We Were A Family Of Three Girls Chapter Summary

In the Documentary ,Girl Trouble, the lives of three girls are recorded over the course 3 years. During those three years the lives of the girls were evaluated while they were incarcerated in the San Francisco’s’ Juvenile Justice system. According to youth advocate Lateefah, and other delinquent advocates, the prison system is not adolescent friendly when it comes to girls. Lateefah insists that there is a worldwide misconception about bad girls, being that there is no meaningful way to rehabilitate, which results to the system throwing away children lives forever. In order to shy away from this misconception, Lateefah and other lobbyists for at risk youth gets girls like the three in the documentary, to attend rehabilitative centers such

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,

Tan shows that she is embarrassed in her family for their lacking of proper American manners. Although at the time she felt ashamed, the words spoken by her mother, “Inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame” became better understood later in life. In Amy Tan's work, the strong use of description of both the event that are occurring and Amy’s feelings about them, draws the reader in and makes them feel as if they are part of the action. Tan's Chinese-American culture and life stories are imprinted in her writing which gives the reader an opportunity to gain knowledge about the way of life in her family, friends, and even the Chinese culture. Tan's main purpose of writing is to inform and educate people about growing up as a minority in the American society.

My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech using the kind of English I have never used with her.”(417) Overcoming the barrier between languages she spoke aided Tan in building a bridge between cultures. She changed her language to assimilate into American culture while also keeping familial culture. A piece of heritage that uses a language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk. Tan grew up with this language and she still uses it with her mother, husband and in her books. (418) Another method to find identity in a new host society is through appearance. In the essay, “No Name Woman” by Maxine Kingston ideals in appearance were passed from generation to generation. Altering ideals when creating identity is noticed in Kingston’s essay. A long held tradition in many Chinese families is that many generations live under the same roof and this can cause a conflict in ideals. Conflicting ideals between generations is shown as Tan tells how the younger generation hid the identities of their sexual color and their character. Hiding these new identities they hoped to avoid potential conflict with generational ideals. Kingston did not hide her identity, she found herself “walking erect (knees straight, toes pointed forward, not pigeon-toed, which is Chinese-feminine) and speaking in an audible

Along with strong ethos appeals, Tan also effectively makes use of logos. Tan has mentions her mom “reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine 's books with ease-all kinds of things I can 't begin to understand” (Zapico, 30). It is reasonable to think someone who reads the Forbes report is intelligent or at least knowledgeable. However, the truth is this reader of the Forbes report is a “broken English” speaker. She continues “Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese” (Zapico, 30). This use of statistics gives her audiences an inside look into her world and provides evidence that she really knows what she is trying to convince. The mother in the essay represents for the Asian American community as first-generation. Tan evokes an image in the American readers’ mind that first-generation Asian Americans are much more intelligent than what they can convey through words. For this reason, they deserve to be treated the same as others. Although Tan doesn’t focus on using much logos in this essay, all her arguments are logical, and perhaps the audience are able to be

The author, Tan, has written the books The Joy Luck Club, and The Kitchen God's Wife. She is Asian-American, her parents are originally from China, but moved to Oakland, California. The audience in Tan's essay is people 20-35 years old who are culturally diverse. Tan focuses on this audience in order reach out to those who are in her past situation. In her house, there were two languages spoken: English and Chinese. Tan knew how to speak

“A sex symbol's currency lies in her youth, her curves, in the suggestion that a sexual encounter lurks around the next corner.” (Sharon Krum, The Guardian) The media is one of the easiest ways to exemplify the power struggles between genders. In today’s society, celebrities, especially women, are judged largely on their appearance and sex appeal because it is critical for them to stay in the spotlight. This is a clear example of the inequality between the male and female, and what their roles are intended to be in society. Three Girls by Joyce Carol Oates is a story about a lesbian couple, and their observation of the behavior of a disguised Marilyn Monroe who, surprisingly to the narrator and her companion, wants to be seen as nothing more than a common person. During the progression of the story, the author provides perspective on the gender roles women faced in 1956 New York, and gives the reader insight into the thoughts and reservations of a lesbian couple in this time period. Through both implicit and explicit expression, Oates implements feminist and marxist ideas of power struggle into Three Girls in order to establish themes of imbalance and subordination by women in society.

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

Immigrants have the continuous struggle of trying to adapt to a country's language and customs. Tan portrays this struggle throughout the wordless novel; the businessman tries to communicate with other people using symbols and drawings in a sketch pad. Another scene that displays the language barrier struggle immigrants go through was when he first arrived. He was being asked questions in a language he didn’t know and was randomly examined by a doctor; this scene reminds viewers of immigrants landing in Ellis Island for the first time and being examined for potential illnesses. When immigrants move to a different country they need to be careful about what they write or say, anything can be taken out of context based on a country’s history. Post September 11, 2001, after the Trade Center incident that Americans would never forget there was a target placed on any civilian who showed Muslim culture customs, such as clothing or headwear. Events and headlines in the news contradict the ideology portrayed in Tan’s wordless novel; however the story starts to take a sudden

    Many people see the world and others differently. Just like the two sisters in “Everyday Use”, the two sisters in “Two Ways to Belong in America”, and the father in the letter/short essay “An Indian Father's Plea”. All these people have different past and things they’re going through. The two sisters in “Two Ways To Belong In America” both have their different stories from their past, one likes America the other does not because they betrayed her. Next, the father from “An Indian Father’s Plea” sees America differently because the school was labeled his kid a “slow learner” which made him upset. In addition, the two sisters from “ Everyday Use” argue about a quilt in which they both view differently

“Rules of the Game” written by Amy Tan is a short story that focuses on the conflict in identity that Chinese Americans face when growing up with influences from both the cultures. The physical and social settings of “Rules of the Game” create an atmosphere which helps to bring out the true essence of the story. Amy Tan’s “The

Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of

The teenage years and transition to adulthood is in itself a very difficult period. Blending or fitting in are omnipresent issues that must be dealt with. For children of immigrants, this difficulty is only intensified through language. Both Amy Tan and Khang Nguyen strategically use narrative anecdotes and employ several rhetorical devices to illustrate this struggle in their works, “Mother Tongue” and “The Happy Days,” respectfully. Amy Tan chooses her childhood home as the primary setting of her work. This allows her to focus primarily on her conversations and interactions with her mother. However, she also gives several anecdotes in which her mother’s background and improper English negatively affected her, outside the home. Through

Chapter one titled, “No Name Woman”, is an example of the narrator referring to her mother’s talk-stories and a prominent illustration of incorporating the past into the present. This talk- story is culturally based to express information about the past. In “No Name Women”, the narrator explains that her mother, Brave Orchid, would use the stories to give lessons on life that would stick with her children. She represents a bridge figure with one foot in the past, her Chinese culture that she relays on to the family and one foot in the present, her assimilation to American life. The bridge that Brave Orchid acts as brings together the two cultures and allows her to incorporate the family’s Chinese history into their present

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.