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All in all it can be stated that a major theme in the works of May Tan is represented by the American colonialism taking place in the contemporary world at cultural level. Just as it has been stated in the beginning of the paper, language implies values. Conquering the world through its language, the U.S.A. is managing to export values that would otherwise be impossible to export. What Tan suggests is that behind language there is always an ideology to be transmitted.
Under these circumstances it can be affirmed that she becomes a militant against this type of cultural colonisation. Taking into consideration her biographical development this is easily understandable.
It can be noticed there are parental figures in her novels and her short stories. On the one hand they stand as symbols for one's roots, the...
Nevertheless, the relationship with these figures is never easy. It happens for the relationships to be dominated by a conflicting dimension. From this point-of-view, the parental figures and the relationships which they impose are a metaphor for the generational gap. At this point it may be safe to state that the writer is making a point about Asian women and the differences between generations, especially in the case of women, who, just like her, were raised abroad.
Class is another important theme in Tan's works. Also based on personal experiences this is an argument of big importance especially in the cultural, social and political context of the U.S.A. which is a real melting pot. The respect for the identity of the other is a further key theme that Amy Tan insists upon.
Amy Tan and the Joy Luck Club Biography The Joy Luck Club Generation Gaps in the Joy Luck Club Cultural Differences Chinese-American Life Amy Tan and the Joy Luck Club On February 19, 1952, Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California, to John Yuehhan, a minister and electrical engineer, and Daisy Tu Ching, a nurse and member of a Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan web site). Tan's father fled to America to escape the Chinese Civil War and
Tan's experience with the piano underscores the stark contrast between the way her mother believed fame and fortune work in America, and the way she believed they worked. She writes, "Unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me. And for all those years we never talked about the disaster at the recital or my terrible declarations afterward at
Amy Tan & Family Response to Amy Tan I have come to the United States to study and have left my family, my father, mother, and little sister, behind in Indonesia. I only meet my family on summer break now and I miss them terribly. Like Amy Tan I feel my family is with me all the time. It is the thoughts and memories of their caring that gives me the strength
Amy Tan and Jhumpa Lahiri Both Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" and Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Third and Final Continent" tell stories about the cultural clash between eastern cultures and the western world of the United States. This is not the only point of similarity between these two women or their writing styles. Besides the fact that they were second-generation immigrants, both women had mothers who wished them to hold onto their heritage
For Amy Tan, however, attempting, for her parents' sake, to become simultaneously Chinese and American, without compromising either culture, or herself, was a tricky balancing act. As E.D. Huntley adds: Amy Tan spent her childhood years attempting to understand, as well as to come to terms with and to reconcile, the contradictions between her ethnicity and the dominant Western culture in which she was being raised and educated. She lived the
I never really listened to what I was playing. I daydreamed about being somewhere else, about being someone else" (2). Naturally, her poor practice leads to a poor performance in front of her family and peers. Here however, her reactions betray her. Tan reveals that Jing-mei values her mother's acceptance of her above anything. When Jing-mei laments that her "mother's expression was what devastated [her]: a quiet, blank look that