Mother Tongue is a story about a mother-daughter relationship between the writer and her mother and the difficulties that they had to face as immigrants in a foreign country. The story also centers around the difficulties that her mother had with English and how she evolved her own dialect that later became part of their relationship. At the beginning of the story‚ Tan makes it clear that she was not much of an enthusiast of English making her claim that she was no expert on English. “I am not a
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A Dream Come True The short story "A Pair of Tickets" written by Amy Tan is the representation of liminal characters between two cultures. When talking about Liminal character‚ it means the characters that are in battle in searching for their true identity. People have to search for their true identity because of the difference of cultures they are raised in; being part of two different cultures makes it hard for someone to identify themselves. Therefore‚ the feeling of being confused and lost
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The central struggle in Amy Tan ’s story "Two Kinds" is a battle of wills between the narrator‚ a young Chinese American girl‚ and her mother‚ a Chinese immigrant. "Two Kinds" is a coming-of-age story‚ in which the narrator‚ Jing-mei‚ struggles to forge her own sense of identity in the face of her strong-willed mother ’s dream that she become a "prodigy." Jing-mei is caught between her Chinese mother ’s traditional ideas about how to raise a daughter‚ and her own development as a Chinese American
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others. For example‚ in Tan’s story‚ ‘Fish Cheeks’‚ when it is revealed to Amy that Robert’s family was invited to her house for Christmas Eve‚ it is said‚ “What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas Eve?” (2) it is presented that she thinks her family is embarrassing. The problem is that she also enjoys Chinese culture‚ as shown in the example‚ “My father … plucked out the soft meat. ‘Amy your favorite.’ … I wanted to disappear.” (5). Amy is torn between two cultures‚ which is why this
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husband ‚ and her two twin babies was trying to start over and give her child the American dream. The daughter the one telling the story was very as the story began about becoming famous. The mother on the other hand goes to all lengths to try to find her daughters talents. The characters in the story are the mother who played a huge role‚ although her name was never mentioned. She is a mother who got a second chance at having a family and is very controlling thinking she is doing what is best or
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There are three important messages that we all can understand and learn from in Amy Tan’s "Mother Tongue". Firstly‚ and most importantly‚ Tan wants to convey the message that words are more than just words and sometimes we must read between them to fully understand their meaning. Another message conveyed in this essay is that just because someone is using "broken" English‚ does not mean they do not fully understand what is going on. Finally‚ another important message is that standardized tests only
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In the short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan‚ with the use of epiphany and turning points the reader is able to see the protagonist’s growth and change in personality throughout the story. The protagonist‚ Jing-Mei and her mother emigrated from China to the US‚ thus the family struggled in adapting to the new culture and lifestyle. Heavily influenced by the opportunities and hopes with a new life in US‚ Jing-Mei’s mother wanted Jing-Mei to become a prodigy like the other girls on television. Jing-Mei
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"Two Kinds‚" by Amy Tan is a story in which a Chinese mother believes that her daughter can do anything in the United States as long as she puts her mind to it and decides to push her daughter‚ Jing-Mei‚ into being a prodigy. Unfortuantely‚ Jing-Mei and her mother do not share the same views on things. Jing-Mei wants to establish her own identity apart from her mother and feels that she can be successful through her own efforts and determination. Jing-Mei’s desire to be an independent person leads
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Waverly’s mother is a very proud person‚ and this is unchanged from the beginning to the end of Amy Tan’s “Rules of the Game”; but actually‚ she becomes an antagonist near the end of the story. It is understandable that she‚ as a mother‚ is always proud of her daughter’s success‚ but her excessive pride has triggered a conflict with her daughter Waverly‚ which reveals that mutual understanding is quite important for a parent-child relationship‚ especially for adolescents. She maintains her pride
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everyone knows that chess player has to think six steps ahead before he or she makes their move‚ but waverly was not expecting the consequences after she didn’t listen and decided to sprint away from her. Reading the chapter “Rules of the Game” from Amy
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