English 1020-L22
November 3, 2013
Cultural Analysis-“From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle” “From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle” is an essay written by Min-Zhan Lu, in which she describes the effects, both positive and negative, she experienced while trying to obtain somewhat of a balance, between the learning techniques and language forced on to her and her sisters by their parents, and the education and language taught and enforced by their country, China. Lu describes the emotional strain, confusion, and the political persecution she experienced, beginning at the young, tender age of four years old, the year after the Communist Revolution of 1949. For many years, the only memories Lu had were of the many hardships she faced during the years of getting her education, which made it difficult to recall the benefits of her education. While writing this essay, Lu was forced to reflect over these particular years of her life and the effects it had on her, both good and bad. She finally realized that as hard as it was to endure these hardships, personal benefits resulted from these difficult times as well. Lu explains her revelation by stating, “My understanding of my education was so dominated by memories of confusion and frustration that I was unable to reflect on what I could have gained from it” (148). One of the benefits Lu gained was growth, in both her reading and writing skills, by persevering through the confusion and frustration during that time. The skills she speaks of acquiring not only were beneficial during her academic years, but also were essential in becoming a successful English teacher at the University of Louisville and an accomplished writer of articles on literacy and the teaching of writing. The frustration and confusion that was forced upon her, for many years, was the result of being “caught between two conflicting worlds” while growing up (148). The “two conflicting worlds” were the different languages she was required to speak. At home, Lu and her sisters spoke English because their parents compared the English language to successful jobs with higher salaries. Even though her family’s chosen language was English, their country’s chosen language was Standard Chinese and was the only language that was allowed, outside of her home. Confusion struck Lu, as a young child, because she was burdened with the responsibility of remembering the correct language to use with each group of people. For instance, at home, she was expected to use English to speak to her parents, sisters and the live-in tutor her parents hired, in hopes of Lu and her sisters becoming bilingual. The servants were to be spoken to in Shanghai dialect, while her classmates, teacher, and everyone else she communicated with outside of the family home, were to be spoken to in the country’s chosen language, which was Standard Chinese. Eventually, she became accustomed to the idea of using a different language with each group of people; therefore, it became “natural” to her. In school, Lu was taught to read, speak, and write in Standard Chinese, just as her classmates, which was completely different from the language used in her home. However, after school, her parents hired the live-in tutor to work with her on English lessons, which resulted in her doing double the amount of schoolwork, in comparison to her classmates. English was considered to be her “family language,” but neither her classmates nor her teacher knew anything about her English speaking abilities, until she was in second grade. When her teacher discovered that she was fluent in English, she began speaking to Lu in English. This is the first time Lu was proud of her English speaking abilities, because her teacher soon made English the new language of the classroom. A combination of class work & English work, which she completed after school, helped her to understand and relate to her schoolwork in a way she never had before. The English language is a very important subject with her family; they believe that the ability to speak English helps in finding a stable job that pays well and ultimately leads to success. These viewpoints of her parents, in addition to China’s prohibition of the English language, caused Lu to become even more confused, because she didn’t understand the reasons her parents had for always trying to get her to understand the importance of learning to speak English, which was a language that was frowned upon in China. During this time of confusion, Lu felt her family was different than the families of her classmates. Many changes began to take place in China during the time it was being transformed into a socialist country, marked by the duration of time, which “the Proletarians were breaking into the educational territory dominated by Bourgeois Intellectuals” (149). Meanwhile, citizens of China were classified into different social groups, primarily based upon their work ethics. Families with an occupation requiring strenuous, manual labor were classified as the working class, whereas families that earned over a certain amount of money from jobs that did not entail hard, manual labor, were classified into another class and were prohibited from socializing with a working class citizen. Up to this point, Lu was not directly affected by any of the changes, because her and her family were allowed to keep their social status, as an upper middle-class family, due to her father’s involvement with British firms before the 1949 Revolution. Until the summer before entering high school, when Lu witnessed the cruelety of others, in the treatment her aunt received after a phone conversation she had with her husband using the English language, was overheard while she was at work. “She was criticized and almost labeled a Rightist. This was the year of the Anti-Rightist movement, a movement in which the Intellectuals became the target of the socialist class-struggle” (149). After this happened, a connection was made with Lu and her family and the “arch-enemies of New China” (149), known as the American and British Imperialists. This connection caused her family to be classified into groups like the others, which was something they were not accustomed to. Her father was a medical doctor and because his earned income exceeded a certain amount, his social classification was going to change and Lu started experiencing the dirty looks from her teacher, which probably began to frustrate her. She didn’t like the new treatment her or her family had been receiving and she wanted to make sure that she did not draw more attention to herself than she had to. She backed away from the English language again, because of the fear of someone overhearing her speak in English. She and her family would be criticized and possibly characterized in yet another social class. Lu’s parent’s flocked toward the more popular or powerful social groups, with hopes of gaining acceptance and/or approval from them. Instead, they never stayed with a group long enough to be anything but possible acquaintances with a few. It seems Lu’s parent’s felt they needed acceptance by one of the social groups, to have the group on their side, partnered up with them, and viewing the group as a sort of survival tool. Lu, on the other hand, took a completely different approach to surviving in a world that she didn’t necessarily fit into any of the social groups. She chose to concentrate on improving her language and writing. Her parents and teachers often reminded her of her grandfather’s failures, but she had been hearing about the conflicts between cultures, which in her opinion, may have attributed to the failing success of her grandfather. She knew of it, but did not allow it to define her or categorize her into something she was not. Lu and her parents, at one point, wanted nothing more that to fit into a category, like they once had for many years. Lu eventually earned somewhat of an identity, through her reading and writing. She remembered all of the hardships she experienced and used them for her benefit; even though, at one point in her life, she could not think of any benefits that derived from her hardships.