...A Mother and Daughter Comparison 35/10, by Sharon Olds, is a poem about the relationship of a mother, thirty five, and her daughter, ten. Within her poem, she speaks about this mother- daughter relationship both politely and negatively. She uses literary tool such as imagery and metaphors to help the reader understand and picture her words. When I was reading this poem, her placement of these literary tools helped me picture an entire scene. According to our text, Sound and Sense, imagery will consist of seeing, hearing, smelling or feeling anything that the author is describing (Arp & Perrine 24). The first use of imagery within 35/10 can be seen in the first line, “Brushing out our daughter’s brown silken hair before the mirror I see the grey gleaming on my head.” Immediately I picture a mother and daughter in a room before a vanity mirror. I see a young, brown haired girl sitting down as her mother brushes her daughter’s hair. As she does this she sees her own reflection in the mirror and realizes that she has grey hair and it getting older. Olds’ uses imagery again towards the end of the poem where she says “I brush her tangled fragrant hair at bedtime.” I know picture them both in their night dresses, and the mother attempts to perfect her hair. Another literary tool that Olds’ uses within her poem are metaphors. Arp and Perrine describe a metaphor as comparing things that are essentially unlike (Arp & Perrine 28). We can see the usage of metaphors in 35/10...
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...Their Mothers A mother’s presence is very important to their growing daughters. We learn by example and if we don’t have our mothers to guide us we look for the next best thing. For a young girl not having her mother around, or having her mother be involved with every aspect of her life, could be detrimental to some easily influenced girls. It kind of makes you think about the old saying “when the cats away the mouse will play”. Not having a mother to guide a young girl could cause her to make bad choices and mistakes that could possibly affect the rest of her life. In the novel The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn, Francesca’s parents are divorced and in the beginning she is shared between her mother and father. After some time her father meets a new younger women and moves to Italy with his new girlfriend, leaving Francesca with her mother full time. Francesca’s mother was fully involved in her career and would leave for weeks at a time. While she was gone she would leave Francesca with her father before he left or with her friend and neighbor, Ronnie. During the summer while Ann (Francesca’s mother), was out of town for work, Francesca spend some time with her father who also didn’t give much guidance. Francesca met a boy, received her first kiss, and also went a little farther with this boy than she intended to. The two of them never had sex but they went far enough that Francesca thought that she could be pregnant when her period was late. If Francesca’s mother had given...
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...Like Mother, Like Daughter The importance of loving others and loving one’s self must be carefully balanced in anyone’s life. This idea is demonstrated in three generations of the Hsu family. There are two lessons that are taught from mother to daughter: Devotion to family and speaking up for one’s self. These two values sometimes seem to contradict each other. Since they were raised in an Asian culture, which emphasizes on family devotion, their actions tend to lean towards it. As a result, these individuals lose their voice in the process. The lesson of family devotion that An-mei’s mother displays is probably the most moving and powerful example. Even though she has been disowned, cussed at, and chased out of the house by her own family, she continues to treat her mother-in-law with respect and love, even to the point of cutting out her own flesh in order to cure her mother-in-law for the last time, despite knowing that the odds were against her. Seeing this with her own eyes, An-mei becomes a very devoted mother to her children. When her son, Bing, falls into the Pacific Ocean, she jumps into the water where Bing fell despite the fact that she doesn’t know how to swim. The next day, she tirelessly goes to the place where Bing fell and offers prayers to God and her precious sapphire ring, the only thing she has from her mother, to the Coiling Dragon in order to get Bing back. Rose also learns this lesson; however, she misunderstands it and takes it too far. When she marries...
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...these real life connections are from Gary Soto's childhood. This paper will examine the similarities and differences between "Mother and Daughter" and "The Jacket". The first book to examine would be mother and daughter. Mother and daughter is the story of a poor mother and her daughter, Yollie who are having a hard time financially and trying to live a happy life. The main character is a Yollie, a teenage girl. The teen and her mother have financial problems and there are many things that they want but they can't have those things. In a small part of the story, Yollie is faced with a problem, she wants to go to a school dance, but her mother can't afford a new dress. So she and her mother decide to use her old summer dress and paint it black. The story, as in most of Garry's stories has it's happy times and sad times and...
