Joy Luck Club

         In the movie, Joy Luck Club, mothers and daughters have special connection. They take different roles depending on cultural demands. In China, the mothers were expected to be obedient wives and to never openly challenge authority. While in America, the daughters are independent, have the option of divorcing and taking almost any job. For the mothers, moving to America creates a future full of privilege and success. For the daughters, it is the freedom to take their opportunities and do with them as little or as much as they want. The mothers want their daughters to have all the privileges that they could not have, but are disappointed to realize that this in turn means their daughters will not truly understand them. Their daughters gains respect, however, they becomes so Americanized that they speak only English. They are able to communicate with one another but unable to understand each other.

Inability to communicate is one of the themes of this movie. The daughters can speak very little Chinese, and their mothers's English is poor. This is important because the daughters grows up without any suffering, so they cannot understand their mother's painful past, and their mother knows no way that she can communicate the depths and the details of their suffering to their daughter. I can somewhat relate to this. Me and my mother have very different views about most of the things, and she will take different meaning of whatever I say. She becomes over protected about me all the time and starts lecturing me. For example, she did not want me go to the prom because she thought that people get drunk there and that is dangerous because there are boys as well. It took me ages to convince her that there are teachers there so one drinks. Whenever I do something wrong she yells at me by saying that I am becoming so American. However, I think that this because of our cultural differences too. My mother like all the mothers, in the movie, also wanted me to have all the freedom and rights but the disadvantage of that is that we will have different opinions about things.

Found Poem

Loneliness

Life not worth living, boring

Empty at heart

Experienced loneliness emotionally and physically

Haunted at school, home and everywhere

Surrounded with no friends, sitting alone, staring at the floor, depression

Still, eyes get wet

Christian defies the stereotypes

In the novel, My Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira, Marry Sutter’s younger brother, Christian Sutter is the best male character so far. During the Civil War era, men were so different from men today. They were always the head of the house, and were usually off fighting wars or working. They had many rights that the women did not. Therefore, they controlled women. According to the stereotypes of that era, a man would act so “manly” to show his manliness, and would not sit home taking care of their wives. They were so powerful but, less sensitive and less caring.

Christian Sutter contradicts the stereotypes of men of his era in many ways. When Mary asks Christian to carry Bonnie upstairs to the room, he, without thinking about his own joy, agrees to go help her. Therefore, we can say that he is sympathetic. Then, when Mary tells him that he can go downstairs and spend some time with his family since it is his last night with his family, he does not because the death of Bonnie’s child and Bonnie’s condition were so heart breaking for him. He felt so sad and didn’t want to leave Bonnie. After a while, when Bonnie falls asleep, he tries to shift her so that she can sleep comfortably. While doing that, he is “as careful as a mother with a child” (Oliveira 73). This shows that Christian is very sensitive and caring. This quote, “For how could she, when a man like Christian Sutter existed in the world?”(Oliveira 76), shows that he is the type of guy that Bonnie would like, and he is probably an ideal guy for most of the women. 

In a small village of Harmony, the reputation of Mr. Davidson was so incredible that it blew and
stuck into people’s eyes. Mr. Davidson’s house was like a king’s palace. It was full of servants, and busy with the frequent visits of the businessmen. Like a huge food storage in house, Mr. Davidson had money storages in his palace. When Mrs. Davidson goes out of her palace with all the gold and silver jewelry on, the whole village keeps looking at her endlessly. The majesty of Mr. Davidson was praised in all the neighbor villages. The life of Mr. Davidson was full of happiness and prosperity. But one night an incident which shouldn’t have happened took place.

            It was a dark moon night and dire blackness had spread all over the place. The whole place was so quiet and still. Only the babbling sound of the brook near Mr. Davidson’s palace was heard. Often howling of the foxes in the nearby fields intensified the scariness of the dark night. It was night that scares even a guard. That night, in the killing cold of winter, everyone was bundled up and enjoying their sleep in their houses. All of a sudden, there came a scream of run… run…run…from the palace. The whole village woke up and ran towards Mr. Davidson’s palace. 

This picture represents freedom/independence.

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will" (Bronte 284).

          Jane has desired for freedom since childhood. She proclaims a desire to be as free and independent as a bird but, she makes it very clear that she is not a bird within a snare. Her declaration here means that she is in fact an independent human being with choices and free will. At Lowood, Jane gets bored doing all the same stuff, and she doesn't like being caught at a single place for years. She longs for a new place and desires for liberty. To get out of Lowood, Jane advertises in a newspaper which is very independent for a woman to do at that time. It was very rare for any woman/governess to advertise in newspaper since woman were not supposed to provide for themselves. She doesn't like to be controlled by anyone. Although Jane loves Rochester, she does not do what he wants her to do. Rochester wants her to stay with him but she does not think it is right to stay with him and therefore, she wants to leave. Later, Jane does leave. Jane has her own morals and once she decides to do something, she sticks to it. She does not let anyone convince her and make her do what she does not want to do. However, she does let St. John control her at some point. For example, St. John makes her learn Hindostanee. She is not willing to learn it but she has to since he is the one who saved her from dying. Later in the novel, Jane marries Rochester not because she needs a man to rely on, but because she loves him. She marries Rochester, a guy who is twice as old as her. She does not care what people would think about her, she does what she wills to do. Therefore, Jane is an independent woman. 

Reader's Response-Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre - Onion Peel

“… I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendliness, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad – as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times where there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rises in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth – so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane – quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs” (Bronte 356).

In this quotation, Jane states her strong sense of moral integrity over and against her intense feelings. Rochester is the first person who has truly loved Jane. However, now that Jane knows that Rochester has a wife, she has to abandon him. Rochester has been trying to persuade Jane to stay with him at Thornfield. Yet, she knows that staying with him would mean compromising herself. By marrying a man who has a wife already, she thinks, she would lose her self-respect. This passage also shows Jane’s understanding of religion. She sees God as a giver of laws by which she must live. When Jane cannot take judgment, she looks to these principles for reference. The laws made by God are for everyone and should be obeyed in any condition. For instance, when I have strong desire to do something which is inappropriate, I have to think that it is inappropriate and God will punish me for that. If I were Jane, I would have probably taken the same decision as her because I think that it is immoral and unacceptable to come in between a husband and a wife.

When Jane uses words like ‘mad’ and ‘insane’ for herself, it brings out an interesting parallel between Bertha and her. Bertha is a double for Jane, who represents what Jane feels within herself. Also, the description of Jane’s blood running like ‘fire’ symbolizes the passion ad suffering Jane goes through.