Memoirs Of A Girlhood Among Ghosts Summary

In the horror/mystery book Took: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn, Daniel, his little sister Erica, and their parents had just moved to Pennsylvania from Connecticut. The rumors about their new house are that every seventy years a girl disappears and another girl appears from what Brody Mason has told Daniel and Erica . Before they moved, their parents gave Erica a doll which she instantly admires. One afternoon Daniel and Erica go on a hike in the woods. Erica failed to keep her doll in her arms and loses it. The next day Erica is missing and another girl appears. What readers would find interesting is that Daniel never stopped believing that he will find his sister. If you are interested in a horror/mystery book that will keep you on the

Anya is a normal teenage girl from Russia, still trying to fit in into her school. She comes from an immigrant family and tried very hard to get rid of her accent and fit with the American culture. She is a typical girl that worries about boys and all type of girl stuff… However, she smokes.

Dr. Gabor Mate, a Hungarian born Canadian physician, who is also a neurologist, psychiatrist, and psychologist, but who specializes in the study and treatment of addiction, reveals revolutionary evidence pertaining to addiction. In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Dr. Mate worked with patients suffering chronic drug addiction for 12 years. With 20 years of experience as a family practitioner, Dr. Mate is a renowned speaker and teacher throughout North America; sharing his extensive knowledge with diverse audiences including health care professionals and educators (Mate, About Dr. Mate, 2016). The Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Dr. Mate’s most recent best-selling book, illuminates the origins and causes of addiction. As Co-founder of Compassion for Addiction (a non-profit organization), Dr. Gabor Mate encourages a greater understanding; “addiction is the attempt of affected human beings to escape a profound discomfort with themselves and their world” (Mate, Compassion4Addiction, 2015). Drawing on cutting-edge science, Dr. Mate presents the world with a shocking discovery: “The source of addiction is not to be found in genes, but in the early childhood environment.” Therefore, Dr. Mate simply “calls for a more compassionate approach toward the addict.” (Mate, 2016) As cutting-edge science concludes addiction to be a mental health issue, rather than criminal behavior, the American legal system demonstrates a devastating disservice to its own society.

Being an author of several praised works, Maxine Hong Kingston has been deemed a noteworthy American writer since her first book debuted. Her unique style and interesting blend of myth and truth in memoir form garnered her international attention and won her several awards. Kingston’s works have put heavy emphasis on her family history and her experiences as a Chinese-American, so it is no surprise that she has been received well by many and misunderstood by others at the same time. A discussion on one of her most popular works, “No Name Woman”, and a look at the different ways Kingston’s works have been interpreted should reveal how literature can have different meanings depending on what one is looking for.

What the role of a women should be was another point of conflict between the mothers and daughters. In the first anecdote on page 17, Tan tells the story of a Chinese women coming to America who dreams that “over there nobody will say her [daughter’s] worth is measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch.” This quote shows that the traditional view of women in China is that they should serve their husbands and families, and that they don’t deserve freedom. Ying-Ying St. Clair found herself conforming to this stereotype, saying that “[she] was pretty for [her husband].” (Tan 247). Not only did Ying-Ying have to listen to her husband, she began to embrace it and only serve her husband, without any regard for herself. When he left her to marry a younger women, she realized that she had been wasting away her life. She waited four years, until she was able to run away to America, where she gained her freedom. However, her daughter, Lena, was born with these rights that she had worked hard to gain. Lena talks about her husband, saying, “really, we’re equals, except that Harold makes about seven times more than what I make.” Harold is also her boss, despite the fact that they originally started their company together. Ying-Ying realizes that Lena is becoming submissive to her husband, much the way she did. Ying-Ying wants to “cut [Lena’s} tiger spirit loose” (Tan 252), but Lena refuses to listen, not realizing that her

In “No Name Woman,” the theme of silence starts with the elementary words of the memoir stating you must not tell anyone. This statement is ironic because Kingston is in fact telling everyone, giving voice to Chinese customs and the lives that are foregone. As written in her memoir, she states, “You must not tell anyone,” my mother said, “what I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born.” (Deshazer 308). It is especially notable and ironic that the memoir begins with the phrase “You must not tell anyone.” Her effort in No Name Woman is to write about that which is never said; her unnamed dead aunt, and the outrageous behaviors in her mother’s Chinese village. Kingston was not necessarily silenced direct by a male figure; however, the words said by her mother “You must not tell anyone” is a representation of Kingston father’s authorization voice through her mother’s explanation. Kingston’s effort is also about discovering a voice, as both a Chinese-American

In a country that is the melting pot for many cultures, it is hard to interact with all of them. Tony Hillerman educates readers about one culture, the Navajos, through his novel, The Ghostway. After a shooting occurs in the quiet Indian reservation, a Navajo police Jim Chee, officer overcomes many obstacles physically, mentally, and spiritually to sort the case out and protect a young girl. He is constantly struggling with his identity, whether or not he should continue living his life as a Navajo or cross over to mainstream “white” life. Although the book’s main plot is about a murder and police investigations, a theme that the book is always making references about is cultural differences and how these

