Asian American Literature Essay Research Paper It

Asiatic American Literature Essay, Research PaperIt is true that all people are created different, and therefore no two civilizations will of all time be the same. Throughout Asiatic American literature at that place seems to be a battle between the Asiatic civilization and American civilization. More specifically, there is a battle between Asiatic adult females and their Asiatic American girls, and what it means to be feminine, and how a adult female should move. The chief battle is between how the American adult female should move and how the Asiatic adult female should move. However, the behaviour of the Asian adult female seems to be dominant through out the narrative because although the girls and the female parents may non acquire along all of the clip, the female parents to have a batch of regard from their girls. Therefore, the female parents sentiment on how they should move, which is acting like the Asian adult female, is most apparent. This is the instance in The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan and besides in the short narrative # 8220 ; Waiting for Mr. Kim, # 8221 ; written by Carol Roh-Spaulding. These two narratives have really different significances, nevertheless they are similar in the facet that they are all Asiatic adult females with Asiatic American girls seeking to acquire their girls to maintain and utilize their Asiatic heritage. There are certain behaviours that Asiatic adult females are expected to hold, and the female parents feel that their girls should utilize these behaviours. In The Joy Luck Club, the novel traces the destiny of the four mothers-Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair-and their four daughters-June Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. Through the experiences that these characters go through, they become adult females. The female parents all fled China in the 1940 # 8217 ; s and they all retain much of their heritage. Their heritage focuses on what is means to be a female, but more significantly what it means to be an Asiatic female. In the short narrative # 8220 ; Waiting for Mr. Kim, # 8221 ; the chief female character Gracie understands what it means to be an Asiatic female, but she does oppugn the significance because of her sisters. Her sisters ran off from place before their matrimony could be arranged and eloped. This is wholly against Asiatic civilization, and it causes Gracie to oppugn her heritage and her Asiatic muliebrity. In both of these narratives there are certain features of females that are the same, they are interior strength, obeisance, award and regard, the good of the whole is better than the good of the person, and happening things out for yourself. In the chapter # 8220 ; Scar # 8221 ; the feature of award and regard is foremost noticed. In this chapter An-mei finds out how her female parent fundamentally deserted her, her female parent did go forth for a good ground, which was to keep the award of her household, but either manner her female parent left her. Her grandma had to raise her, and she learned much about the Asiatic adult female from her. An-mei was demoing some disrespect towards on of her aunts, and her aunt told her that she was being disrespectful. Her grandma so interjected and said, # 8220 ; When you lose your face, An-mei? it is like dropping your necklace down a well. The lone manner you can acquire it back is to fall in after it. # 8221 ; She was speaking about A-mei # 8217 ; s female parent, and how she left because she had disrespected the household and she was dishonourable to the household name. The lone manner for her female parent to recover regard and award was to go forth and make it on her ain, which is a feature of an Asiatic adult female. Another feminine feature that comes from that scene is being able to make things on your ain. However, this is an American influence. This characteristic comes from the chapter # 8220 ; Rules of the Game. # 8221 ; This is a curious chapter in the book because it is a chapter where the adult female is non seen as inferior to the adult male. Waverly # 8217 ; s brother, Vincent, received a cheat set for Christmas. However, Waverly is the 1 who took full usage of the cheat set. She was a natural, she would crush her brothers in cheat, which would usually be looked down upon in Asiatic civilization, but she was encouraged. She was even given lessons in cheat, and she was a national title-holder. Unlike An-mei # 8217 ; s female parent, Waverly was conveying award to the household name. When Waverly is encouraged to stand out in cheat she learns something from her female parent. Her female parent said in her broken English, # 8220 ; This American regulations? Every clip people come out from a foreign state, must cognize regulations. You non cognize, justice say, Too bad, travel back. They non stating you why so you can utilize their manner to travel frontward. They say, Don # 8217 ; Ts know why, you find out your self. # 8221 ; This is an American usage, more than an Asiatic 1. She is explicating that in order to win as an Asiatic female in the United States, so there are certain things that you will hold to happen out on your ain. Besides in this chapter was the theme/characteristic of inner streng th. Waverly says she six when her mother taught her the â€Å"art of invisible strength.