes that it was only a mother’s love which drove her to make Jing Mei succeed. She understands that her mother only had good intentions for her at heart, although the outcome was not the desired effect.
In this time in China, the role that women and men had were very different from each other. Women were expected to be quite, obedient, and respectful. While men were the provider, the intellectual and the decision maker in the family. In Shen Fu and his wife, Yun marriage it started out like the typical relationship in eightieth century China, each one fulfilling the roles that society had in place for them. But as they became to know each other more, Shen Fu saw Yun real personality and wanted someone to experience life, so he started to encourage her to be herself and told her she didn’t have to live up to this gender stereotypes for women. They both were always
Primarily, Tan establishes the theme of the story through characterization. The protagonist, Jing-mei, finds it difficult to live up to the high expectations her mother has set for her. After seeing so much disappointment in her mother’s face, Jine-mei “look[s] in the mirror above the bathroom sink and when [she] saw only [her] face staring back – and that it would always be this ordinary face – she began to cry” (Tan 2). This bring Jing-mei and her mother into conflict with Jing-mei eventually screaming at her mother that “‘[she] wish[ed] she were dead. Like them’” (Tan 8). As she matures, Jing-mei becomes a little more level-headed; she then understands her mother only wants the best for her. Through diction and language, the author creates a character that is
Jing-Mei finds a new person that was determined to fight against her mother. Moreover, Jing Mei
When she meets Fan Liuyuan, she takes her chances and follows him to Hong Kong. Her decision to leave Shanghai has two implications. Firstly, she wants an escape from her family. After years of following their rules and hearing their complaints about her presence, she finally has a chance to leave it all behind to find her own independence. Secondly, she is strangely attracted to Liuyuan and securing his love and attention is a conquest for her.