Essay-+John+Lee

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

Jing-Mei/ Suyuan

In the whole book, there, often, <-(sentence fluency is awkward...) are misunderstandings between all the mother and daughter pairs, and it often turn out not quite pleasant. They hurt each others' feelings and have a hard time, whereas in a foreign country, a mother is the most valuable person to the daughter. All the mothers have a strong love towards their daughters, and again, they interpret this love in a bad way. All the daughters are [literally]<- (Do you really need this..) already the American Translation of their mothers [in the way that they both have the American and Chinese identity] <-(make this simple...). Many of the mothers believe and hope their daughters to have only the American identity because they have to fit in; however, the daughter want the Chinese identity. The phrase “American Translation, therefore, seems to mean the daughter’s full understanding of their mothers.

Jing-Mei is definitely the American translation of her mother, Suyuan. Suyan dies when Jing-Mei was not fully ready for her life in America without her. When she first goes into the Joy Luck Club that her mother has created, she does not know what to do and the pressure in taking her mother’s sit made her even more nervous. She thinks back to the old days where she just had to baby sit the other kids, since she was one of the oldest kids in the club. Therefore, in the way that she had took her mother’s sit for her she is already suited for the American translation of her mother.

Not only that but also, Jing-Mei participate as a story teller of her mother. The fact that Jing-Mei can tell stories about her makes her already a person who understands her mother fully. Telling her mother’s life in China, and even doing what Suyuan could not do makes Jing-Mei stand out as the American translation. If she had kept her role as a pianist, this understanding would have never happened.

However, Jing-Mei also plays a role as a bridge from America to China; she acts like a news.<-(Very weird) When she finds out that she has two half sisters in America, she actually goes to China to find them. When she found them, she tells her sisters about what happened to her mother in America, where she is in China. This act of spreading her mother’ accomplishments also work as distinguishing her as the perfect American translation of her mother, Suyuan.

American Translation in the book seems to not only mean its literary meaning, but something more and big. The daughter has to fully understand what her mother have said in order to become the perfect American Translation. In this case, Jing-mei, who was a Suyuan created messenger of two identities, was the perfect American translation, in the way that she understood her mother and found her identity by meeting her lost family members.

Keunwha Song First of all, you spelled quite wrong. You put quit... ^_^ And there are more spelling mistakes... You know what, I'll correct them for you. Hmmm....I understand that I have the least-finished essay but... John, you have to put some quotes in. I am just saying it because I'm guessing that you won't add much more to this essay. Be sure to add some quotes! I think you have good idea about the topic. But you are only using Jing-Mei. If you go into depth in terms of character analyzation, you might be fine. But I recommend you to use more characters to support your point!

Jeffrey Ahn I think what you should do is to make your writing more simple. You put many unnecessary words that make the writing much more confusing. You should also develop your ideas and work on your grammar. Your introduction is good but your body needs some work. You should add more quotes in for evidence and develop your conclusion. ^_^

Andrew Lee I really like your idea that how Jing mei is the translation and a messenger. I think it’s a unique view. However it doesn’t look good as it’s supposed to be because first you have no quotes to back up, and second your consistency is weird; each of your paragraph seem to consist separate thesis sentences instead of branching from the main one in the introduction paragraph. Also proof read for minor grammar errors. Many of your ideas are good; just back them up with quotes and explain more ‘why’ factor.