Literary Analysis: Chang's 'Revolution is Not a Dinner Party' and Hahn's 'Deep and Dark and Dangerous'

The story has an external conflict between the main character and her daughter in regarding best way of disciplining Sophie but this conflict is based on the internal one. The main conflict of the story is the internal conflict of the Chinese immigrant who decides to live in the United States but carries the values of her native country with her and therefore, finds it difficult to accept other types of behavior, such as the actions of the Irish family. Her internal conflict is evident when she

In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American,

Mona, on the other hand, carries a kind of open-mindedness and curiosity that is sometimes associated with idealistic American youth: never just accepting things for how they are, and questioning anything that seems unjust. Mona no longer will put up with inhabiting the role of “good Chinese daughter” that her parents - especially Helen - have laid before

With working hard, comes compassion and lessons learned. In both stories, we see a big similarity- tough love and lessons learned. In “Fish Cheeks” by Amy tan we see this in a silent lesson. As they invite the ministers family over for Christmas Eve dinner, the mother has a treat for them. They are a chinese family and they don’t celebrate it with the old fashioned turkey and mashed potatoes, which the daughter, Amy, is nervous about for she has a major crush on the minister's son. She becomes embarrassed about her heritage and says, “I wanted to disappear” (Tan). Towards the end of the story, when the minister’s family leaves, the mother pulls Amy aside and states, “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.. But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” and response to her mother, Amy agrees when she writes, “And even though I didn’t agree with

On the other hand, Nguyen talks of the language difficulties that she experienced being a Vietnamese in the United States. At first, she is enrolled to a school far from home as it offers bilingual education to help her integrate with the system of learning. She works hard to raise her academic performance with hopes of falling in favor with the teacher. However, as the teacher knows her Vietnamese origin, she manifests her stereotype on Nguyen’s comprehension in literature readings. For instance, while it was her turn to read, the teacher would interrupt her making sentiments such as “you are reading too fast….things she did not do to other students” (Nguyen, 35). She also faces a “school-constructed identity” together with her sister with all sorts of jibes thrown against them. As Vollmer puts it, “such assumptions affect the interpretations made of student behavior and school

In the book Everything I Never Told You, there are many different elements and techniques used within the book. The technique that I want to go into more depth on is the use of symbolism. I specifically want to focus on the symbolism in regards to Lydia, Hannah, and Nath’s love of astronauts and space.

In “The Dinner Party” a colonial official and his wife are throwing a dinner party for the army officers and the government attaches and their wives, and a visiting American naturalist (Gardner 1). In this story the characters are having an argument over women’s and men’s control of their “jumping-out-of-your-chair phase.” Who do you agree with, the colonel or the young girl? Have women grown out of this phase? Lets find out how men and women react.

In Jan Wong’s entrancing expose Red China Blues, she details her plight to take part in a system of “harmony and perfection” (12) that was Maoist China. Wong discloses her trials and tribulations over a course of three decades that sees her searching for her roots and her transformation of ideologies that span over two distinctive forms of Communist governments. This tale is so enticing in due part to the events the author encountered that radically changed her very existence and more importantly, her personal quest for self-discovery.

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

"Metafiction is a term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality."

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.

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.

“To realize the American Dream, the most important thing to understand is that it belongs to everybody. It is a human dream. If you understand this and work very hard it is possible.” However it is not always guaranteed. A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a story about a family who continues to struggle while reaching towards The American Dream. The American Dream is described as “The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” The Youngers are a hard-working family who all have different interpretations of the American Dream. Mama, Walter, and Beneatha’s shared powerful dreams that give the a look into The American Dream. Despite

This education, seen from the other side of the cultural gap, is what makes Lena see her mother as a weak person. Lena has a job, an American husband, she lives an American life, unlike her mother, who is attached to weird old disused Chinese traditions. But she herself is not happy, as her mother can see. Her husband is not as good as he might be: he exploits her, paying her a too low wage, never recognizes her contribution to their success as architects,... On the other hand, Ying- Ying marriage, although imperfect, is based on firmer grounds of respect and goodness towards each other than that of Lena.

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.