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...shared by mother and daughter in those Chinese-American families are not something to be proud of, but rather something that causes embarrassment on one side or the other, and often on both sides” (Xu 13). With various interwoven events happening among these four Chinese immigrant families, the conflicts and misunderstandings between mothers and daughters seem to be the guideline throughout the whole novel. Amy Tan uses stories narrated by the mothers and daughters to display their daily contradictions and their inner thoughts, which are the mothers’ strong desire to control their daughters’ fate; contradicting opinions on interracial relationships and identity crises. All these “battles” could be found both in these four daughters’ childhood, and in their adulthood as well. The Chinese mothers try so hard to pass on their culture and instill Chinese character, but their efforts are resisted strongly by their daughters to different degrees. The daughters try to make their mothers accept ways of life ingrained with American features, which is also insufferable to mothers. The greatly different family backgrounds, different ways of thinking and identity crisis between these two generations contribute a lot to their contradictions, as well as generation and cultural gaps. Although the author provides a vivid description of the conflicts between the two generations, “Amy Tan’s special accomplishment in this novel is not her ability to show us how mothers and daughters hurt each...
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...Natasha Foxworth Spring -A 2012 “The Complications of the ‘Mother/ Daughter’ relationships” Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” (1978) is a short story; single sentence of advice a mother imparts to her daughter. Her daughter only twice interrupts the mother to ask a question and defend herself. The advice is meant to be useful but it is also demeaning. It seemed to be meant to help her daughter to have a productive life but also to scold her at the same time. In general, a mother tends to think highly of their daughters and wants to teach them all of the important aspects of life. The reality of the matter is that a Mother can only teach her child from her own experiences, weather the experiences are positive or negative. This is why I feel that “Girl”, shows the various ways that a relationship between a mother and daughter can be complicated. A mother’s womanhood, self-esteem, vulnerability and education all plays a major roles on how she instructs her daughter. The online resource enotes.com, “Girl: Introduction”, states that Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in 1949. Native of Antigua, in the British West Indies, but changed her name when she started writing because her family disliked her career choice. She went to New York at the age of 17, taking a job as a nanny. During this time she met New Yorker columnist George S. Trow, who eventually helped her publish in the magazine. Much of Kincaid’s work deals with the ramifications of Antigua’s...
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...her daughter. Tan herself is also the daughter of a couple who emigrated from China which explains why she writes about this topic. The narrator is first-person which gives the impression that Tan is telling her story. The story is set in Chinatown, America during the late 1950’s. Amy Tan doesn’t tell us a lot about the setting other than the narrator lives with her mother and father in an apartment. They don’t have a lot of money. The mother works as a cleaning lady, and earns her money from cleaning people’s houses. It also shows how little money the family has that the mother has to clean a blind retired piano teacher’s apartment in order for her daughter to get piano lessons. Even though they don’t have a lot of money they seem to be quite happy with their situation. This may be because the mom came from China where she lost everything because of the war, so the little they have is still a lot more then what she would have in China. Most of the story takes place on the floor of the apartment they live in, either in their own or else in the apartment of the protagonist’s piano teacher Mr Chung. The narrator is a girl. She has short hair, because her mom thought it would help her get to be a famous child actress. She’s properly in her teenage years, because she is rebelling against her mother, which is a very normal thing to do when you’re in the teenage years. Her relationship with her mother gets bad as the mother starts to push the girl to be a genius. The mother has...