A subheading within the family section is called “permission to speak” this section persuades students to write their story without worrying about the opinions of others. Subsequently, the “No Name Women,” is about a girl who is told by her mother at the very begin that “[y]ou must not tell anyone . . . what I'm about to tell you,” instantly we are told that the story she is sharing was meant to be a secret. Although, Kingston was supposed to keep this to herself she decides to share her story. Similar, to the chapter’s suggestion Kingston, drowns out the voices of her family member telling her to not tell the story. It is important to note that every writer has a purpose for sharing each story, ad those who succeed are the ones that do not

"Ghost." What images does this word conjure up in the average American mind? Perhaps you think of little kids draped in white sheets begging for candy on Halloween. Perhaps you imagine transparent versions of dead people wandering the earth for eternity. Perhaps you are reminded of a person who just saw something especially scary; they are "pale as a ghost".

In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston crafts a fictitious memoir of her girlhood among ghosts. The book’s classification as a memoir incited significant debate, and the authenticity of her representation of Chinese American culture was contested by Asian American scholars and authors. The Woman Warrior is ingenuitive in its manipulation of the autobiographical genre. Kingston integrates the value of storytelling in her memoir and relates it to dominant themes about silence, cultural authenticity, and the cultivation of identity. Throughout her work, Kingston reaches a variety of conclusions about the stories her mother told her by writing interpretations of her mother, Brave Orchid’s, “talk-story”. Brave Orchid’s talk-story is a form

As part of the first generation of Chinese-Americans, Maxine Hong Kingston writes about her struggle to distinguish her cultural identity through an impartial analysis of her aunt’s denied existence.  In “No Name Woman,” a chapter in her written memoirs, Kingston analyzes the possible reasons behind her disavowed aunt’s dishonorable pregnancy and her village’s subsequent raid upon her household.  And with a bold statement that shatters the family restriction to acknowledge the exiled aunt, Kingston states that, “… [she] alone devote pages of paper to her [aunt]...”   With this premeditated declaration, Kingston rebelliously breaks the family’s cultural taboo to

Considered one of the most respected African plays, The Dilemma of a Ghost revolves around a newly married couple, Ato and Eulalie. Ato’s Ghanaian family has saved tremendously to send him to University in the United States. After he completes his studies, however, Ato surprises his family by returning home with an African-American bride, Eulalie. Spread out over a year, the play mainly focuses on the cultural differences that both Ato’s family and Eulalie struggle to accept in each other. Aidoo captures a number of upsetting problems confronting the post-colonial Africa, as she highlights the

In the short story Ghosts written by Edwidge Danticat a young man named Pascal and his family (mother, father, and a brother once a police officer, immigrated to Canada) live in an underprivileged area of Haiti called Bel Air. His parents once pigeon breeders, now own a restaurant in the neighborhood. The eatery caters to the working-class citizens as well as the local gang members. When Pascal is not working at the restaurant he is either attending computer programming school or working at the local radio station as a news writer. Pascal has the desire to have a program on the radio station, that he will use as a platform to discuss and alleviate the numerous issues within his community with guest such as; gang members, community leaders,

High upon a lonely hill surrounded by a great dark forest, stood an ancient, crumbling manor, known as the Haunted House. The windows were all smashed and it looked like the house was used a long time ago and was never used again. The font gates were as old as the hills. It belonged to a greedy old man, he was as short as a stump, he was really grumpy and fat who everyone said he was a wizard. Even though he owned the immense haunted house he didn’t dare to go inside because he was frightened like a child in dark, so he lived in the small cottage in the grounds of the manor, with just his black cat for company. He was as lonely as the master who has go to war, but hews happy, because he had a true love. His true love was gold, and he had

There 's that look people get told they have, where they look like they 've seen a ghost. I want to know what it means to have that feeling but knowing you 're the ghost. It had been too long since I stepped foot anywhere near these parts of the city. After I turned and changed into who I am now, I never wanted to risk getting seen by any members of the family that runs this part. That is actually a good reason they have never been able to extend their territory any further. It 's kind of easy to hear when a gang war is about to break out for someone to gain new ground. And for me, it 's all too easy to join the defending family and help kill men you were once friends with to make sure you had the room to run fucking wild. I 'm made a few good friends, nah I made a few bad acquaintances by doing that. The men that run other parts of this city know me by who I am now, only one knows me by who I was. Maybe it 's for the best he knows Big Mac is against him, less likely that it 's me behind the mask then. God, in those days, before I grew up and found out doing everything I was getting told to do, without being told to do them was so much better, Claire not counting, she just above another voice in my head. But the freedom I have, may not seem like a good thing for the city and its people, but I love being me and only this me.