Jomel Sodusta
Professor Wilkinson
English 111
16 November 2013
Apathy-Mantra-Death; Apathy-Empathy-Healing William D. Tammeus, a journalist, once wrote that “You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.” This quote beautifully paints a picture of the natural love present between a parent and child. However, sometimes this love becomes obscured and a disconnection occurs that prevents the parent from empathy. The stories “Two Kinds, and “The Rocking Horse Winner” show that a parent’s lack of empathy impacts the child’s search for the self in the following phases: first, the search for the self is stunted
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I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, and I tried each one on for size” (Tan 405). However as the time passes by, the mother’s tests driven by a lack of empathy begins to suffocate and stunt the search for the self within Jing-mei. She recalls, “And after seeing, once again, my mother's disappointed face, something inside me began to die” (Tan 406). As her search for the self is suffocated to its threshold, Jing-mei stands in front of the mirror. Here her search for the self is completely buried and replaced with mantras, “filled with lots of wont’s. I won't let her change me… I won't be what I'm not” (Tan 406).
In the second stage, the mantra intensifies and this can be observed in Paul as his mother continues to deprive him of her empathy. While Paul’s search for the self is deeply buried, his initial mantra does get him the luck he is searching for. He wins five thousand pounds to secretly give to his mother. This is an important and emotional gift to her because “He was very anxious to see the effect of the birthday letter…” (Lawrence 359). This is an open window for Paul’s healing and recovery of the self if she could muster some emotion and empathy for his efforts. Instead, she leaves him still deprived. “When Paul watched her face as she read the letters… her face hardened and became more expressionless” (Lawrence 359). Asking for one last chance to see emotion capable of love and empathy on her mother’s face, Paul asks,
Under the influence of different cultures, different identities are formed. Jing-Mei Woo (June), similar to Waverly, also lives in between two worlds. June, since young, is accustomed to two sets of culture and beliefs. Jing-Mei’s mother has lost everything when she comes to the United States, and she has all her hopes on her daughter, therefore she wants to train her daughter to be a genius. As the mother presses all the homeworks on June, June loses heart and cries “I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not” . By crying and shouting out loud, June wants to declare her self identity, which ultimately reflects on the American individualism, which is one of the most integral parts of the U.S. value. Being raised in
She was my mother,” (31). Jing-Mei says this to her aunts after her mother had died, and she had to take your position in joy luck. She felt like she never really knew her mother because of their miscommunication. Suyuan Woo, Jing-Mei’s mother, had many hopes and good intentions for her daughter. While Jing-Mei wanted to be herself and still please her mother, Suyuan wanted her daughter to be a child prodigy. Always wanting the best for her daughter, Suyuan hoped Jing-Mei would one day become an extraordinary pianist. Although Jing-Mei played the piano, she never put forth much effort into the music because her best was not good enough for her mother. Nonetheless, she stopped playing the piano. “I could only be me,” (154). She could not be something that she was not; she could not live up to her mother’s expectations. This symbolized one of Jing-Mei’s songs, “Pleading Child.” Suyuan continues to put all the pressure on Jing-Mei so that she will not become like her mother for all the reasons she had come to America; hopes for a better life.
“Two kinds” is a story, a Chinese girl whose life is influenced by her mother. Her mother came to America after losing everything in China. Jing-Mei’s mother was immigrated early to America from China who has “American dream”. Her mother had high expectations on her daughter and did not care how it could affect her. It made Jing-Mei become a stubborn and rebellious person. “In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, … for unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me. (104) She expressed her anger by going against her mother's expectations in ‘who I am’, it inferred that such tendency come from her childhood experiences. Jing-Mei was frustrated because she could not satisfy her mother.
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,
She imagines herself going from rags to riches. Jing-mei was filled with a sense of becoming perfect. She knows becoming a prodigy would make her parents think otherwise and adore her. It would not make her feel like a disappointment. Although, the prodigy she pictures herself being becomes anxious. Jing-mei could not fully comprehend how any of it could be possible. She says, “I would be beyond reproach… but sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient.” Jing-mei was having doubts. She knows what she was capable of. She knows she could achieve the Cinderella fantasy if she tries harder. There could have been a slight chance that she could actually go from rags to riches. Jing-mei knew what she had to do. She knows she would have to put forth some effort. In the story, Jing-mei says, “And then I saw what seemed like the prodigy side of me – because I had never seen that face before.” In the beginning, Jing-mei did want to become the prodigy that her mother wanted her to be. She wanted to be successful. Nevertheless, she witnessed some things along the way that made her realize she could not be the person her mother wants her to be. She did not have to obey her mother any longer. Even through all of the hardships that Jing-mei goes through just to be a prodigy, she never fully done anything successfully. She chose to disobey her mother followed by respect and culture. Jing-mei knew she could not reach her mother’s high
The mother in the story tries everything in her power to make Jing-mei famous in some way. Yet Jing-mei was content to being herself.
Jook-Liang looks at the mirror and tries to think that she is Shirley Temple after Poh-Poh reprimands that she is useless and ugly. Conversely, she finds that she is not that beautiful as Shirley Temple and it makes her feel uncomfortable. Actually, Grandmother’s rebuke makes her realize her inadequacies. Because of point of view, the traditional Chinese thinking that a girl is useless deeply affects Jook-Liang’s thought about the people around her and herself.
