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Remember, it is OK to disagree with one another, but we must always be RESPECTFUL of one another.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Tone/Style Shifts?
As you now have read multiple stories by both generations, do you notice any major or subtle changes in tone or style? How is the tone or style different between the mothers’ stories and the daughters’ stories?
In the different stories in "The Joy Luck Club" are from the different perspectives of the parents and the children. They have different perspectives because of where they grew up when they were younger. The mothers grew up in China and the children grew up in America. These two different countries have different cultures that caused the different generations to grow up differently. Therefore, there are major differences between the two types of stories. The mothers grew up in a society where there was little tolerance and have to repect their families. This carries over into their stories. They are conveying a tone that is disciplinary. The children however, grew up in America where everyone is free and can do whatever they want. Their tone is looser and not as overbearing. This is the main difference between the stories from the perspective of the parents and the children.
Both the mother and daughter's stories have slight changes in the tone and style. The stories that the mom's tell are full of rituals, and beliefs that the Chinese believed in a while ago. The mother's stories are also told in a calming tone, and then can suddenly change to very harsh and unbelievable conditions. For one moment, the mom will be talking about a pleasant ritual and another moment, they'll turn it over to death and negative consequences to the ritual. Also, the mom's tell the story from the heart. You can tell these stories are true because of the tone that the mom's use. The daughters story's are slightly different from the moms' stories. They are told more to the point and simple. They have the same amount of description, but they are not told with as much emotion as the stories that the mom's tell. It's almost like the mom's enjoy telling the stories more than the daughters and the mom's are more proud.
You can tell a few differences between the mothers' stories and the daughters' stories. One is a change in style. The mothers' stories sounds more wise and inspirational. There seems to be more hidden meanings. In the daughters' stories they are more straight up. For example, in the story, "Scar", it starts off by saying, "When I was a young girl in China, my grandmother told me my mother was a ghost." This gets right to the point and explains what the whole chapter is about. You know that it's about her mother from the beginning.
Also, there is a change in tone between the mothers and the daughters stories. In the mothers stories, they sound more laid back compared to the fear in the daughters' stories. In the daughters' stories it sounds more general and to one point. These are some differences in tone and style.
The differences between the older and younger generation of story-tellers are that the older generation tells the stories in China, with a seriousness in their tone. They speak as if they are reliving the moments in their minds. The older generation shows the discipline and morals that they learned as children in China. They speak about not dishonoring their family name and doing the right thing. The younger generation, born in the United States, are more care free. They do not seem to show the same level of respect for their culture or their elders that the older generation does. The younger generation have little tolerance for their mother's stories and Chinese myths. The older generation was brought up in a society that did not tolerate disrespect. This is different than the generation of girls in America because they grew up free and happy while their mother's had rules and pain but also structure in their lives.
The daughters and mother stories are different due to what is important to them. The daughters care more about their own desires and improving their own lives. The important thing of the parents is honoring their familiy and being respectful. This shows the difference also between the Chinese culture, the moms have, and the American culture, the daughters have. Each of the stories shows which is more important to each society. Both of the generations live completely different life making their story telling very different.
In the mothers' stories in the first section of the book, the stories were very uptight, and told to the point. You could sense through the words and actions that they were raised to be strictly Chinese. However, there is a major contrast that becomes visible when switching to the daughters' stories. In these stories, you see a bit of the self-center attitude of the young girls, or the "American raised" girls. They adapt to very American ways, and one prevalent place where this is seen is Waverly Jong playing chess and becoming extremely good at it. It is easy to see that her mom has no understanding of the game at all, yet Waverly is advancing to national competitions. Another place where this American culture is seen through someone who is born of the Chinese descent is in the parable in the beginning of the novel when the person speaking says, "And she had a daughter growing up speaking only English and swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow." By writing this, the author is showing how they can be born into a Chinese family, but lose their ways in America through the adapting to its ways.
In the book "Joy Luck Club" there are many different stories each told in a different perspective. Each story has a different tone and style of writing to it. There is a different tone between the mother's stories and the daughter's stories. Each perspective is different because the mother's stories take place in China and the daughter's stories take place in the United States. I feel that the mother's stories a sad because it is about them trying to escape their bad life in China and get a better life. The daughter's stories are a little more upbeat, some are sad because the mother is going crazy.
