The White Umbrella By Gish Jen Summary

The three themes that stood out the most to me were: prejudice, leadership, and bravery. My first theme is prejudice, in my opinion it is not right to own someone as “property”

To start, there are many quotes from the book that can describe this theme. An example is on page 2, right

The theme is reflected through the people in the book, and events that take place in the

People read countless stories that have a variety of themes in them. When people read “Angela's Ashes” by Frank McCourt, and “The Street” by Ann Petry, they can probably sense that there is something similar among the two stories', and that's because they share a common theme. The theme is how people can persevere through problems that they encounter. The reader will discover this similar theme of persevering through problems with the way the authors utilize the character of characters feelings and personality, the way setting creates a backdrop that establishes the tone of the story, and events that cause conflict to the character.

Racism has become more and more outraged throughout the years, to where it has divided our country. It’s made us fear our authorities, our neighbors, and ‘brothers’. The excerpt in “The Fire This Time”, titled “White Rage” by Carol Anderson, shows the progress that hasn’t been made because of white rage. Racism is not a fresh topic, it has been around since the times of slavery, only now has it been ignited and is now more of a threat than anything else in this country. The new subtle form of racism should not be accepted in society because it is barbarous, immoral, and discriminatory.

Another way to say it is you can't really know someone just by looking at them. Two of the examples of this theme in the book is on pages 136 and 13. On pg. 136 Iggy becomes soft because of what happened to Loretta. He looks like an immense, biker with some anger issues but, when you hurt someone he loves he is a real softie. This proves the theme because just by looking at Iggy, you don’t know the real Iggy. Another example of this theme is on page 13. Max goes over to Kevin to help get his bird machine out of the trees. While he does so, Kevin says, “This is an ornithopter.” (Pg.18) This proves the theme because just by looking at Kevin, you may think he may not be smart or is just weak. If you look at Iggy and Kevin, you would never guess who they actually are. Once you get to know this book, you will know the theme.

A theme is the meaning behind a story, occasionally defined as the moral of the story. Themes can differ from one end of the world to the other, as it does in many books. The Droughtlanders by Carrie Mac is a futuristic version of the world which has been divided into two parts. The rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, otherwise known as Keyland and Droughtland. Keyland is where all the rich people with extravagant lands and lives live. Droughtland is a disease-ridden land where all poor people are being forced to live. Society treats Droughtland poorly and they decide to take action. Thus starting the revolution. Carrie Mac portrays many themes in different ways throughout the book. However the major theme the book revolves around is that; No matter how rich or poor a person is, or what gender, race, or sexuality they are, in the end, they are all the same and deserve to be treated equally. In addition, the book shows that when everyone is treated equally there is so much more that everyone can accomplish. The theme is being portrayed through the narrative point of view, setting and atmosphere, and character development.

To begin with, one major theme that continuously played a part throughout the entire book is desire. To many of the characters, it was the one urge that they could never overcome. One

“The White Umbrella”, by Gish Jen describes a story about a young Chinese girl who moved to America. Since she just moved to America, the narrator wanted to fit in just like all of the American girls her age. She wanted to hide the fact that her mom was working because she thought it was embarrassing. The narrator had received a white umbrella that which she thought was more important than family. The story changed when they ended up getting in a car crash, the crash affected the narrator and she noticed that family is more important than the umbrella. The story presents the theme of family being more important than objects. The author conveys the theme by the title, the characters actions, and the setting.

Ha Jin’s “The Woman from New York”, showcases the grand impacts of adjusting to cultural differences. This story encompasses both the emotional feat and the physical feat in distance that many go through in their lives. It specifically reveals the challenges that arise in adapting to new life back at home when in the past, a person lived elsewhere and much differently. In following the life of Chen Jenli in this story, readers can explore her societal and cultural struggles or they can place themselves in her shoes. In using Chen Jenli as a vessel, “The Woman from New York” addresses various and most certainly relatable difficulties that people like immigrants or expatriates face. However, these individuals can rely on the psychological process of mindfulness to help in adjustment and difficulties.

The biographical connection that the author “Amy Tan” draws in her short story “Two Kinds” with her main character Jing-mei, crosses in more than one side. First of all, they both are Chinese American whose struggle in their identities with their Chinese immigrant mothers. “Due to a cultural conflict and lack of proper understanding of each other’s perceptions” (Priya 1), and as a big gap developed between the two daughters and their two mothers, in which resulted a complex relationship between them.

The most obvious of the themes is that of violence, brutality, and torture. Tied into this also is the idea of injustice. Many of these themes are intertwined. Constantly the reader is berated with violent images, or descriptions of violence. These must be on nearly every second page of the novel. A good

Wei-Wei is Wai-Tung’s tenant in a particularly poorly maintained apartment who paints abstract art. She desires to succeed in painting even though she has no money, job, or green card—the latter which would cause her eventual deportation from the United States. Unlike the stereotypical (Eastern) woman, Wei-Wei is incapable of cooking but creates what she calls a “depression special,” a concoction made of old rice and melted bars of chocolate. Being an immigrant from mainland China, Wei-Wei is in a very unhappy state, without family to comfort her as she deals with an impoverished lifestyle in the United States—immigrant nostalgia leading to melodrama. Ang Lee introduces the theme of food in this melting pot, suggesting that the Taiwanese—in connecting with the West—struggle in negotiating their identity between the Western modernized culture and the traditional culture of their home. Wei-Wei cannot pay her rent and therefore resigns to the fact that she would have to return to China. She feels conflicted between

In the novel “ The Breadwinner” My theme is “Courage.¨ It is about a girl named Parvana and her family is in danger she is losing money and now Parvana's has to make a big commitment. Not only that, but her dad got taken away and now he is in Jail. Parvana has to do something very brave and she must have a lot of courage to this, she has to act and dress like a boy in order to get money and take care of her family. Every day Parvana would go to the market and work, One-day Parvana was walking and Parvana saw a girl in an alleyway sitting there with no burqa on and Parvana told the girl to come to her house. The parts of the book show that this theme for this book is courage and for sure it will make you believe that theme is a good theme for this book.

Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds” describes a Chinese immigrant family who hope of finding success and an overall betterment of life in America. After losing everything in China, Jing-mei’s mother, Mrs. Woo, tries as a minority house maid in the 1960s to provide all the opportunities she can for her last daughter. This short story revolves around the interactions between the Jing-mei, who desires a ordinary life, and Mrs. Woo, who seeks only the best from her daughter. The values of these two characters are in constant conflict of which creates a lasting segregation between parent and child. Through Mrs. Woo’s death, Jing-mei questions her childhood upbringing and her mother’s true intentions that were masked by pure immigrant ambition.