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...them make their own decisions. II. Body A. Jing-mei’s early life, works , later years of life 1. Jing-mei mother persists with piano 2. Jing-mei can be a prodigy too. 3. “Only one kind of daughter, obedient daughter.” B. Dee’s early life, works, later years of life. 1. Dee’s education 2. Dee’s considered herself as cultured 3. Dee is selfish and egotistical character with a superficial understanding of her inheritance. III. Conclusion A. Analytical summary 1. Jing-mei and Dee early life 2. Jing-mei and Dee works 3. Jing-mei and Dee Later years B. Thesis reworded C. Conclusion Statement. Although mother-daughter conflicts are to be expected, the central conflict in the aforementioned relationship is a battle of wills between Jing-mei and her mother and Dee and her mother. For example, even though Dee's mother believes that quilts are for everyday use, Dee believes that they are cultural artifacts that must be preserved. Dee in “Everyday Use” and Ms. Johnson, her mother have major conflicting views that are similar to the identity conflicts that Jing-mei and her mother have. We observe moments of disappointment in both short stories. In “Two Kinds”, Amy Tan describes the numerous attempts that her overly ambitious Chinese mother made to propel her to stardom. Those attempts repeatedly despite the high expectations of her mother. Efforts to make her beautiful failed; instead of...
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...this is a mother, daughter relationship going on. I say that because most of things being said by the mother are things that usually only a mother would tell her daughter. The speaker in the story is the mother and the listener in the story is the daughter. In the story the mother is giving plenty of advice and telling the daughter what is appropriate and what is not. I can tell that all the information the mother was giving was too much for the daughter to take in because the daughter did not really say much at all while the mother was lecturing her. The life being described in the story “Girl” is really loose and care free which is why the mother is being strict on the daughter. The location is important because that is where most of the things that the mother is warning the daughter about are happening. I somewhat sensed that about the location in the story when the mother said “On Sunday try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming”. This quote showed me that there is something that the mother does not want the daughter to experience in that location. The advice the mother is giving in the story “Girl” is strict and controlling. The mother is not suggesting that the daughter take the advice, she is actually demanding that the daughter listen to her and take the advice than suggesting that she do so. An example would be when the mother says “Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap”. The few things that the daughter says in...
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...G&L (print) issn 1747–6321 G&L (online) issn 1747–633X Gender and Language Review You’re Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation. Deborah Tannen (2006) New York: Ballantine Books, pp. 272 Reviewed by Ashley M. Williams Deborah Tannen, as Michael Billig (2000: 129) noted in his review of her 1998 book The Argument Culture, has a particular knack for writing best-sellers that ‘can outstrip the celebrity biographies, cookery books and sex manuals that dominate the non-fiction book trade’. Indeed, Tannen’s latest addition to her oeuvre meant for popular consumption, You’re Wearing That? a New York Times bestseller, is no different. Focusing on mother-adult daughter conversations and the tensions that can arise from these relationships, Tannen’s goal is to help readers understand and overcome these problems. In addressing her readers, assumed to be women, she writes that: our deepest wish is to be understood and approved of by our mothers and daughters. We can get closer to that goal by listening to the ways we talk to each other, and by learning to talk to each other in new ways (p. 32). In privileging mother-daughter relationships, Tannen often mentions that these relationships are like any other, only more so – and thus the tensions, disagreements and arguments involved are more intense, personal, and potentially damaging. As in her previous popular works, her evidence of the difficulties in these relationships draws...
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...to be born in the states, but the parents don’t realize that the time, the place, the environment, and the culture are different, and they can hardly enforce it on their children. In this story, which was in 1960, the narrator, Jing-Mei stood up to her mother and tried not to follow her mother’s will to make her a prodigy, so she could compete with one of her friend’s daughter. Very important questions here, Are those ideas and thoughts still can be applied nowadays, and what are the children’s actions against those ideas? What is the influence of those ideas on the children’s lives? First of all, is it a fact that those ideas and thoughts can still be enforced these days? The way that the mother grew up in her country, which was china, was totally different from the way that children grew up in America. She thought that she could make her daughter a prodigy in any matter. “Of course, you can be a prodigy, too” (1), the mother said. She tried to make her daughter be like people on the TV programs, when they sing a song, dance in fantastic way, or do some unbelievable stuff. Also, she tried to make her daughter a hair stylist; in fact, her daughter unintentionally failed. The mother always tried to do the same to her daughter, as her...
