Joy Luck Club. Kweilin

           In “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan, Suyuan Woo tells Jing-Mei “June” Woo, her daughter, the Kweilin story. However, each time she retells her story, the ending seems to change. From a happy ending, it slowly changes into one full of mysteries and many unanswered questions. One version was about how the formed a club in Kweilin although many people were suffering. They would play and have “feasts” while laughing and enjoying the happiness trying to forget the painful time they are enduring at the moment. It then change into about how Suyuan used the money to buy one thing and exchanged it with others and so on. The third ending was the journey to another place in order to escape death because she knew her fate being an officer's wife. She journeyed to Chungking and during her trip, she slowly abandon her stuff which was too heavy for her to hold.

          She changes the story she tells her daughter due to two reasons: trust and a lesson. As a child, June Woo isn't capable of understanding such a complicated a dark story. Telling her would be meaningless so Suyuan made it a happy ending when June was still young. The older June gets, the more Suyuan can trust her daughter into understanding such deep stuff so the ending will change to match the level of June. The deep secrets will slowly be revealed each time she retells the same story. Moreover, she did it to teach June a lesson. When June tried to ask for something, Suyuan said, “Why do you think you are missing something you never had?”(Tan 25). Suyuan told the darker side of her story in order to teach her daughter that she should value stuff and to not be greedy for more stuff. When June sulked in silence when she couldn't get what she wanted, telling this story allows Suyuan to indirectly tell her message to June about possession and greed without directly saying it. Many stories do have morals even if it is very unrealistic. Suyuan was probably trying to teach her daughter things and trusts her daughter to understand them.

Response to Chinese Mother article

 In the article "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" by Amy Chua, she said:

Second, Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything. The reason for this is a little unclear, but it's probably a combination of Confucian filial piety and the fact that the parents have sacrificed and done so much for their children. (And it's true that Chinese mothers get in the trenches, putting in long grueling hours personally tutoring, training, interrogating and spying on their kids.) Anyway, the understanding is that Chinese children must spend their lives repaying their parents by obeying them and making them proud.
Third, Chinese parents believe that they know what is best for their children and therefore override all of their children's own desires and preferences. That's why Chinese daughters can't have boyfriends in high school and why Chinese kids can't go to sleepaway camp. It's also why no Chinese kid would ever dare say to their mother, "I got a part in the school play! I'm Villager Number Six. I'll have to stay after school for rehearsal every day from 3:00 to 7:00, and I'll also need a ride on weekends." God help any Chinese kid who tried that one.

          After reading this, I can see some of these characteristics in my own mom, but I don't feel that this is completely true. In my view, Amy Chua is a crazy mother trying to make all Chinese mother look bad. This is really stereotypical because first of all, kids don't owe their parents everything. Of course kids should owe their parents something, they don't need to dedicate their entire adult life giving back to their parents. I also don't think that kids are raised to obey their parents' every command. Kids have their own choice and free will, if they have to obey everything, then why not just have a robot by your side. Although Chinese parents are strict, it is for the safety of their child that they won't grow up acting like a deliquent. I think that Amy seriously exaggerate many of these things. I do agree that Chinese motehrs are seriously strict but the kids still have freedom. Parents only expect As from their kid and from how I see it with other Chinese mothers, the mothers will let their kids do ANYTHING as long as they maintain a perfect A.
          Moreover, I don't think that parents know what's best for their kids and that they can override their kids' desire and preference. No one knows what's best for others, even if they are their parents. Only the individuals can decide what's best for them. I do agree with Chua that kids and parents owe each other but not for life and not because of the parental relationship. A child and the parent can owe each other on other issues but if it's like how Chua describes it, I don't think that "owe" is the correct term. I think that parents push their kids and support them out of love for their kids to live a happy life and kids take care of their parents who are in their old age out of love. I don't think that it should be owing each other. This should be caring for each other out of love for each other's safety.

Orwell and Egypt

What connections do you see between the revolution Orwell described in Animal Farm and the events in Egypt, Tunisia, Honduras, etc...?
          The revolution that Orwell described in Animal Farm and the evnts in Egypt and many part of Middle East and Africa have many common aspects. one of them is involvement from a third party. In Orwell's book, when the animals are having their revolution, other animals from other farms were listening to the news while the humans were divided with the result of animals overthrowing their farmers. Some humans thought that they needed the farm back while other humans thought that the animals would break within themselves and fight one another. The uprising in the farm caused many humans to look carefully at the situation and divided the humans as to what will happen next. The same thing happened to Egypt. When the uprising started, many other countries were observing the situation, trying to see what will happen. United States involved themselves and since the situation was hard to predict, Americans were divided amongst themselves not knowing what the outcome of Egypt will be.
          Another common relationship with the book and the revolution in Egypt is that it slowly spreads. The news of the uprising spread both in the book and in Egypt. It spreads to other places near the rebellion. In Orwell's rebellion, the news of the animals rebelling in the farm spread all over England and many animals from other farms heard of the news. The same thing was with Egypt. Egypt had many uprising and the uprising inspired many other places to rebel as well. It gave courage to other countries that are suffering from tyranny and dictatorship. There had been many other tiny rebellion from countries who wanted the dictatorship to end and to have a democracy.
          Many of the rebellion that started was caused by people who are sick and tired from being ruled by a cruel tyrant. They are sick and tired of starving while their "leader" are wealthy and healthy. In Animal Farm, the farmers were happily profiting while making the animals work and making food out of the animals. The same thing happened to many of the countries that are now protesting. All the people were starving and don't have any freedom while their leader is profiting from their suffering. Both the rebellion from the animals and the people in Egypt and countries around it are trying to kick their tyrant out and to replace their system of government with democracy.

Animal Farm chapter 11

i did my animal farm chapter 11 with alyssa li.