2.Best quality
3. In the beginning of the chapter, I thought it was really sweet of Jing-Mei to wear the pedant her mother gave her even though she thought it was garnish and overly decorated. It was really interesting how Jing-Mei’s mother could tell where each Chinese woman came from by the way they acted or dressed. During the dinner celebration, I couldn’t believe how selfish the guests were when they chose the best crabs for themselves and didn’t even consider leaving a good crab for their hosts. I don’t understand why Waverly picked the biggest crab for her daughter, because she’s only 4 and wouldn’t finish half of it anyway. I also thought it was really snotty how the Lindo pointed out that a color looked “too young” on Jing-Mei’s mother. Maybe it did look out of place on her, but it’s not her job to point it out so rudely. I also thought the way Waverly was making snotty remarks at Jing-Mei were also out of place. Jing-Mei invited her over for dinner, prepared a large crab dinner for her family, and she comes and she points out petty things about Jing-Mei. That’s one of the rudest things I’ve ever heard of. When Waverly said that her company didn’t accept Jing-Mei’s work, I thought that it was horrible of her to say to in front of everyone at the table. She could of at least had the manners to call Jing-Mei aside and say it to just her.
4. The relationship between Waverly and Jing-Mei is one that is considered friend-enemies. They’re friends to some point, with Jing-Mei inviting Waverly over for dinner and Waverly complimenting Jing-Mei’s haircut. Unfortunately, they’re also enemies because Waverly also uses sneaky attacks to embarrass Jing-Mei in front of the entire dinner table.
5. A writing technique that Tan uses is flashbacks. The entire chapter is a flashback to when Jing-Mei’s mother gave her the necklace she wears in the beginning of the chapter. The flashback explains in detail, her relationship with her mother and how she obtained the necklace in the beginning. After the flashback, she thinks of her mother and notices the cat that her mother was accused of killing in the flashback.
6. In this chapter, I learned some Chinese superstitions. One sign on bad luck is a crab with a missing leg on Chinese New Year. A belief is that even a beggar won’t eat a dead crab because a dead crab will taste bad after it’s cooked. Another Chinese belief is that if Jing-Mei wears the jade everyday, it will become greener.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Grow A Backbone
2. Without wood
3.In this chapter, I thought it was very typical for a mother to force her daughter to listen to her, and for the mother to always think that she is right. I can understand Rose’s struggle to listen to her mother when so many opinions and thoughts were being told to her. I liked the metaphor that An-Mei used; about how a young girl is like a tree, and will bend if the girl bends to listen to other people besides her mother. Once again, Rose is indecisive about signing the divorce papers and ignores it by sleeping for 3 days. This sort of frustrated me, because procrastinating her troubles isn’t a good way to handle things. But in the end, it was a good idea that she pondered her thoughts and was indecisive instead of signing the divorce papers right away. I liked how she stood up for herself against Ted, and I was very annoyed at Ted for wanting to get rid of Rose all along. If he wanted to do that, what’s the point of marrying Rose in the first place? I was a little confused by the ending. I wasn’t sure if she was going to try and save her marriage, or get as much of out the divorce as possible and leave Ted miserable.
4. The relationship between Ted and Rose is one that a bully and a victim might have. Ted treats Rose badly during their marriage and decides to divorce her without a good reason. Rose, being too scared and meek to do anything about, accepts all the troubles and hardships that Ted gives her and does not fight back. Ted, wanting to get rid of her all along, bullies her one more time for the house. Rose has had several days to think about what she wanted, and she fought back against Ted. He was shocked and surprised when someone that he had been bullying for so long fought back against him and he became afraid of her. In the end, Rose learns to stand up for herself and challenges Ted for all the abuse he’s put her through for so many years.
5. Tan uses a metaphor when An-Mei is talking to Rose during China Mary’s funeral. She says “A girl is like a young tree. You must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way to grow strong and straight. But if you bend to listen to other people, you will grow crooked and weak. You will fall to the ground with the first strong wind.” She explains to Rose that if she does not listen to her mother, she will crumble. In the beginning, Rose defies her mother’s words and does not think of them to be important, this causes her to grow weak and allow Ted to do whatever he wanted to her. Later in this story, An-Mei calls Rose and tells her to stand up for herself. Rose listens to her mother and fights back against Ted. This forces her to grow strong, and she is no longer afraid of Ted.
