Similar Stories-Stories that weren't Written

The stories where I have found a few similarities were the blogs A Heart of a Student by Shiyun Yang, New Era by Nawara Ahemed, and Ianna has a Blog Now by me. The similarities that I found between the three of us is that all of our families don't share stories. With Shiyun she discusses how unless prompted to tell stories her family doesn't discuss them. An example of this is when Shiyun states, "This story hasn't really survived in my family. My parents don't tell much stories and I don't think that they heard much stories from their parents either. Its sad to think that the family history kind of broken down and didn't get passed from generations to generations. I believe that there is a great story out there to tell, and it just never really got passed on. My only guess is that they don't want to tell the life of their sad living styles." I found this interesting because it relates to all three of us. We all know that we have a story to tell but we don't always have the resources to learn what the are.

One quote of Nawara's broke my heart, when she said "I have realized that connecting with Family history is also an essential quality and esteem to acquire because of the how sealed a household family can renovate into. For instance, many of my identifiable acquaintances inform their parents about their everyday existence- boys, school, faults, to broken-hearts- this demonstrates the kinship between the parents and the children. They are amid a great amount of comfort and wellbeing that they have they the strength to orally communicate their thoughts without a borderline.

Not having the capability to empathize and value my parent’s history is sad. To obtain family history is remarkable, and the aftermath always goes on- which is humbling.

When my parents reveal their history to us, I will cherish the stories and forever adore their adventures (mishaps and fortune). By doing so, the connections between my parents, siblings, and I will improve." I thought that this was a really good way of expressing how she feels about not having the stories of her family be present. Because of Nawara I have found a new appreciation to what I do know. Like Shiyun I do know a few stories, and though mine are not very accurate it's nice to know they are there. I really hope that soon Nawara will find her stories and achieve the emotions that she wants to portray with her parents and other family members.

Beta Reading

1.Does dialogue contribute to or take away from the story?
The dialogue is fine. If anything it helps the reader have more insight to who the characters and what their relationships are to other characters. When this history was incorporated during the lake side scene it added a lot to Adrians motivations, but was somewhat unclear. One criticism I have is that it seems that you-the autor is trying extremely hard to incorporate pop culture into your story. Write about what you feel is right, not what you expect your audience to want.

2.Is Adrian's explanation of Filipino folklore interesting? Why or why not?
I found that Adrian's explanation was very interesting. I wasn't clear if he was talking about his family history, Filipino history, or a combination. If all of what was incorporated into the story was true then Filipino folklore is very interesting and it would be nice to have random tidbits of Filipino history and folklore thrown in.

3.Is Dorothy's reaction realistic?
Dorothy originally seemed to be kind of a strange high schooler with very limited social skill so the fact she responded "normally" to Adrian's stories made her character complex. It also made it unclear what her social experience was, the fact that she had such limited interactions with males-especially with men she was attracted to-so her being able to flirt and act as if she were a socialite was confusing to her character.

4. Do the cultural elements seem forced in the storyline?
The Filipino cultural elements seem fine. The pop cultural elements seem forced. Making references to Vampire Diaries seems as if the author is just trying to entertain the reader by expressing his knowledge on pop culture. Teenagers are smarter than you think, and they are the experts on pop culture. Possibly having a teenager to reference phrases or tv shows might be a good idea.

5.Is Dorothy a relatable female protagonist? Do you think it's cool she's Filipino? Or do you think she should be of another ethnicity who finds Filipino culture interesting?
Dorothy and I have different social experiences and skills so I personally find her difficult to relate to, but she does have some relatable qualities. It's fine that she's Filipino, maybe adding some diversity would make the text more relatable.

6.Is Adrian compelling?
He used to seem very sexy, but when he turned into a mystic being and tried to get at Dorothy he lost some of his sex appeal.

Cyclical Stories

In The Joy Luck Club there are many repeating stories. I believe this is because they are all the daughters of their mothers. They were raised a certain way and though they retaliated it was still how they were brought up, those ways are ingrained into their beings and there is nothing they can do to change it.

