FREE ESSAY ON ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

It is true that all people are created different, and thus no two cultures will ever be
the same. Throughout Asian American literature there seems to be a struggle between the
Asian culture and American culture. More specifically, there is a struggle between Asian
women and their Asian American daughters, and what it means to be feminine, and how a
woman should act. The main struggle is between how the American woman should act and how
the Asian woman should act. However, the behavior of the Asian woman seems to be dominant
through out the story because although the daughters and the mothers may not get along
all of the time, the mothers to receive a lot of respect from their daughters. Therefore,
the mothers opinion on how they should act, which is behaving like the Asian woman, is
most evident. This is the case in The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan and also in the
short story Waiting for Mr. Kim, written by Carol Roh-Spaulding. These two stories have
very different meanings, however they are similar in the aspect that they are all Asian
women with Asian American daughters trying to get their daughters to keep and use their
Asian heritage. There are certain behaviors that Asian women are expected to have, and
the mothers feel that their daughters should use these behaviors. In The Joy Luck Club,
the novel traces the fate of the four mothers-Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and
Ying-ying St. Clair-and their four daughters-June Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and
Lena St. Clair. Through the experiences that these characters go through, they become
women. The mothers all fled China in the 1940's and they all retain much of their
heritage. Their heritage focuses on what is means to be a female, but more importantly
what it means to be an Asian female. In the short story Waiting for Mr. Kim, the main
female character Gracie understands what it means to be an Asian female, but she does
question the meaning because of her sisters. Her sisters ran away from home before their
marriage could be arranged and eloped. This is totally against Asian culture, and it
causes Gracie to question her heritage and her Asian femininity. In both of these stories
there are certain characteristics of females that are the same, they are inner strength,
obedience, honor and respect, the good of the whole is better than the good of the
individual, and finding things out for yourself. In the chapter Scar the characteristic
of honor and respect is first noticed. In this chapter An-mei finds out how her mother
basically deserted her, her mother did leave for a good reason, which was to maintain the
honor of her family, but either way her mother left her. Her grandmother had to raise
her, and she learned much about the Asian woman from her. An-mei was showing some
disrespect towards on of her aunts, and her aunt told her that she was being
disrespectful. Her grandmother then interjected and said, When you lose your face,
An-mei...it is like dropping your necklace down a well. The only way you can get it back
is to fall in after it. She was talking about A-mei's mother, and how she left because
she had disrespected the family and she was dishonorable to the family name. The only way
for her mother to regain respect and honor was to leave and do it on her own, which is a
characteristic of an Asian woman. Another feminine characteristic that comes from that
scene is being able to do things on your own. However, this is an American influence.
This characteristic comes from the chapter Rules of the Game. This is a peculiar chapter
in the book because it is a chapter where the woman is not seen as inferior to the man.
Waverly's brother, Vincent, received a chess set for Christmas. However, Waverly is the
one who took full use of the chess set. She was a natural, she would beat her brothers in
chess, which would normally be looked down upon in Asian culture, but she was encouraged.
She was even given lessons in chess, and she was a national champion. Unlike An-mei's
mother, Waverly was bringing honor to the family name. When Waverly is encouraged to
excel in chess she learns something from her mother. Her mother said in her broken
English, This American rules...Every time people come out from a foreign country, must
know rules. You not know, judge say, Too bad, go back. They not telling you why so you
can use their way to go forward. They say, Don't know why, you find out yourself. This is
an American custom, more than an Asian one. She is explaining that in order to succeed as
an Asian female in the United States, then there are certain things that you will have to
find out on your own. Also in this chapter was the theme/characteristic of inner
strength. Waverly says she six when her mother taught her the art of invisible strength.
Waverly was walking by the candy store when she was a young child, and she was begging
her mother to take her inside. Her mother refused to take her inside, which angered
Waverly. Then her mother went on to explain, Wise guy, he not go against wind. In Chinese
we say, Come from South blow with wind-poom!-North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be
seen. This means that the strongest way to win an argument is to keep to yourself, which
Waverly used in her chess matches. Waverly goes on to say, A little knowledge withheld is
a great advantage one should store for future use. Another example of invisible strength,
inner strength, is the The Moon Lady. Ying-ying's mother was telling her how a woman
should act when she said, A boy can run and chase dragonflies...But a girl should stand
still. The girl would have a better chance catching the dragonfly than the boy, she would
catch the dragonfly with inner strength, rather than muscle like the boy. The chapter,
The Moon Lady, has another characteristic of what it is to be female, which is the good
of the whole is more important than the good of the individual. They were all on their
way to see the Moon Lady, and if you see the Moon Lady, you receive one wish from her.
Ying-ying asked what a secret wish was, and the answer was that is was on that you cannot
ask. Ying-ying was young as this point, so she asked why. Amah's response to Ying-ying
was, This is because...because if you ask it...it is no longer a wish but a selfish
desire...Haven't I taught you-that it is wrong to think of our own needs? A girl can
never ask, only listen. Here she is telling that by making a wish for herself she is
being selfish and forgetting that she is not the important one, but the good of the whole
is the important one. Amah is also hinting at obedience when she tells her daughter that
she is not to ask questions, but just listen to the men and go along with it. Arranged
marriages are a very tough thing to go through. Marrying someone because one has to has
to be hard because one is not marrying out of love. This is exactly the case in Waiting
for Mr. Kim. Gracie two twin sisters have already run away from to and eloped with two
men. Their marriages were not arranged because they left before their father could
arrange them. Now, with her sisters gone, Gracie is the only remaining daughter, and she
is somewhat frowned upon because she was the third daughter. She did not really like the
two men that her father was thinking of arranging the marriage with, but it did not
matter. It did not matter because as her mother told her, Girls don't choose. The girls
just sit there and look pretty while their fathers choose for them, they have to comply
with their father's decision. They are obedient, and at the same time respectful of the
decision that is made. Another characteristic that appears in this story is that women
made to think that they are second class compared to men. When her Mr. Kang, Gracie's
father, would walk, he would sometimes reach back to hold Mrs. Kang's hand, but she would
pull away. Not only would she pull away, but she would stay behind as she cleaned her
purse or took forever with her coat, just to have it the way she had learned it, her
husband a few places ahead, women behind. Her mother not only believes that this is how
women should act and it is a part of their femininity, but she is passing this way of
thinking onto her daughter. Her mother is relaying the message to her daughter that no
matter what you need to show your husband respect and let him know that he is in charge.
Both of these stories have displayed that there are certain characteristics of females
and they are inner strength, the good of the whole is better than the good of the
individual, find things out for oneself, honor and respect, and obedience. All of these
characteristics have displayed not only what it means to be feminine, but also what it
means to be female. It is not so much an Asian female, but it is because that is how
their mothers were raised and that is how their mothers will raise them. There are really
no American females for the daughters, or mothers, to see and mimic. The only way of life
that the mothers know is the Asian way of life, therefore that is the only way that can
be passed down onto their daughters. Sometimes that is hard for the daughters to
understand because the daughters have grown up in American culture, and they know what it
is like to be an American woman. No matter how one views this situation, these stories
focus on what it means to an Asian female, but more generally what the mothers know best
on how to teach their daughters on how to be female.