In the different stories in the book, there is an extremely noticeable difference in the way the daughters speak comapred to the mothers. The daughters speak like their mothers are crazy and too harsh with them. This is seen in the scene where Waverly runs away from her mom after she runs into a lady at a market. HEr mother scolds her and she runs. The way her mother scolds her though was seen often in the mother's stories though. The "Americanized" daughters just aren't used to that kind of culture.
In Joy Luck Club, each individual story is told by a different person, either a daughter or a mother. As they were born in different countries and cultures, the mothers and daughters have different views of life and disagree heavily on the most important parts.
In The first story, "The Joy Luck Club," June tells her aunts that she knows nothing about her mother. Her aunts are very upset by this, and Aunt An-mei say that her mother is "in your bones" (pg 40). In the second story, "Scar," An-mei remembers a moment in her past when she was a young girl. Her grandmother was very sick, so her mother, who had been banished from the family, returned to try and save her. An-mei's mother cuts part of her arm out to help heal her mother, because the honor a daughter should feel for her mother is deep in her bones.
These differences in ideas and values represent the differences between the mothers and daughters, because the mother, who grew up in China, would never forget their mothers, but the daughters, who grew up in America, would forget their mothers and never honor them.
While reading the Joy Luck Club and seeing the shifting from mother to daughter narration, you notice the change in tone and style of the writing. The first four stories told by the mothers have a tone of trying to teach something to the daughters with their stories. They are speaking with wisdom and tradition about their memories and important encounters in China.The mother's speak of older things that only they can relate to. They show their own personalities in a different light. When you read about the mothers in the daughter's perspective they seem different. Because they are separated by a generation the style is more carefree. They are kids trying figure out things while having rocky relationships with their mothers. This is reflected in their writing. With the stories written by the mothers you get the sense that they are trying to get through to their daughters about the life they had in China and the good intentions they had for their families in America.
There are subtle tone shifts between the older and younger generations. This is because of two main reasons. The first reason being that the younger generation was born and raised in the United states and that culture, where as the older generation was born and grew up in china. They grew up in totally different cultures that have different values and opinions on things. You notice this when the young girl begins to play chess and her mother strongly dislikes the game just because it is american. Also age plays a big role in the differences in tone. As we mentioned in class there is always the conflict between generations, and a younger person would look at an older person differently than the older would look at them. This just means different people are portrayed in different lights due to their relitive age to the person telling the story.
The shifts are subtle yet they are quite noticeable. The older women, the mothers, speak much more artistically and have a much bigger elegance in the way they think. They have a viewpoint for looking backwards instead of being in the present. They can use the memories they have in the light they hold them in. In other words, if the memory is good, it would come across as a good event, and if it were bad or sad, it would be written as such. Also, the culture these women are describing is much more magical and traditional as well as the language they have is much more pretty. They speak poetically. The girls, as far as I have gotten, have the generation gap as well as a stark difference in culture. They speak more like they the teenage kids I know and they also are more in the present. In America, they lead lives with their own wills, more or less, very unlike the oppressed women in China. It's interesting to be able to relate better to the daughters because of their similar values and thoughts as us, unlike the alien world of their mothers.
In the different stories in "The Joy Luck Club", there are different persppectives for each one. However, the perspective of the daughters contrasts greatly to that of the mothers. The mothers grew up in China, where the culture was much more strict, and they had much less freedom. The mothers grew up in a culture where their first and foremost concern was to keep honor and obey their family. The daughters, however, grew up in America where everything is much more free and the possibilities are endless. That is why in the daughters stories, they are less uptight and don't understand their mothers behaviors to them, because they grew up in completely different cultures.
I think one major change in tone between the stories of the mothers and the daughters is that the mothers tell their stories as if there is nothing wrong with how they are living their lives in China. They sound very calm about all of the events that take place in their lives that would be scary to American people. Leading up to my point about the daughter's tone, they sound more scared and worried about all of the stuff that goes on in their lives, while their mothers have been through so much worse. Personally, I believe this is because of the cultural difference. In China, the mothers seemed to learn to not be fearful of anything and to be strong, but with their daughters in America, they have developed the mentality that everything is scary and they are more weak then their mothers.
Throughout the stories in "The Joy Luck Club" there are shifts between the perspectives from mother to daughter. They have very different ideas and thoughts because of where they are raised. In China, the mothers were expected to obey their elders and show family pride. They expect that their daughters will automatically understand that, even though they now live in a different country. However, that is not the case at all. The daughters who are now growing up in America are now surrounded with the idea of individuality and being yourself. They are embarassed by their mother's old-fashioned traditions, and their mothers are embarassed by their daughter's foolish acts. These different tones and styles of perspective are carried on throughout the whole book, often causing conflict between the mother's and daughter's relationships.
