Joy Luck Club Character Analysis

There is a linguistic gap between the mothers, who are the first generation of Chinese immigrants, and their American-born daughters. The mothers speak only fragments of English and their daughters speak little or no Chinese at all. So the communication often becomes a matter of translations and leads to misunderstandings. The first misunderstanding with translation is shown when Jing-mei tries to explain the significance of the club’s name,

Four Chinese mothers have migrated to America. Each hope for their daughter’s success and pray that they will not experience the hardships faced in China. One mother, Suyuan, imparts her knowledge on her daughter through stories. The American culture influences her daughter, Jing Mei, to such a degree that it is hard for Jing Mei to understand her mother's culture and life lessons. Yet it is not until Jing Mei realizes that the key to understanding who her

In the movie The Breakfast Club, five seemingly different adolescents are assigned Saturday detention where they learn that although they each fit a particular stereotype, they all have the same characteristics, but they are expressed differently because they have different experiences, strengths and weaknesses that makes them who they are. In the movie, Bender is the “criminal”, Brian is the “brain” and Allison is the “psychopath.” Each of their situations, strengths and weakness are similar to students that are in our classrooms currently or we may have in our classrooms in the future. For each student it is important to understand their learning differences and as a teacher, how I can use their strengths to help them become

In the movie, ‘Silver linings Playbook’ Pat Solitano is diagnosed with clinical bipolar disorder 1 and struggles with stress-induced manic outbursts. This is revealed by a manic episode where Solitano is seen to almost beat to death a co-worker, who he caught cheating on with is wife. The repercussion of Solitano’s actions results in termination of his job, estrangement from his wife who takes out a restraining order and sees Solitano institutionalized for eight months in a psychiatric hospital.

As a child, Waverly didn’t enjoy following her mother’s rules and Chinese tradition. At that age she would’ve loved to get rid of her Chinese features. But as an adult, Waverly seemed concerned that she would fit in with the locals during her trip to China, and upset when her mother told her that the people would know that she was a foreigner. Instead of trying to reject her culture as before, Waverly seems to want “the best of both worlds”, a way to embrace both her American lifestyle and Chinese culture. However, her mother, Lindo Jong, deemed the attempt at balance “too late” and describes her daughter as “American-made”.

For this Case Study I chose fictional character Will Hunting from the award winning movie Good Will Hunting. Will Hunting was born in a poor region of south Boston, Massachusetts, an orphan, who lived with a very abusive alcoholic foster dad. As a kid, Will was subdued to frequent physical abuse by his foster dad, between getting beat with a wrench, and having cigarettes put out on him, Will dealt with a lot at a young age (James A. Frieden).

The Fault in Our Stars depicts Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old girl diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer. The book chronicles her relationship with Augustus Waters, who has also been diagnosed with cancer. Throughout the novel, Hazel constantly struggles with her identity in relation to her disease. She is conflicted whether to accept the prescribed image society has of her or to embrace her true inner self. Through a period of self-realization, she eventually comes to terms with and redefines her identity. Although society may define an individual’s self-image, The Fault in Our Stars demonstrates that identity is defined by the inner self, rather than external forces; in turn, that self-perception deeply impacts one’s perspective on life.

All of the woman who migrated from China all have a curtain pride for their own mothers and cultures cultures respectively. Major acts of pride go into what these woman do while raising their daughters, as they want to push their daughters for success. “What will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don’t know anything. . . .” The aunties are looking at me as if I had become crazy right before their eyes. . . . And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant. . . . They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese . . . who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.” The other mothers are flabbergasted that June does not know that much about her mother. The mothers also have their own pride in their daughters, and all the daughters have been together, so this phrase from June scares the other mothers of what their own daughters might think about them. In Chinese tradition, respecting your mother is very important, due to June being raised in America, she does not realise what she has just proclaimed as bad until the other mothers react to it.

Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish.”(277) Which explains that they are all like her mother and yet they aren’t, but all that doesn’t matter because all that counts is blood and heritage. Through her meeting with her half-sisters, Jing-mei finds her heritage and identity.

Jing-Mei can't deny who she is because it's in her DNA. Suyuan, her mother, told her "Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese" (Tan 139). Her mother said that to her because Jing-Mei is Americanize and knows little about her heritage. Tan is pretty much describing herself that she was born in American and knows little about her background. Jing-Mei tells her mother about her and her friends "I was about as Chinese as they were" (Tan 139). Jing-Mei means that she knows as much about Chinese as her white friends in America would know. But her mother claims that she knows more because she is a nurse and keeps telling her that no matter what, she is Chinese and it's in her.

This connection begins with the comprehension of her name and her sisters’ names. “Jing” means pure and “Mei” means little sister. Instantly Jing-mei feels more Chinese because she sees the connection she as to the language through her name. “Suyuan” means long cherished wish. With the understanding of her mother’s name, her feeling of connection to her Chinese heritage dramatically expands (Norton 190). She begins to piece the puzzle of her heritage together. By understanding the meaning of their names she begins to understand and accept her Chinese heritage. Her connection to her mother’s Chinese past is now much stronger than she had once realized.

In the story “Two Kinds”, author Amy Tan, who is a Chinese-American, describes the conflicts in the relationship of a mother and daughter living in California. The protagonist in this story Jing-mei Woo’s mother is born and raised in China, and immigrates to the United States to escape from the Chinese Civil War. For many years she maintained complete Chinese traditional values, and has been abided by it deliberately. This kind of traditional Chinese culture has also affected her daughter profoundly. However, Jing-mei is born and raised in the United States. Despite she has a Chinese mother; she is unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Chinese

John Hughes's The Breakfast Club is one of film history’s most iconic and renowned movies and is a cornerstone of 1980’s pop-culture. The Breakfast Club showcases five unique high school students who all unfortunately find themselves imprisoned in an all-day Saturday detention. The students go as following: Claire (a pretty girl), Brian (the nerd), John (the bad boy), Andrew (an athlete), and Allison (the strange, goth girl). These students come from very different backgrounds and social settings which proves to spark many conflicts between them as well as with their supervisor Mr. Vernon. But through this conflict they find similarities between themselves, and after spending nine hours locked up together, they find resolution within themselves and with their new friends. Psychology can explain why this happened as well as what caused other events to occur. This paper will examine four different psychological phenomena: stereotypes, conformity/normative social influence, ingroup versus outgroup/superordinate goals, and the various causes of attraction.

Mary’s culture has not been very significant in her life. Although her parents sometimes speak Chinese in their home, they speak English as their primary language. Mary says that her parents sometimes celebrate Chinese traditions to bring some of their culture back into their busy lives. Mary’s Dad is a doctor, and her mom is a house wife who is starting a decorating business.

Jing-mei’s inability to connect with her mother arises from her upbringing. Mrs. Woo pushed Jing-mei to extremes with her parenting and failed to realize the lasting trauma it had on her daughter. Jing-mei as a fragile child wants nothing more than for her “mother and father [to] adore [her]” (233). The developing girl is looking for acceptance through her parents, but Mrs. Woo does not understand the positive reinforcement required in those early stages of development. Instead