6.The life lesson in this chapter is that mother might be right after all. This is shown throughout the story, starting with the metaphor I explained in question 5. If Rose continues to not listen to her mother, then Ted would have bullied her even more, and she wouldn’t have found hidden strength inside herself.
3.In this chapter, I thought it was very typical for a mother to force her daughter to listen to her, and for the mother to always think that she is right. I can understand Rose’s struggle to listen to her mother when so many opinions and thoughts were being told to her. I liked the metaphor that An-Mei used; about how a young girl is like a tree, and will bend if the girl bends to listen to other people besides her mother. Once again, Rose is indecisive about signing the divorce papers and ignores it by sleeping for 3 days. This sort of frustrated me, because procrastinating her troubles isn’t a good way to handle things. But in the end, it was a good idea that she pondered her thoughts and was indecisive instead of signing the divorce papers right away. I liked how she stood up for herself against Ted, and I was very annoyed at Ted for wanting to get rid of Rose all along. If he wanted to do that, what’s the point of marrying Rose in the first place? I was a little confused by the ending. I wasn’t sure if she was going to try and save her marriage, or get as much of out the divorce as possible and leave Ted miserable.
4. The relationship between Ted and Rose is one that a bully and a victim might have. Ted treats Rose badly during their marriage and decides to divorce her without a good reason. Rose, being too scared and meek to do anything about, accepts all the troubles and hardships that Ted gives her and does not fight back. Ted, wanting to get rid of her all along, bullies her one more time for the house. Rose has had several days to think about what she wanted, and she fought back against Ted. He was shocked and surprised when someone that he had been bullying for so long fought back against him and he became afraid of her. In the end, Rose learns to stand up for herself and challenges Ted for all the abuse he’s put her through for so many years.
5. Tan uses a metaphor when An-Mei is talking to Rose during China Mary’s funeral. She says “A girl is like a young tree. You must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way to grow strong and straight. But if you bend to listen to other people, you will grow crooked and weak. You will fall to the ground with the first strong wind.” She explains to Rose that if she does not listen to her mother, she will crumble. In the beginning, Rose defies her mother’s words and does not think of them to be important, this causes her to grow weak and allow Ted to do whatever he wanted to her. Later in this story, An-Mei calls Rose and tells her to stand up for herself. Rose listens to her mother and fights back against Ted. This forces her to grow strong, and she is no longer afraid of Ted.
6.The life lesson in this chapter is that mother might be right after all. This is shown throughout the story, starting with the metaphor I explained in question 5. If Rose continues to not listen to her mother, then Ted would have bullied her even more, and she wouldn’t have found hidden strength inside herself.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Sneak attacks
2.Four directions
3. I really liked the sneaky and tricky tactics to attack her daughter. I don’t understand why she’d want to do so because it’s very apparent that the attacks are hurting her daughter badly. I couldn’t believe how powerful Lindo was; she completely changed Waverly’s mind about her first husband by just criticizing him was remarkable. When Waverly described Rich, I felt that her mother could not possibly make this guy sound bad. All the things she said about him were so unbelievably cute and I could not bear the thought of having such a good relationship ruined by simple criticism from Waverly’s mom. All the things that Rich did wrong at the dinner table made me cringe. I couldn’t believe how many times a person could mess up and not even realize it. Although, in his defense, Lindo was very reserve physiology about everything and I probably would have made the same mistakes too. Despite all the ups and downs of this chapter, I really liked how it ended happily. It was kind of a relief from all the other chapters with miserable endings.
4. Waverly and Rich had a relationship based on unconditional love. All the little things that Rich did for Waverly were just so extremely cute. Not only did he do little mushy things that couples do on Valentine’s Day, he understood her and saw things that no one else noticed about her. Even though they were a cheesy and cute couple, I couldn’t imagine them ever having sex. The way that Waverly described Rich made him seem so innocent that it’d be impossible for her to have sex with him. I wish I was able to see more of Waverly’s feelings towards Rich, but unfortunately, she mostly talked about the feelings he had towards her.
5. I saw the use of flashbacks a lot in this chapter and it really brought the chapter to life. Because of the flashbacks, I can understand why Waverly’s feeling the things she is. The flashbacks also give the story interest. If the chapter went in chronological order, then it wouldn’t be as entertaining and the reader would have to refer back to the past few pages to understand why the character was feeling a certain way later in the chapter.