15 comments:
In the different stories in "The Joy Luck Club" are from the different perspectives of the parents and the children. They have different perspectives because of where they grew up when they were younger. The mothers grew up in China and the children grew up in America. These two different countries have different cultures that caused the different generations to grow up differently. Therefore, there are major differences between the two types of stories. The mothers grew up in a society where there was little tolerance and have to repect their families. This carries over into their stories. They are conveying a tone that is disciplinary. The children however, grew up in America where everyone is free and can do whatever they want. Their tone is looser and not as overbearing. This is the main difference between the stories from the perspective of the parents and the children.
Both the mother and daughter's stories have slight changes in the tone and style. The stories that the mom's tell are full of rituals, and beliefs that the Chinese believed in a while ago. The mother's stories are also told in a calming tone, and then can suddenly change to very harsh and unbelievable conditions. For one moment, the mom will be talking about a pleasant ritual and another moment, they'll turn it over to death and negative consequences to the ritual. Also, the mom's tell the story from the heart. You can tell these stories are true because of the tone that the mom's use.
The daughters story's are slightly different from the moms' stories. They are told more to the point and simple. They have the same amount of description, but they are not told with as much emotion as the stories that the mom's tell. It's almost like the mom's enjoy telling the stories more than the daughters and the mom's are more proud.
You can tell a few differences between the mothers' stories and the daughters' stories. One is a change in style. The mothers' stories sounds more wise and inspirational. There seems to be more hidden meanings. In the daughters' stories they are more straight up. For example, in the story, "Scar", it starts off by saying, "When I was a young girl in China, my grandmother told me my mother was a ghost." This gets right to the point and explains what the whole chapter is about. You know that it's about her mother from the beginning.
Also, there is a change in tone between the mothers and the daughters stories. In the mothers stories, they sound more laid back compared to the fear in the daughters' stories. In the daughters' stories it sounds more general and to one point. These are some differences in tone and style.
The differences between the older and younger generation of story-tellers are that the older generation tells the stories in China, with a seriousness in their tone. They speak as if they are reliving the moments in their minds. The older generation shows the discipline and morals that they learned as children in China. They speak about not dishonoring their family name and doing the right thing. The younger generation, born in the United States, are more care free. They do not seem to show the same level of respect for their culture or their elders that the older generation does. The younger generation have little tolerance for their mother's stories and Chinese myths. The older generation was brought up in a society that did not tolerate disrespect. This is different than the generation of girls in America because they grew up free and happy while their mother's had rules and pain but also structure in their lives.
The daughters and mother stories are different due to what is important to them. The daughters care more about their own desires and improving their own lives. The important thing of the parents is honoring their familiy and being respectful. This shows the difference also between the Chinese culture, the moms have, and the American culture, the daughters have. Each of the stories shows which is more important to each society. Both of the generations live completely different life making their story telling very different.
In the mothers' stories in the first section of the book, the stories were very uptight, and told to the point. You could sense through the words and actions that they were raised to be strictly Chinese. However, there is a major contrast that becomes visible when switching to the daughters' stories. In these stories, you see a bit of the self-center attitude of the young girls, or the "American raised" girls. They adapt to very American ways, and one prevalent place where this is seen is Waverly Jong playing chess and becoming extremely good at it. It is easy to see that her mom has no understanding of the game at all, yet Waverly is advancing to national competitions. Another place where this American culture is seen through someone who is born of the Chinese descent is in the parable in the beginning of the novel when the person speaking says, "And she had a daughter growing up speaking only English and swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow." By writing this, the author is showing how they can be born into a Chinese family, but lose their ways in America through the adapting to its ways.
In the book "Joy Luck Club" there are many different stories each told in a different perspective. Each story has a different tone and style of writing to it. There is a different tone between the mother's stories and the daughter's stories. Each perspective is different because the mother's stories take place in China and the daughter's stories take place in the United States. I feel that the mother's stories a sad because it is about them trying to escape their bad life in China and get a better life. The daughter's stories are a little more upbeat, some are sad because the mother is going crazy.
In the different stories in the book, there is an extremely noticeable difference in the way the daughters speak comapred to the mothers. The daughters speak like their mothers are crazy and too harsh with them. This is seen in the scene where Waverly runs away from her mom after she runs into a lady at a market. HEr mother scolds her and she runs. The way her mother scolds her though was seen often in the mother's stories though. The "Americanized" daughters just aren't used to that kind of culture.
