The Physical State Of Being Alive Worth It?

Through this insight, Jing-mei for the first time articulates her determination to live by her own self-definition, rather than those ill-fitting "selves" her mother continues to impose upon her: "I won 't let her change me, I promised myself. I won 't be what I 'm not." As the story progresses, Jing-mei becomes more and more openly defiant against her mother 's wishes. One night, she bursts out at her

These expectations increased when she was in the presence of “great power, [her] mother talking story” (20). In one particular situation, the narrator recalls her mother singing about Fa Mu Lan, the woman warrior. Although her mother expected her daughter to become a wife or a slave, the narrator had a different idea; she would “grow up a woman warrior” (20). As a young girl, she said that she “couldn’t tell where the stories left off and the dreams began” (19). This is the case in “White Tigers.” The narrator’s dream-state takes readers into the mind of a girl who attempts to please her mother and entire family by becoming a woman warrior. This is possibly an attempt to subside much of the harsh ridicule she receives from her mother due to cultural differences. Although this is a key factor in her early childhood, she learns to block out these criticisms as she grows older.

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.

“To kill or protect, what a pity our kind can choose only one.” He’d said that to her when, at eighteen, she’d told him she’d decided to become a guardian. “I wanted you to follow your sister and me.” He sighed. “Oh well, it’s probably best that you follow in your mother’s footsteps anyway, for you’re too kind hearted to have followed in mine. Still, with your skill, what an assassin you would have made.”

As a result of Jing-mei having no self confidence, this causes the relationship between Jing-mei and her mother to be destroyed. After Jing-mei tells her mother, “‘Then I wish I’d never been born!” “I wish I were dead! Like them.” Jing-mei describes her mother’s reaction as, “and her face went blank, her mouth closed, her arms went slack, and she backed out the room, stunned, as if she were blowing away like a small brown leaf, thin, brittle, lifeless” (Tan 231). After saying the one thing that hurt Jing-mei’s mother the most, their relationship changed forever. As Jing-mei ages she realized that her mother was right about her natural talent all along. “And after that, every time I saw it in my parents’ living room, standing in front of the bay windows, it made me feel proud, as if it were a shiny trophy I had won back” (Tan 233). Even though Jing-mei says the one thing that hurts her mother the most, the love and confidence for her daughter was never lost. However, once Jing-mei comes to the realization that her mother was right, it is too

Saying goodbye to the clan leader, Dondorian was one of the hardest things Moira had ever done. Her large amber eyes glistened with the strain of the moment, for it had the feel of forever to it. He was a savior, a father, a friend. It was he that set her free as a young slave. And he who invited her into his wagon as a child of his own. It was he that wrapped her in a hug that communicated more to her then he would ever voice. "We adapt, survive, maintain, circle through, but we come home. Remember that, Dreamdancer, and come home."

“I see it as a death sentence. I really don’t know how he could survive with the combination of targets on his back,” she added.

Huang Cheng is a dominant man. He is a man who will always get his way. Since Cheng is this way, “conflicts can’t be resolved” (“Bridegroom Theme”). Cheng began to worry about his niece, Beina because “she turned twenty-three and still had no boyfriend.” This shows dominancy in Cheng because it shows that he controls and worries about everything that Beina does. Cheng feared that “she’d end up an old maid” (365). If Beina would have ended up as an old maid this would make Cheng look like a bad guardian. It would appear that Cheng did not have good control over his niece. Cheng thought that he had found the perfect man for Beina but then he realized that “Baowen had been one of the most handsome unmarried men in the factory, and nobody had expected that Beina, stocky and stout, would win him”(365). This made Cheng realize that he made the wrong decision because it will only draw more attention to him and Beina. Beina’s marriage was not what Cheng had in mind for her. He did not expect her to enjoy it or become attached. Cheng was upset because Beina was not listening to him. He tried to use his power to make her divorce him, but her attention and focus moved to another man in her life. Cheng thought he wanted his niece to get married, but he realizes that he misses the control that he had over her. He realizes that “when Beina still refuses to divorce her husband and insists on his goodness and the inviolability of their marriage vows, her uncle

She said I would grow up a wife and a slave, but she taught me the song of the warrior woman, Fa Mu Lan. I would have to grow up a warrior woman” (Kingston 20). This quote set the precedent for our young no name woman. She has two options in life; to become a warrior and fight battles like a man, or stay as a wife and slave, which was the identified role for these Chinese American women.

In addition, Jing-Mei says, “then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me”(2).

After she came to a breaking point, she had looked at the mirror saw a person [who had] new thoughts, willful thoughts, or rather thoughts filled with lots of won’ts . . . l won’t let her change me, I promised myself. . . I won’t be what I’m not (Tan, pg 242). Jing-mei felt that she should follow her own dreams and goals. She was no longer willing to be used as an object that can be displayed to the whole world.

In Maxine Kingston’s memoir The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts--especially shown in the section “No Name Woman”, she describes the way her family has treated and expects her to treat her unknown, dead aunt and how this all correlates with herself as an individual. Kingston realizes the rift between the gender roles within the Chinese tradition and struggles to form her own opinion concerning this forgotten, dead family member and herself. Through the telling of her aunt’s complex, made-up life and the ways she could have lived based on mere speculation, Kingston develops her own unique view and opinions while deviating away from what her family wants and expects her to believe. She states her opinion through elaborate stories, speculation on death’s traditions, and the disinterest in name and allows readers to learn about the higher purpose of separating one’s own life and their learned traditions.

Jing-mei was caught in a situation where her mouth was spitting out words faster than her brain could process them. Unfortunately, everything suddenly took a turn for the worst when she announced, “‘ I wish I were dead! Like them’” (Tan 231). Jing-mei was unaware to what she had actually done.

There is a great falsehood that is perpetuated by the modern church, and it is one that threatens the very mission assigned to every believer in Matthew 28:18-20. Before one can address this falsehood, one must understand the duty of God's people in this life. It is the believer's task to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them as God ordained, and teaching them how to obey the teachings of Jesus. What then are the teachings of Jesus? As believers, we hold as doctrine that God the Father, along with the Holy Spirit and the Son created all that is. He gave Man, God's special creation made in His own image, dominion over the

"Because the truth of it was, I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, hadn’t I? The least I could have done was to have had the decency to have turned out a little more like him. But I hadn’t turned out like him."