6. There are two main conflicts in this chapter. One in human vs. human and is between Waverly, and her mother Lindo. They fight about a lot of things, from petty little things, such as Waverly saying something that Lindo views as disrespect, or larger things, such as Waverly’s refusal to play chess. There are also internal conflicts; Waverly feels a lot of fear towards her mother and is also conscience of the things she says. She lives her life in fear that her mother will ruin something she finds comforting or joyful; this is why Waverly spent so long trying to tell her mother that she was going to get married to Rich.
3. I really liked the sneaky and tricky tactics to attack her daughter. I don’t understand why she’d want to do so because it’s very apparent that the attacks are hurting her daughter badly. I couldn’t believe how powerful Lindo was; she completely changed Waverly’s mind about her first husband by just criticizing him was remarkable. When Waverly described Rich, I felt that her mother could not possibly make this guy sound bad. All the things she said about him were so unbelievably cute and I could not bear the thought of having such a good relationship ruined by simple criticism from Waverly’s mom. All the things that Rich did wrong at the dinner table made me cringe. I couldn’t believe how many times a person could mess up and not even realize it. Although, in his defense, Lindo was very reserve physiology about everything and I probably would have made the same mistakes too. Despite all the ups and downs of this chapter, I really liked how it ended happily. It was kind of a relief from all the other chapters with miserable endings.
4. Waverly and Rich had a relationship based on unconditional love. All the little things that Rich did for Waverly were just so extremely cute. Not only did he do little mushy things that couples do on Valentine’s Day, he understood her and saw things that no one else noticed about her. Even though they were a cheesy and cute couple, I couldn’t imagine them ever having sex. The way that Waverly described Rich made him seem so innocent that it’d be impossible for her to have sex with him. I wish I was able to see more of Waverly’s feelings towards Rich, but unfortunately, she mostly talked about the feelings he had towards her.
5. I saw the use of flashbacks a lot in this chapter and it really brought the chapter to life. Because of the flashbacks, I can understand why Waverly’s feeling the things she is. The flashbacks also give the story interest. If the chapter went in chronological order, then it wouldn’t be as entertaining and the reader would have to refer back to the past few pages to understand why the character was feeling a certain way later in the chapter.
6. There are two main conflicts in this chapter. One in human vs. human and is between Waverly, and her mother Lindo. They fight about a lot of things, from petty little things, such as Waverly saying something that Lindo views as disrespect, or larger things, such as Waverly’s refusal to play chess. There are also internal conflicts; Waverly feels a lot of fear towards her mother and is also conscience of the things she says. She lives her life in fear that her mother will ruin something she finds comforting or joyful; this is why Waverly spent so long trying to tell her mother that she was going to get married to Rich.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Be the Change; Pick your Own Destiny
2. The Rice Husband
3. I thought this chapter was particularly distressing. I didn’t like the marriage between Lena and Harold. It wasn’t what I’d call a marriage; it was more like a business agreement than a loving relationship. In this chapter, there was not a lot of description about the feelings they had between each other; it was mostly talking about Lena’s frustration and what she had to go through while being married to Harold. The scene where Lena said that Harold made about seven times as more than her really annoyed me. If they’re married and they both thought of the idea of making a business together, they should be business partners and not a wife working for her husband. If they are partners together in life, then they should be business partners as well. I also did not like how Harold didn’t give Lena the credit she deserved when she came up with all these brilliant ideas while he just plagiarized them. He also seemed to take advantage of Lena a lot, although she dismissed it, and said she didn’t mind. The fact that she was the one paying for meals was very ungentlemanly of him and it bugged me to no end. Lena’s mother, Ying-Ying, was very right to ask her all these questions about why she was allowing herself to be treated this way. No mother should allow their daughter to be treated so badly by someone who hardly deserved to be married to her.
4. The relationship between Lena and her mother, Ying-Ying is an interesting and peculiar one between a parent and a child. Normally, parents would be furious that their daughter was being mistreated in her marriage and try their best to convince them to leave their ungrateful spouses and find someone more suitable; but Ying-Ying did nothing like that. While visiting Lena, she noticed all the things troubling Lena, but she didn’t nag at Lena or force her to admit that she was unhappy with her marriage. All she did was ask her a few questions about the strange things that her and Harold do. Even if Ying-Ying didn’t interrogate her daughter, she still had good intentions. Her questions affected Lena strongly and made her realize how unhappy she was, which was, in my opinion, much more effective than nagging.