In Joy Luck Club, each individual story is told by a different person, either a daughter or a mother. As they were born in different countries and cultures, the mothers and daughters have different views of life and disagree heavily on the most important parts.
In The first story, "The Joy Luck Club," June tells her aunts that she knows nothing about her mother. Her aunts are very upset by this, and Aunt An-mei say that her mother is "in your bones" (pg 40). In the second story, "Scar," An-mei remembers a moment in her past when she was a young girl. Her grandmother was very sick, so her mother, who had been banished from the family, returned to try and save her. An-mei's mother cuts part of her arm out to help heal her mother, because the honor a daughter should feel for her mother is deep in her bones.
These differences in ideas and values represent the differences between the mothers and daughters, because the mother, who grew up in China, would never forget their mothers, but the daughters, who grew up in America, would forget their mothers and never honor them.
While reading the Joy Luck Club and seeing the shifting from mother to daughter narration, you notice the change in tone and style of the writing. The first four stories told by the mothers have a tone of trying to teach something to the daughters with their stories. They are speaking with wisdom and tradition about their memories and important encounters in China.The mother's speak of older things that only they can relate to. They show their own personalities in a different light. When you read about the mothers in the daughter's perspective they seem different. Because they are separated by a generation the style is more carefree. They are kids trying figure out things while having rocky relationships with their mothers. This is reflected in their writing. With the stories written by the mothers you get the sense that they are trying to get through to their daughters about the life they had in China and the good intentions they had for their families in America.
There are subtle tone shifts between the older and younger generations. This is because of two main reasons. The first reason being that the younger generation was born and raised in the United states and that culture, where as the older generation was born and grew up in china. They grew up in totally different cultures that have different values and opinions on things. You notice this when the young girl begins to play chess and her mother strongly dislikes the game just because it is american. Also age plays a big role in the differences in tone. As we mentioned in class there is always the conflict between generations, and a younger person would look at an older person differently than the older would look at them. This just means different people are portrayed in different lights due to their relitive age to the person telling the story.
The shifts are subtle yet they are quite noticeable. The older women, the mothers, speak much more artistically and have a much bigger elegance in the way they think. They have a viewpoint for looking backwards instead of being in the present. They can use the memories they have in the light they hold them in. In other words, if the memory is good, it would come across as a good event, and if it were bad or sad, it would be written as such. Also, the culture these women are describing is much more magical and traditional as well as the language they have is much more pretty. They speak poetically.
The girls, as far as I have gotten, have the generation gap as well as a stark difference in culture. They speak more like they the teenage kids I know and they also are more in the present. In America, they lead lives with their own wills, more or less, very unlike the oppressed women in China. It's interesting to be able to relate better to the daughters because of their similar values and thoughts as us, unlike the alien world of their mothers.
In the different stories in "The Joy Luck Club", there are different persppectives for each one. However, the perspective of the daughters contrasts greatly to that of the mothers.
The mothers grew up in China, where the culture was much more strict, and they had much less freedom. The mothers grew up in a culture where their first and foremost concern was to keep honor and obey their family. The daughters, however, grew up in America where everything is much more free and the possibilities are endless. That is why in the daughters stories, they are less uptight and don't understand their mothers behaviors to them, because they grew up in completely different cultures.
I think one major change in tone between the stories of the mothers and the daughters is that the mothers tell their stories as if there is nothing wrong with how they are living their lives in China. They sound very calm about all of the events that take place in their lives that would be scary to American people. Leading up to my point about the daughter's tone, they sound more scared and worried about all of the stuff that goes on in their lives, while their mothers have been through so much worse. Personally, I believe this is because of the cultural difference. In China, the mothers seemed to learn to not be fearful of anything and to be strong, but with their daughters in America, they have developed the mentality that everything is scary and they are more weak then their mothers.
Throughout the stories in "The Joy Luck Club" there are shifts between the perspectives from mother to daughter. They have very different ideas and thoughts because of where they are raised. In China, the mothers were expected to obey their elders and show family pride. They expect that their daughters will automatically understand that, even though they now live in a different country. However, that is not the case at all. The daughters who are now growing up in America are now surrounded with the idea of individuality and being yourself. They are embarassed by their mother's old-fashioned traditions, and their mothers are embarassed by their daughter's foolish acts. These different tones and styles of perspective are carried on throughout the whole book, often causing conflict between the mother's and daughter's relationships.
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