A Mothers Love and a Daughters Growth Essay - 1586 Words

A Mother’s Love and a Daughter’s Growth Many times love is thought of in terms of relationships with someone of the opposite sex. It often times includes emotional as well as physical attraction. Amy Tan’s novel, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, examines the love that takes another form: the love between a parent and child. In a heartfelt examination of the relationship between mother and daughter, Amy Tan brings to life the feeling of love a daughter often takes for granted in the relationship with her mother. In order to express the development of the characters in her novel, Tan uses time in a most useful manner. She draws upon the present in her portrayal of Ruth Young, daughter of LuLing Young. She uses the past to create a†¦show more content†¦Misunderstandings begin to surface between the daughter born in America and the mother raised in a very different culture. At a young age, Ruth sees her mother’s ideas, practices, and motivations, as ancient in nature and resistant to modern times. LuLing struggles with her daughter’s independent qualities and stubbornness. The miscommunication between young daughter and mother are ever clear in the brief exchange of these words: â€Å"‘Why I have daughter like you? Why I live? Why I don’t die long time ‘go? You want I die?’ Ruth was shaking but shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. ‘I really don’t care’† (Tan 146). In adulthood, Ruth understands her frustrations as a child were just that, childish. Her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis has shown Ruth how precious and important the family connection is: â€Å"As the years go on, I see how much family means. It reminds us of what’s important. That connection to the past. The same jokes about being Young yet getting old. The traditions. The fact that we can’t get rid of each other no matter how much we try. We’re stuck through the ages, with the bonds cemented by sticky rice and tapioca pudding. Thank you all for being who you are.† (Tan 93) As Ruth is faced with the uncertainty of her mother’s future, she dives wholeheartedly into her mother’s past. The pages her mother gave her soShow MoreRelatedSummary Of The Joy Luck Club 853 Words   |  4 Pagestranslating another language.The mothers and daughters in the book have difficulty in communicating their ideas and feelings with one another.The problems associated with communicating with one another create a barrier between the mother’s Chinese language and the daughter’s English language.The mothers and daughters misunderstand what the other is intending to say due to the differences in the meanings of their cultural languages.The differences in the languages are perceived differently by the motherRead More Examining Conflict in I Stand Here Ironing Essays1416 Words   |  6 Pagesto her daughters wrinkled adjustment. Ironing, she reflects upon when she was raising her first-born daughter, Emily. The mother contemplates the consequences o f her actions. The mothers life had been interrupted by childbirth, desertion, poverty, numerous jobs, childcare, remarriage, frequent relocations, and five children. Her struggling economic situation gave way to little or no opportunity to properly care for and nurture her first-born child. In spite of the attention and love Emily cravedRead MoreI Stand Here Ironing Essay1361 Words   |  6 Pagesdrug, to keep the mother calm and sedated. The story seems at first to be a simple meditation of a mother reconstructing her daughters past in an attempt to explain present behavior. In its pretense of silent dialogue in the beginning of the story, a mental occupation to accompany the physical occupation of ironing, it creates the impression of literal transcription of a mothers thought processes in the isolation of performing household tasks: I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormentedRead MoreSummary Of Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club1127 Words   |  5 Pagesrelate to the relationships of The Joy Luck Club. Tan uses animate and inanimate objects to express the love and hate in one’s relationship, even if it’s through wobbly furniture, a jade pendant, or a chess piece. Amy Tan utilizes symbolism to convey the development of understanding between mother and daughter. In â€Å"Best Quality,† Tan uses a jade necklace to symbolize Jing Mei’s growth in relationship with her mother. Suyuan gives Jing Mei a jade necklace as a sign of her â€Å"life’s importanceRead MoreEssay on A Comparison of Love in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea1105 Words   |  5 PagesLove in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea      Ã‚   In the passages presented below, both narrators are soliciting affection and love. For Jane, in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, her mother figure, Aunt Reed, shows absolutely no affection towards her niece. Coldly, Ms. Reed regards Jane only as a bothersome child she was left to raise. Similarly, Antoinette, in Jean Rhyss Wide Sargasso Sea, is raised disregarded and unloved by her mother Annette. Although shunned, Jane and Antoinette both have theRead MoreDomestic Unrest And Jennifer Johnston s Fiction Of The Irish Trouble1118 Words   |  5 Pageswomen’s sense of identity† (59). Where Khan discusses the effect of mothers have in their son’s lives, Reisman chooses to focus on how â€Å"in Johnston’s novels mother-daughter relationships are further complicated by daughter’s lack of understanding about their mother’s pasts and mother’s silence about their lives† (60). In both The Invisible Worm and The Illusionist, Reisman notices that there is a â€Å"rebuilding and strengthening† of the mother-daughter bonds in each novel, and that it occurs throughRead MoreI Stand Here Ironing By Tillie Olsen Essay2308 Words   |  10 PagesA Mother’s Struggle Family plays an enormous part in our everyday lives. Each family has their own hopes dreams, and desires for each individual. Every family member, adults and children, should be given the best chance to reach their fullest potential in life. Every family is different and for some families in order for the individual to succeed that means that they must send their children to live with people who can better care for them and provide them with things that they as parents are notRead MoreConflicts Resolved in the Joy Luck Club1442 Words   |  6 Pagesfeel adequate or comfortable in a contemporary American society, even though they have been raised in predominantly Chinese households. For the majority of their lives the daughters have tried to mask their Chinese heritage, embarrassed of their mother’s traditions and conservative attitudes. For example, Lena St. Clair said, â€Å"I used to push my eyes in on the sides to make them rounder. Or I’d open them very wide until I could see the white parts,† (Tan 104) because her eyes were one of the ChineseRead MoreI Stand Here Ironing: The 1950s Woman Essay examples888 Words   |  4 Pagesthe 1950s. They represent women who gladly cooked, cleaned, dressed in pearls and wore high heals while waiting for their all-knowing husbands to come home. They represent women who can only find fulfillment in male domination and nurturing maternal love. Tillie Olsen, as a single mother with four children (204), provides readers with another view of women. Through the representation of the narrator in I Stand Here Ironing, Olsen contradicts the image of the 50s ideal woman, a happy housewife and aRead Morelullabies for little criminals1492 Words   |  6 Pagesfactors that affect a child s growth and development. The connection between a child’s environment and a child’s development are explored in Heather O Neill s lullabies for little criminals where a child named Baby becomes a product of her environment. This is explored through the early death of Baby’s mother, her being raised by a young father and her father s drug addiction. Baby’s bad decisions and choices come from a lack of guidance necessary for a child’s social growth and development.