5. I noticed that Tan used the useless and unstable table as a metaphor. The metaphor is that the table is useless, ugly, and unworthy of space, similar to Lena’s marriage with Harold. When the table breaks, Lena new that it would happen, but she does nothing to prevent it. Exactly like her marriage with Harold. The table probably once seemed beautiful to Harold, but now that it was many years later, the table was awkward and ugly. Lena’s marriage also once seemed beautiful and amazing, but now it was falling apart. One day, the marriage will break, and Lena would have done nothing to prevent it, because she dismisses her feelings and ignores her thoughts to make Harold happy.
6. The theme of this chapter is if you see something useless and falling apart, do something about it, and prevent it. During the entire chapter, Lena was miserable about her marriage and she wanted things to change. She did not change anything and she pays the price by getting into a fight with Harold and questioning her once-happy marriage. In the beginning, Lena wanted to change her fate and marry someone decent, so she left food on her plate to do a sort of voo-doo technique on Arnold and killed him. Because she decided to change her fate, she didn’t marry a pock-faced man; she married someone else that she liked much better than Arnold.
3. I thought this chapter was particularly distressing. I didn’t like the marriage between Lena and Harold. It wasn’t what I’d call a marriage; it was more like a business agreement than a loving relationship. In this chapter, there was not a lot of description about the feelings they had between each other; it was mostly talking about Lena’s frustration and what she had to go through while being married to Harold. The scene where Lena said that Harold made about seven times as more than her really annoyed me. If they’re married and they both thought of the idea of making a business together, they should be business partners and not a wife working for her husband. If they are partners together in life, then they should be business partners as well. I also did not like how Harold didn’t give Lena the credit she deserved when she came up with all these brilliant ideas while he just plagiarized them. He also seemed to take advantage of Lena a lot, although she dismissed it, and said she didn’t mind. The fact that she was the one paying for meals was very ungentlemanly of him and it bugged me to no end. Lena’s mother, Ying-Ying, was very right to ask her all these questions about why she was allowing herself to be treated this way. No mother should allow their daughter to be treated so badly by someone who hardly deserved to be married to her.
4. The relationship between Lena and her mother, Ying-Ying is an interesting and peculiar one between a parent and a child. Normally, parents would be furious that their daughter was being mistreated in her marriage and try their best to convince them to leave their ungrateful spouses and find someone more suitable; but Ying-Ying did nothing like that. While visiting Lena, she noticed all the things troubling Lena, but she didn’t nag at Lena or force her to admit that she was unhappy with her marriage. All she did was ask her a few questions about the strange things that her and Harold do. Even if Ying-Ying didn’t interrogate her daughter, she still had good intentions. Her questions affected Lena strongly and made her realize how unhappy she was, which was, in my opinion, much more effective than nagging.
5. I noticed that Tan used the useless and unstable table as a metaphor. The metaphor is that the table is useless, ugly, and unworthy of space, similar to Lena’s marriage with Harold. When the table breaks, Lena new that it would happen, but she does nothing to prevent it. Exactly like her marriage with Harold. The table probably once seemed beautiful to Harold, but now that it was many years later, the table was awkward and ugly. Lena’s marriage also once seemed beautiful and amazing, but now it was falling apart. One day, the marriage will break, and Lena would have done nothing to prevent it, because she dismisses her feelings and ignores her thoughts to make Harold happy.
6. The theme of this chapter is if you see something useless and falling apart, do something about it, and prevent it. During the entire chapter, Lena was miserable about her marriage and she wanted things to change. She did not change anything and she pays the price by getting into a fight with Harold and questioning her once-happy marriage. In the beginning, Lena wanted to change her fate and marry someone decent, so she left food on her plate to do a sort of voo-doo technique on Arnold and killed him. Because she decided to change her fate, she didn’t marry a pock-faced man; she married someone else that she liked much better than Arnold.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
The Prodigy I Never Was
2. Two Kinds
3. This chapter can be related to almost every Asian child ever born. Even I can relate to this chapter. I felt so bad for Jing-Mei because her mom wanted her to be a prodigy so badly. They tried everything and when they finally found what Jing-Mei was good at, she never practiced, so she never reached her full potential. I was sad to see that such beautiful talent was being put to waste because she didn't want to practice and please her mother. It was so saddening how Jing-Mei rebelled against her mother, even though this was usually the way most children stopped their parents from pushing them so hard. I could relate to when Jing-Mei embarassed herself at the piano recital because I did that once myself, though not as badly as described in the text.
