Throughout Asian American literature there is a struggle between Asian women and their Asian American daughters. This is the case in The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan and also in the short story “Waiting for Mr. Kim,” written by Carol Roh-Spaulding. These two stories are very different, however they are similar in that they portray Asian women trying to get their American daughters to respect their Asian heritage. There are certain behaviors that Asian women are expected to have, and the mothers feel that their daughters should use these behaviors.
In The Joy Luck Club, the novel traces the fate of the four mothers-Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair-and their four daughters-June Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. Through the experiences that these characters go through, they become women. The mothers all fled China in the 1940’s and they all retain much of their heritage. Their heritage focuses on what is means to be a female, but more importantly what it means to be an Asian female.
In the short story “Waiting for Mr. Kim,” the main female character Gracie understands what it means to be an Asian female, but she does question the meaning because of her sisters. Her sisters ran away from home and eloped before their marriage could be arranged. This is totally against Asian culture, and it causes Gracie to question her heritage and her Asian femininity.
In both of these stories there are certain characteristics of females that are the same, they are inner strength, obedience, honor and respect, the good of the family is better than the good of the individual.
In the chapter “Scar” the characteristic of honor and respect is first noticed. In this chapter An-mei finds out how her mother deserted her, her mother did leave for a good reason, which was to maintain the honor of her family, but either way her mother left her. Her grandmother had to raise her, and she learned much about the Asian woman from her. An-mei was showing some disrespect towards one of her aunts, and her aunt told her that she was being disrespectful. Her grandmother then interjected and said, “When you lose your face, An-mei…it is like dropping your necklace down a well. The only way you can get it back is to fall in after it.
Marriage in Shakespeare’s Othello
Marriage in Othello
Marriage is a part of life. Something that many people, if not everybody, look foward to. Marriage is a sacred thing, it is when two people dedicate their life to their love of their life. Your whole life revolves around it as evrything you do and evrything that happens affects your marriage. It is dedication, to live your whole life next to your partner making tough and easy decicions. There are going to be good times and there are going to be tough and difficult times. Regardless of what comes, you stick through it and side by side you support each other and stay together. Or do you? Many times the struggles and the pressure is too much for many marriages.
The experiences that they go through is sometimes too much for a couple to handle and this causes a lot of stress and problems between the two. Sometimes the problems are so strong that it brakes up the marriage and they both go their seperate ways. Maybe their love wasn’t strong enough. Maybe their commitment wasn’t strong enough. Depending on your definition of love.
Love can be very tricky sometimes. It can evenm blid a man from seing reality and it takes him far apart from the real world. He lives in a strange state of mind where what seems obvious to everybody else, can be overlooked by his or her love. Shakespeare uses jeoulousy as the biggest test of love in the book Othello. Is jeoulousy strong enogh to brake a marriage such as the one between Othello and Desdemona. They are both deeply in love with each other. How about love being blind? Was Emilia blind from reality because she was so in love with her husband Iago?
We have learned the tragical ending of the book. Unfortunate ending for both marriages. Before discussing the ending, lets discuss the facts and the event that lead up to the ending. What was it that caused such a tragic ending? We already know that Desdemona was devoted to the love of her life, Othello, the General that made his friend Cassio Lt. So why would Iago want to brake up the marriage of Othello and Desdemona? Othello and Cassio were really close friends for many years. Cassio was the one that helped Othello get Desdemona’s love. Iago, was also Othello’s friend, and Othello did trust him a lot.