Few relationships are as deep as those between child and parent. While circumstance and biology can shape the exact nature of the bond, a child’s caretaker is the first to introduce them to the world. And as they grow and begin to branch out, children look to their parents as a model for how to interact with the various new situations. Through allusion, potent imagery, and nostalgic diction, Natasha Trethewey constructs an idolized image of a father guiding their child through life’s challenges only to convey the speaker’s despair when they are faced with their father’s mortality in “Mythmaker.”
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was enacted in 1986 as a part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1985. EMTALA was enacted to prevent hospitals with Emergency Departments from refusing to treat or transferring patients with emergency medical conditions (EMC) due to an inability to pay for their services. This act also applies to satellite locations whom advertise titles such as “Immediate Care” or “Urgent Care,” and all other facilities where one-third of their patient intake are walk-ins. Several rules and regulations to this act have been established and it has become a very serious piece of legislation and health
Jing-mei felt that her mother was pushing her so hard to be a prodigy that it started to become pointless. Jing-mei states in the story, “‘I’m not going to play anymore,’ I said nonchalantly. ‘Why should I? I’m not a genius’” (Tan 230). The dialogue by Jing-mei explains how she did not want to learn piano anymore because she felt she could not do it, causing tension with her mother. This tension led to Jing-mei arguing with her mother and Jing-mei calling her mother out about her family in China. The narrator explains in the story, “And I could sense her anger rising to its breaking point. I wanted to see it spill out. . . ‘Then I wish I’d never even been born!’ I shouted. ‘I wish I were dead! Like them!’” (Tan 231). This event in the story led to Jing-mei and her mother’s relationship being basically destroyed. The events throughout the story were all affected by this antagonistic relationship that Jing-mei and her mother
Jing-Mei feels differently though, “Unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to. I could only be me,” (359/80) and she was correct for she had no natural musical talent. Jing-Mei has a desire to please her mother, but an even stronger one to choose her own life. She pacifies her mother by going to piano lessons but puts in no effort. Jing-Mei is “…determined to put a stop to her blind foolishness,” (356/48) but her mother’s desire to create a prodigy to compete with Aunt Lindo’s daughter, keeps her focused on the impossible. That is, until Jing-Mei escalates this conflict to its breaking point in rebellion. Stunning her mother, she shouts “Then I wish I’d never been born! I wish I were dead! Like them,” (359/77) referring to the twin daughters her mother lost in China. Sadly, the mother’s desire to have Jing-Mei conform to her expectations creates a constant battle between mother and daughter, and, in rejecting those expectations, seeing disappointment in her mother’s face all too often causes Jing-Mei to feel, “something inside me began to die” (353/18).
As she recalls back on this time by telling her daughter what she calls her Kweilin story, Suyuan describes her feeling during this horrible time as “And inside I was no longer hungry for the cabbage or the turnips of the hanging rock garden. I could only see the dripping bowels of an ancient hill that might collapse on top of me. Can you imagine how it is, to want to be neither inside nor outside, to want to be nowhere and disappear?” (22) At this point in her life Suyuan was separated from her husband who is in the military and eventually is forced to abandon her two young daughters. This aspect of Suyuan’s life parallels the life of Amy Tan’s mother. Daisy tan was also married to a military man during the Chinese Civil War and like Suyuan was forced to abandon her two daughters in Shanghai. This was an experience that would affect her mother for the rest of her life and a story she would continue to tell and never forget. The life of Amy Tan is also a parallel to the life of Jing-Mei Woo of “June”. As a young girl June was forced to play the piano and practice constantly to become the best like Amy Tan was as a child. Along with playing the piano Suyuan also had high expectations for June as far as her future. She wanted her daughter to be the best in her class and go off to medical school to become a well educated doctor, the same expectation’s Amy Tan’s mother had for her. Both daughters decided to follow their dreams and
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
Because of Jing-mei’s mother’s Chinese culture, where obedience is strongly enforced and parents are generally authoritarian figures in their Chinese households, she believes in total obedience and that she can transform Jing-mei into whatever she wants her to be. As one critic
Furthermore, Jing-mei discovers, “Old Chong’s eyes were too slow to keep up with wrong notes [she] was playing,”(472). As a result, Jing-mei performs “Pleading Child” miserably at the talent show her parents and all of the members of the Joy Luck Club attended. Jing-mei saw the disapproval and shame on her mother’s face, and decided to stop practicing piano. If Jing-mei’s mother wouldn’t have looked so disappointed and been proud of her daughter Jing-mei wouldn’t have been so discouraged. Jing-mei would’ve still had faith in herself like she did before her performance. “When my turn came, I was very confident. I remember my childish excitement. It was as if I knew, without a doubt, that the prodigy side of me really did exist. I had no fear whatsoever, no nervousness. This is it!” (474). After seeing the dismay in her parents eyes Jing-mei changed her whole outlook on the situation, which weakened Jing-mei’s pride, causing her to fully rebel from being a prodigy. Furthermore, encouraging her to be who she wanted to be.