4. The relationship between Jing-Mei and her mother is similar to one that any parent and daughter would have. Jing-Mei's mother pushes her in hopes that she will someday reach her fullest potential. The only flaw is that she's pushed too hard and chooses to rebel instead of following what her mother wants. Jing-Mei's mother doesn't understand the struggle her daughter goes through, so she doesn't feel any remorse in pushing her too hard.
5. Tan uses flashbacks in this chapter. She flashes back to when her Jing-Mei's mother tries to force talent out of her and what that led to. Most of the story is in flashback and shows the person that Suyuan was. It also shows what happened when she was alive. Without the flashbacks in this chapter, we wouldn't understand what caused Jing-Mei to feel like the way she did after the passing of her mother
6. The main conflict is man vs. man. The conflict is between Jing-Mei and her mother. Her mother expected and wanted so many things from Jing-Mei. She eventually gets frustrated by the standards her mother placed and instead of trying to please her mother, she rebels. The conflict never did get resolved because Jing-Mei carries her hurt feelings for many years, even after the death of her mother.
3. This chapter can be related to almost every Asian child ever born. Even I can relate to this chapter. I felt so bad for Jing-Mei because her mom wanted her to be a prodigy so badly. They tried everything and when they finally found what Jing-Mei was good at, she never practiced, so she never reached her full potential. I was sad to see that such beautiful talent was being put to waste because she didn't want to practice and please her mother. It was so saddening how Jing-Mei rebelled against her mother, even though this was usually the way most children stopped their parents from pushing them so hard. I could relate to when Jing-Mei embarassed herself at the piano recital because I did that once myself, though not as badly as described in the text.
4. The relationship between Jing-Mei and her mother is similar to one that any parent and daughter would have. Jing-Mei's mother pushes her in hopes that she will someday reach her fullest potential. The only flaw is that she's pushed too hard and chooses to rebel instead of following what her mother wants. Jing-Mei's mother doesn't understand the struggle her daughter goes through, so she doesn't feel any remorse in pushing her too hard.
5. Tan uses flashbacks in this chapter. She flashes back to when her Jing-Mei's mother tries to force talent out of her and what that led to. Most of the story is in flashback and shows the person that Suyuan was. It also shows what happened when she was alive. Without the flashbacks in this chapter, we wouldn't understand what caused Jing-Mei to feel like the way she did after the passing of her mother
6. The main conflict is man vs. man. The conflict is between Jing-Mei and her mother. Her mother expected and wanted so many things from Jing-Mei. She eventually gets frustrated by the standards her mother placed and instead of trying to please her mother, she rebels. The conflict never did get resolved because Jing-Mei carries her hurt feelings for many years, even after the death of her mother.
The Magic of Will Power
3. This chapter was pretty straightforward and I enjoyed reading it. It really frustrated me that Rose wasn't willful and was incredibly indecisive. So many things happened because she lacked the ability to chose for herself. If she had been more willful and actually made some decisions in her marriage, she might have been able to save it. If she were as determined to save Bing as her mother was, then maybe they would have found him. It was her lack of decisiveness that caused Bing to fall into the waters in the first place. I was so frustrated when I read that she just stood there trying to decide what to do instead of letting her impulse kick in and dive in after her baby brother. Not only was Rose inable to make up her mind, she does not even try to save her marriage or look for her brother. I'm not only sad because of Bing being lost, I'm angry at Rose for not even trying to do something about it.
4. The relationship between Rose and her husband Ted was a basic damsel in distress relationship. In the beginning, Ted was always there for Rose and he always protected her. He called all the shots and made sure everything was okay. Later on, the damsel in distress portion of the relationship starts to wear off and Ted pushes Rose to make decisions and be his partner in marriage instead of being constantly protected and shielded by him. It's proven that she cannot handle the challenges that stand before her, not even the simple ones such as what to eat for dinner. Ted eventually tires of Rose's neediness and dependancy on him and leaves her.
5. One writing technique that enhances the chapter is flashbacks. Tan flashes back to the time before Rose and Ted got divorced and shows Rose's inability to choose for herself. She flashes back even furthur to show more about Rose's character and how she didn't learn from her mistakes. The flashbacks showed the ripples effects of Rose's flaws. Not only did she lose her marriage, but she lost her baby brother as well.
6. The main conflict of this chapter is internal. Rose is constantly battling within herself on what decisions she should make. Rose never wins or loses these battles because she always gives up and lets someone else decide for her. Even though there is no obvious outcome, she is still having these emotional battles within herself.
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