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...Tan in 1989. The story brings up the themes parenting and relationship between a mother and her daughter. Also about the difficulties for a Chinese mother to raise an Americanised daughter. The main character is a Chinese-American girl called Jing-mei. The mother has great ambitions for her daughter and believes "that you could be anything you want to be in America". The daughter likes the American lifestyle while her mother wants to keep the Chinese way of lifestyle and living. Summary The story takes place in America. Jing-mei's mother has arranged piano lessons for Jing-mei, because she wants her to become a prodigy. However Jing-mei feels like she is trying to make her into someone she is not. Jing-mei lies about practice times and she does only what she has to do during the lessons. At a talent show she plays the piano awful because of her lack of participation in the piano lessons. Still her mother insists on continuing the piano lessons. Jing-mei screams but her mother drags her to the bench to play. On Jing-mei's thirtieth birthday her mother gives her the piano as a present Characters - Jing-mei Jing-mei and her mother are struggling to accept and understand each other. Jing-mei wants be her self and is obsessed with the American idea of being anyone you want. She does not want to follow her mothers’ footstep, but in stead make her own. She won’t change just to make her mother feel proud or happy. She says, “I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t...
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...story 'Girl' we see that the mother is very disciplined in what to do and what no to do in order to be a proper lady. What kind of personality would one expect in this woman? Perhaps one that is harsh? Or perhaps one that is caring? If we take a close look at 'Girl' we will be able to answer this question with more clarity. Immediately we see that the mother is instructing her daughter on how to be a proper woman. The tone used in this story can help paint a picture in the reader's mind. The reader can imagine the mother sitting before her daughter, speaking in a firm, yet gentle voice. The language and instructions that the mother are giving can make the character appear flat and stale. When reading the story the same tone of voice can be heard coming from the mother. Throughout the story there is no change in the mother's language....
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...The joy luck club The movie is about the complex mother –daughter relationships of four Chinese families whose roots from the past intertwine within the present causing conflicts and misunderstandings in their lives. It’s also a movie about power of family. There is a problem with communication in nearly every single account .One reason for this is the mothers struggle with English and the daughters has a very slim grasp on the Chinese dialect of their mothers.so they cannot grasp the full meaning what they are trying to say to each other. Other problem is due to cultural clash. Mothers are still very much influenced by a culture that the daughters have never experienced. In Chinese culture the parents have a strong bond with their children but don’t like to express their love and don’t openly communicate to their children and they are strict. They do not habitually explain everything, Verbal message is indirect; one talks around the point. The mothers expect their daughters to obey their elders and so learn by obedience. The daughters born and raised in America do not understand or care about the old customs and are embarrassed by their traditionalism and other somber attitude. Daughters think of themselves as American and adopt the culture that surrounds them. This difference makes it hard to really communicate. From the perspective of mothers, a mother passes on her strengths and weakness to her daughters. She has a responsibility to provide them with a good future, keep...
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...dealing with a mother and daughter who have two different ideas of what succes is. The short story is about a young Chinese immigrant girl called Jing-Mei who lives with her mother and father in the United States of America. The mother set voyage for America in the 1950’s after she had lost her family, her home and her first husband and children in China. She has hopes and dreams for herself and her daughter that the American dream surely will happen to them at some point. She wants her daughter to be a child prodigy while the daughter is trying to live up to her mother’s expectations. As I wrote earlier, the story takes place in the United States of America. Unlike her mother, Jing-Mei has lived her whole life in the U.S.A. Her mother did not have the same opportunities as Jing-Mei back in China, so she is frustrated that her daughter is not even trying to seize any of the many opportunities that she has got in her life, and that she is ignoring the fact that she can become anything, even a genius. She is sacrificing a lot for her daughter by cleaning for Mr. Wong and in return he will teach her daughter to play the piano. The only piano teacher she can afford is Mr. Chong who is deaf and retired, which shows that perhaps the money is a bit scarce and that she must have worked hard to get it. The daughter is at first just as exited as her mother about accomplishing the American dream but that changes after she realises that she constantly disappoints her mother. ‘’And after...
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