In every story of The Joy Luck Club there is a point where each woman breaks away from tradition. Whether it was getting out of an arrange marriage or not wanting to play the piano. The cycles actually go back further than just the generations told, in Scar An-Mei Hsu's mother went to live with a man as his concubine. This was clearly not tradition because she was disowned from her family leaving her daughter to be raised by her Grandmother. Another example is in Half and Half Rose Hsu Jordan is at UC Berkeley and has fallen in love with Ted, and is an American. Like her Grandmother, (An-Mei's mother) she fell in love with a man that wasn't respected in their society.

Marrying men who are not very good individuals seems to be another trend through out this book. In almost every marriage the man has either been a bad man, really annoying, or the woman is not attracted to him. In Red Candle Lindo Jong is forced to marry a man that is a horrible husband, not only because of the family he came from, how spoiled he was, or the fact he was just ugly, they also did not have any attraction to each other. Same with Rice Husband where Lena St. Clair marries a man who she thought she loved but in the end he was a because he was a nuisance and had be completely fair with money and make sure it was even down to the penny. Overall none of the women expressed happy marriages through out the book.

Everywhere you go there are traditions and cycles of some sort. Whether it is a family tradition or a woman's menstruation cycle, The Joy Luck Club just shows more of the everyday cycles that most look over.

Family Project

My family came from Ireland, either my great-great grandparents came with their children or they came after they were born, no one knows for sure. After they were finally in New York and settled there were thirteen children. One of my great grandparent’s came from this family, which one is currently unknown. One of the children met their spouse and moved to Jackson Heights in New York. Mammi and Paul (Pow) Carriage had a child named Cecelia (Sheila) Dunne Carriage. Sheila lived in New York for most of her life. She was very fortunate Pow was a banker therefore they were financially secure during the depression. One story my Granny (Sheila) remembers is one night during a air raid her dog, Blackout-named after the constant blackouts-got scared and hid in Pow’s closet and gave birth all over his good business shoes. She also remembers that she would always go to church with her aunties and uncles (nuns and priests) and never know any of the prayers because she wasn’t raised to be religious.
Sheila met a man named George (Grumps) Dunn in a church choir. For some reason my Granny felt it was necessary to tell me that the first time they got intimate is when my Unlce-Geoffrey Scott Dunn was conceived. Before my Granny was showing they got married. Quickly after Grumps joined the military then my mom was conceived, Laurie Susan Dunn. He quickly became the Lieutenant Colonel of the Marines, my mom would always tell me stories about how she would always be scared about how she never knew if her father would come back from war or not. My mom was also unhappy with all the moving around due to her fathers job. My mom always told me stories about her misadventures with her brother, Geoff. One of them was running around Central Park and jumping over various objects, this is how my mom messed up her knee. Another old favorite (not from the material but from how crazy it was) is when Geoff climbed a flag pole and slid down and got his leg caught on the bottom part. Since it was literally inside his leg it ripped and mutilated most of the muscle so the doctors had to take muscle from his arm and implant it into his leg. Nasty stuff huh?
Later my Granny and Grumps got a divorce. He married a horrid woman named Joan who had two prior children, Greg and Cherri-who is completely crazy-later Grumps and Joan had a daughter named Jenny. My Granny remarried a few times, first to Dr. Darby-a misogynist, then to a guy named Ed Baltimore, so Sheila became Sheila Baltimore and stayed that way ever since.
All I know about Grump’s childhood is that he loved his mother dearly, but she married a horrible man. He had three sisters, Susan-who my mom is named after, and two others. I know that they are from Omaha, Nebraska and my Auntie Jenny tried to find them, once she did she got rejected.