† Waverly was walking by the candy store when she was a young child, and she was begging her mother to take her inside. Her mother refused to take her inside, which angered Waverly. Then her mother went on to explain, â€Å"Wise guy, he not go against wind. In Chinese we say, Come from South blow with wind-poom!-North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be seen.† This means that the strongest way to win an argument is to keep to yourself, which Waverly used in her chess matches. Waverly goes on to say, â€Å"A little knowledge withheld is a great advantage one should store for future use.† Another example of invisible strength, inner strength, is the â€Å"The Moon Lady.† Ying-ying’s mother was telling her how a woman should act when she said, â€Å"A boy can run and chase dragonflies?But a girl should stand still.† The girl would have a better chance cat ching the dragonfly than the boy, she would catch the dragonfly with inner strength, rather than muscle like the boy. The chapter, â€Å"The Moon Lady,† has another characteristic of what it is to be female, which is the good of the whole is more important than the good of the individual. They were all on their way to see the Moon Lady, and if you see the Moon Lady, you receive one wish from her. Ying-ying asked what a â€Å"secret wish† was, and the answer was that is was on that you cannot ask. Ying-ying was young as this point, so she asked why. Amah’s response to Ying-ying was, â€Å"This is because?because if you ask it?it is no longer a wish but a selfish desire?Haven’t I taught you-that it is wrong to think of our own needs? A girl can never ask, only listen.† Here she is telling that by making a wish for herself she is being selfish and forgetting that she is not the important one, but the good of the whole is the important one. Amah is als o hinting at obedience when she tells her daughter that she is not to ask questions, but just listen to the men and go along with it. Arranged marriages are a very tough thing to go through. Marrying someone because one has to has to be hard because one is not marrying out of love. This is exactly the case in â€Å"Waiting for Mr. Kim.† Gracie two twin sisters have already run away from to and eloped with two men. Their marriages were not arranged because they left before their father could arrange them. Now, with her sisters gone, Gracie is the only remaining daughter, and she is somewhat frowned upon because she was the â€Å"third daughter.† She did not really like the two men that her father was thinking of arranging the marriage with, but it did not matter. It did not matter because as her mother told her, â€Å"Girls don’t choose.† The girls just sit there and look pretty while their fathers choose for them, they have to comply with their fatherâ₠¬â„¢s decision. They are obedient, and at the same time respectful of the decision that is made. Another characteristic that appears in this story is that women made to think that they are second class compared to men. When her Mr. Kang, Gracie’s father, would walk, he would sometimes reach back to hold Mrs. Kang’s hand, but she would pull away. Not only would she pull away, but she would â€Å"stay behind as she cleaned her purse or took forever with her coat, just to have it the way she had learned it, her husband a few places ahead, women behind.† Her mother not only believes that this is how women should act and it is a part of their femininity, but she is passing this way of thinking onto her daughter. Her mother is relaying the message to her daughter that no matter what you need to show your husband respect and let him know that he is in charge. Both of these stories have displayed that there are certain characteristics of females and they are inner stren gth, the good of the whole is better than the good of the individual, find things out for oneself, honor and respect, and obedience. All of these characteristics have displayed not only what it means to be feminine, but also what it means to be female. It is not so much an Asian female, but it is because that is how their mothers were raised and that is how their mothers will raise them. There are really no American females for the daughters, or mothers, to see and mimic. The only way of life that the mothers know is the Asian way of life, therefore that is the only way that can be passed down onto their daughters. Sometimes that is hard for the daughters to understand because the daughters have grown up in American culture, and they know what it is like to be an American woman. No matter how one views this situation, these stories focus on what it means to an Asian female, but more generally what the mothers know best on how to teach their daughters on how to be female.