Asian Literature Essay, Research Paper

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.