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In what way is a daughter the “American Translation” of her mother? Choose a mother/ daughter pair and discuss. Eddy Choi

Amy Tan, the author of __Joy Luck Club__, is an Asian-American writer who tells stories of women with individual and common oppressions. She portrays a diversity of mother-daughter social bonds to emphasize the hardships of interactions between China and the United States. Tan depicts the harrowing social and emotional effects on mother-daughter relations in the different cultures of An-mei Hsu and her mother.

“When I was a young girl in China, my grandmother told me my mother was a ghost” (Tan 33). An-mei’s mother is a very bold, but mournful widow in the novel. She fails to serve as a faithful wife by leaving her daughter An-mei, to become a concubine. Women are complicit in destroying An-Mei’s mother through the power arrangements of family and society. Her first impressions in the novel were like the goose that had laid An Mei who seemed to float back and forth like a ghost (Tan 37). She is known to be a traitor and never mentioned in the family circle again. “When you lose your face, the only way you can get it back is to fall in after it.” (Tan 36). She is driven out from her home and left without independent means. In the section, //__Feathers from a Thousands Li Away__//, the mothers have a moral lesson that they wish to give their daughters. In this case, An-mei’s mother meets with her daughter and tries to teach her to sacrifice herself for her family and swallow tears. “The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget.” (Tan 41.) With her mother being unfaithful and leaving the house, Amy Tan portrays An-mei who fears and resents her mother. She grows up with stories from her grandmother that disrupt her to maintain an imaginative bond with her mother. “I felt unlucky that she was my mother and unlucky that she had left us. These were the thoughts I had while hiding in the corner of my room where my father could not watch me” (Tan 36). Many Chinese-American students feel as if they don’t belong in a certain group. They often grow up feeling isolated from everybody because vast different between the Chinese and American cultures. Popo’s stories are examples of socialization that train An-mei in to a proper Chinese daughter. Her stories often discourage her to have a good image towards her mother (Tan 33). Nevertheless, An-mei finds a way to remain as a rebellious daughter to a disliked mother to whom she still feels bonded. Despite Popo’s statement that her identity is undervalued, she learns to speak for herself and endure the pain. She has the same personality and characteristics as her mother, just that she is more open to the society.

Tan uses stories of these women to provide dictations of the daily making of community. A nalyzing the representations of mother-daughter relationships in her stories, it becomes clear that the interactions between mothers and daughters are complicated by broader circumstances within and between China and the United States.

Sungwoo - Nice essay Eddy :) there are a few problems i see in your essay though. Your thesis is a bit too general and broad. I think you should focus it down to two or maybe three ideas. Your first body paragraph is very strong and makes clear about what you are trying to say. Your second body paragraph is a bit weak though. This is probably because you focused all your evidences in the first one, making the second one, even though it is a very good paragraph, seem weaker. Perhaps evening out the number quotes you have might help this out, or even just changing the order the two are in might help you strengthen your essay. Simply put, I think you should reorganize the order and create a stronger, more specific thesis.

Won-Jin Chang: Your essay is really organized, it looks great. Your essay is shorter than essay, but it would not matter because you mentioned all the most important parts. Although your conclusion should be stronger than what you wrote in here. Also you should mention your thesis statement for readers. Furthermore, it's great that you many quotes with supports, but you don't have to mention author's last name after the first quotation. The last sentence in the third paragraph, how can you prove that both characters have the same personality, and when you said, " just that she is more open to the society." is making weak essay. Overall I really like your essay because it is short and most importantly you wrote all the essential points. Great Job.