I already knew all this about my Mom’s side. It’s not like it was any such mystery-except for the literal mystery of not knowing most of the facts of my roots. It just made me realize how much I did not want to find out about my Dad’s side. Granted I am half of him and his family is my family, but none of them have ever welcomed me. There are some individuals who are not playing with a full deck but not only do they not acknowledge the fact there is something wrong with them but they make the person who said anything about there being a problem the crazy one, and of course I am that person. One memory I have is when my Dad took me to a party at a family friends house and I was the only one with brown eyes. Most of them made fun of me because of it, not even my cousin who was supposed to be my best friend stood up for me. I really do not like her. She never had my back and told me to my face she does not like me, but now that I am older and “cooler” I’m alright. What kind of person says that? I do not trust anyone on that side of my family, and if I don’t trust them why would I want to write about them?
I am very confused on where I come from and where my roots begin. I know that I’m Irish, but when I did research on my middle name, Dunn, I discovered Panamanian ancestry, I have no idea where that came from. I’m also Norwegian (surprise!), but due to the fact that is the ethnicity on my Dad’s side I don’t relate myself to it what so ever. I’m actually scared of blue eyes because of that side of my family. If eye’s are a certain shade of blue I automatically don’t trust them, I wont let it effect it who I do or do not talk to, it just is that much harder for me to trust just because of a superficial feature such as eye color.
Another thing that confuses me is that I look nothing like anyone but my cousin, Elizabeth-that’s the only reason I know I’m not adopted. We look identical except she’s tall with green eyes and I’m on the smaller side with auburn eyes. It’s interesting what people see when they look at me. The closer I am to a person the less they see of my parents in me, but the less they know the more they see. Go figure.

Chinese Mothers and Daughters

All throughout the Joy Luck Club Amy Tan gives examples that corrispond with the Tiger Mom Article. One prime example of this is Rules of the Game Waverly Jong's mother pushes her extremely hard to be a chess champion. Even though Waverly loved the game she didn't love getting pushed, watched, and criticized until she could no longer handle the stress. The Tiger Mom article states,
"What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up. But if done properly, the Chinese strategy produces a virtuous circle. Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America. Once a child starts to excel at something—whether it's math, piano, pitching or ballet—he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not-fun activity fun. This in turn makes it easier for the parent to get the child to work even more."
Which is exactly what Waverly's mom was doing to her. Waverly loved the game and wanted to always play, but anything she did was never good enough, it was good enough for her mother to brag about but behind closed doors she always had to push herself harder.

Another example of the Tiger Mom article being accurate is the Two Kinds chapter. Jing-Mei was forced into playing the piano. She hated it and wasn't very good but she was still forced to see a piano teacher she nicknamed Old Chong once a week. In the Tiger Mom article it literally states that their child has toplay any instrument other than the piano or violin and is not allowed to not play the piano or violin. Making the two stories match.

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates Response

The purpose of this story is to show how parents try their very hardest to keep their children safe. In the story before The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates ten the mother said, "It is in a book, The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, all bad things that can happen to you outside the protection of your own home." she was probably lying. Parent's, mother's in this case, tend to lie or be not so great when they think it is for the best for their child.

In the chapter Rules of The Game the mother forces the daughter to play chess and is obnoxious in the ways she does so. An example of this is, But I found it difficult to concentrate at home. My mother had a habit of standing over me while I plotted my games. I think she thought of herself as my protective ally. Her lips would be sealed tight, and after each move I made, a soft 'Hmmmmmph' would escape from her nose."(pg. 98) Even thought this was insanely annoying to have someone hover while attempting to do something better, it showed her mother cared deeply for her. Later in the chapter it discussed how her mother held up a magazine showing off that she was the mother of a chess champion, this was probably out of vanity but she was still proud to call her her daughter.

In the next chapter the mother and her daughter were walking through town when they saw a crazy lady. Out of curiosity the daughter asked what was wrong with her."'What did she do to herself?' I whispered to my mother. 'She met a bad man,' said my mother. 'She had a baby she didn't want.' And I knew that was not true. I knew my mother made up anything to warn me, to help me avioud some unknown danger."(pg. 105). This is another example of her mother going to great extents to keep her safe. If it is actually keeping her safe is questionable but it ties into the story leading into, The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates.