Be Perfectly Contented by Being Yourself

Woods' English 2A: "Two Kinds"

3.

• I love how Jing-Mei's mom is so optimistic with "no regrets" but I absolutely despise how she forces her daughter to become something that she's not, a person that she wished she was but didn't have the chance to be. I know her mom is doing it out of love and wants the best for her but it's only forcing her to become more distant with her mom. Can't her mom see that? Maybe I'm reacting a little bit more on this issue because I have "been there" and "done that". I hate the feeling of being under parents' pressure.
• What's a Peter Pan haircut? I googled it, but I don't think the results are accurate. Did Jing-Mei's haircut make her look forward to her future because Peter Pan was somebody who flew, somebody who was independent or was it because of something else?
• I think all Asian children have been through that point in life where they have wanted their parents to love them; therefore, they change accordingly, but they truly want their parents to just love them for who they are.
• Why was her mother so disappointed in Jing-Mei? She's just a little child trying to please her mother, for goodness sakes! Her mother is driving her to rebellion and insanity!
• Jing-Mei promised herself that she wouldn't let her mom change her, but she did. She turned into a rebellious monster. That, or she's a really disrespectful brat who doesn't appreciate anything that her mother does for her and yells at her mom.
• Otay, I know that Jing-Mei's mom is a little bit forceful at times, but isn't Jing-Mei taking things for granted here? Her mom didn't have the opportunity to experience her childhood in America, and unlike her, her mom has to work hard to earn the money to keep her family alive. Yet, here's Jing-Mei, making her mom give up hope. Why not just talk to her mom about her feelings? Why does she have to act like such a little brat?
• The little girl playing the piano on The Ed Sullivan Show remarkably reminded me of Jing-Mei, n'est-ce pas?
• I don't think it's a very smart idea to have an old, deaf, distracted, past-haunted man to be a piano teacher. Jing-Mei cheated through her lessons a lot. It's true that she never did give herself a fair chance at playing the piano, but it was partly her mom's fault for pressuring her so much that she was forced to go against it.
• What is it with all the Chinese parents and their pride?
• I never realized Waverly was so stuck-up.
• Waverly did try. She tried to be the worst at the piano so that her mother would stop obsessing over her "natural talent".
• Again with the quiet responses of the mother, huh, Amy Tan?
• Waverly should have been disowned for saying such things to her mom. "I never want to be your daughter. I wish you weren't my mother. I wish I'd never been born. I wish I were dead." She hit all the wrong spots. Tsktsk.
• Hey, Amy Tan mentions "why she had hoped for something so large that failure was inevitable". I know the answer! Her nengkan (which was mentioned in Half and Half)!
• I just realized that in this section, The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, all of the mothers lost their hope. I see a pattern!
• Why was the piano a "shiny trophy that [Jing-Mei] had won back"? Was it a trophy of winning her true self back?
• I liked this ending, too. It gave me a "perfectly contented" feeling inside.

4. Auntie Lindo is such a show off. "She bring home too many trophy. All day she play chess. All day I have no time do nothing but dust off her winnings." I wanted her to just shut her mouth. What a typical Chinese braggadocios-mother! Ugh, she's trying to "modestly" hint at her daughter's excellence but she is nowhere near that! Stop trying to make others feel bad, Lindo lady!

5. This time, I believe the main conflict is man vs. man, Jing-Mei vs. her mom, an external conflict. Jing-Mei constantly struggles to prove to her mom that she just wants to be herself and nothing more; yet, her mom wishes for her to be more than what she can be. Throughout the chapter, they constantly bicker and show disapproval towards each other. I believe the conflict is resolved after the big fight they had and Jing-Mei "went there" and it was a "Oh no, she didn't!" moment. After all, her mother died and took whatever was left of the conflict with her.

6. Seriously, I believe the theme/life lesson here is: BE YOURSELF. There's nothing more to that. If you're forced into a life that wasn't meant for you to live, you definitely won't be truly happy. Oh, and don't live life with regrets! Do everything to the fullest. (Fiona, I'm talking about you! Sort of.) Always take chances and live the way you want to. Don't change because somebody else tells you to. Make your own judgments.

One Part Milk + One Part Cream = Half and Half!

Woods' English 2A: "Half and Half"

 3.

• So, Rose's mom still believes in God, but just doesn't want to admit it?
• Wow, Rose really knows her mom. She can perfectly imagine how the conversation is going to go, eh? 
• Chagrined! Wasn't that a word on the STAR exam or some other test?
  
• When Amy Tan started narrating the history behind Rose&Ted, it reminded me of how Dana and Kevin had that flashback to how they met.
• On page 117, there's a sentence that goes: "He is American," warned my mother, as if I had been too blind to notice. A waigoren." Um, did Amy Tan punctuate that wrong? Or is it just me? I think she's missing her second opening quotation marks.
•  I think Rose's marriage was kind of forced; therefore, it did not work out in the end. (As human beings, we tend to prove our nengkan, ability to do anything we put out minds to.) So, when Rose's mom disapproves of Ted, Rose persists even more to date Ted. Ditto with Ted's mom [She didn't directly reject Rose, but hinted at her disapproval in marriage.] and Ted's response. It wasn't love that led to their marriage, but the strength of their stubbornness. Opposites did attract, but I don't think this was the case.
• I'm somewhat like Rose. We're both very indecisive.
• Otay, seriously? You don't just go to a SECLUDED spot near a city named DEVIL'S SLIDE and not expect something bad to happen. In addition, we Asians tend to be supserstitious. So, why in the world did Rose's family not see this coming?
• The "little boy" in the book called The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates reminded me of Bing, the "little boy" of the family. Ooh, is this a connection?
  
• Why didn't Rose stop Bing?! I wanted to slap Rose in the face back into reality! Did she not realize that her brother was going to die if she didn't do something about it?
• I think that Amy Tan is showing an example of where two cultures can not intertwine with balance when Rose's mother tries to ask God (American culture) and the Coiling Dragon (Chinese culture) for forgiveness, both at the same time. Also, in the book of The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, Rose's mom couldn't translate the Chinese lunar calendar into American dates; therefore, she had faith that she could prevent every single one of the dangers, but she couldn't, hence, the "Bing" incident.
  
• I liked the ending. It gave me a content feeling, but I couldn't interpret its meaning.
• Last minute addition: I think the Bible is supposed to symbolize the balance in their family. It is literally used to balance the dinner table, where all the festivities are at. Also, it is literally "underneath the table" which is faith that Rose's mom is not shown, but known.
  

4. Rose's mother is a very determined character. She believes in her nengkan so much that she does not give up. She even expects to find her son, Bing, despite the odds. This also proves she's very superstitious because of her beliefs in Chinese culture.

5. I think the main conflict is Rose's indecisiveness, an internal one, man vs. self. She can never decide on what to do, causing the "Bing" incident (because she kept thinking of the possibilities of what she should have done, but didn't react to what she could have done) and the fail to her marriage (she never decided on anything, so her husband got annoyed of this trait and decided on a divorce). I don't think this conflict is resolved yet, because she still is indecisive; however, she is finally beginning to realize the outcomes of this bad personality trait and analyze her life.

6. This chapter definitely connects to the allegory at the beginning of the section because it literally mentions the book called The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, a book that explained that "children were predisposed to certain dangers on certain days, all depending on their Chinese birth-dates. I guess Bing was destined to be swallowed up by the ocean.  In the allegory, the mother told her daughter that she was going to fall but she didn't listen and fell anyway. Bing didn't listen to his sister and mother and went too close to the water and fell in. Not listening to your elders, no matter how know-it-all and cocky they sound, will result in bad consequences. This is a very common Chinese belief.

P.S. Did y'all notice Amy Tan's foreshadowing when she mentioned the little boy's feet in The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates "already in the air" and Bing's feet "already in the air"? I didn't notice that repetition the first time!

Knock-Knock, Nobody's There.

Woods' English 2A: "The Voice from the Wall"

 3.

• I don't know if the first paragraph was supposed to be humorous, but I laughed. It began so dramatically and ended with "Either that, or he died of influenza...". I realized that Lena St. Clair has a very big imagination when she began to describe the story of her great-grandfather's death from her own point-of-view. 
• Was the beggar really a traitor? What did Lena's grandfather have to do with the death? What is the worst possible thing that can happen to you?
• What was the "thing" in the basement? (I doubt that it was really a thousand-year-old man.)
• I used to sometimes walk around the house with the same big eyes, the "scared" expression, thinking that my eyes would grow bigger, but I don't anymore. It was silly of me to try to change myself.
• Wow, Lena's mother saw danger in everything, just like Lena. I wonder if this is an inherited trait?
• What's with Lena's mom and the dangers of making babies? Was that what happened to her: Lena's dad made Lena's mom have Lena? Maybe so, but Lena's dad seems really nice from what I know. What if Lena's mom got into some sort of trouble on the streets and accidentally got pregnant and was rescued from her single-parent life by Lena's dad?
• Whoa, was Lena's mom afraid of being sexually harassed by a man on the streets or something? She didn't even try to protect her daughter! Just herself!
• Did Lena's mother even want the baby? Why did she keep bumping into corners with her stomach?
• Although Teresa, the neighbor girl, fights with her mom a lot, the arguments are filled with family love and compassion. Lena and her mom have never fought before, but somehow, their relationship is distant and cold, misunderstanding and somewhat unrelated. It's ironically weird.
• Wow, Lena's mother really needs to go see a therapist. She's kind of freaking me out.
• I didn't quite understand the ending. Was Lena imagining her relationship with her mother when she would finally have the courage to "pull her through the wall"? 

4. I CHOOSE TERESA! When her mom kicked her out of the house, she simply walks to Lena's house and uses her fire escape to climb back into her room. This reveals that she is, indeed, a rebellious one. Along with that, she is very confident in the fact that her mother will forgive her. She knows the relationship with her mother is strong, that they go through these "fights" just for the heck of it and forgive each other in the end. I admire her strength and self-confidence.

5. I'm not sure of the conflict because my brain was very confused in this chapter, but I think the main conflict is an internal one, man vs. self, Lena vs. her imagination. Lena was born with a big imagination, but it developed and expanded even further as she grew. However, Lena's mind is not filled with unicorns and rainbows but with gore and torture. Throughout the chapter, she struggles with reality and figments of her imagination, where she always makes the worst out of situations, but discovers the not-so-bad truth. I think Lena is afraid of going forward in life; yet, her imagination makes everything worse than they seem. In the end, her mom leaves her in a state of depression, making reality worse than her imagination...turning her imagination into her savior, away from reality.

6. Otay, I'm going to focus on Amy Tan's writing technique of mood, especially in the beginning. The word choice (sharp, whittle, broken, jagged) made the opening really creepy. I was somewhat scared and confused at the same time, but it made me anticipate the mood of the chapter to be gory and bloody.

Whiz[ard] of Waverly Place!

Woods' English 2A: "Rules of the Game"

3. I think that...

• When I first read the mini opening about "biting back your tongue", I realized, "Hey, that sounds like me!" Once a young Asian child, I have learned that if you follow your parents' orders, they get what they want and you get what you want. Yet, the bond between the two is somewhat distant.
• Why didn't she want to know what her soup was made of? 
• Oh dear, the exquisite descriptions of food smelled captured me as if the delicacies were in my room and I craved for dim sum real bad (which I eventually got ;) ).
• Why was the alley the best playground?
•  When I read about the Ping Yuen Fish Market, I thought about my friend telling me how she had always wanted to purchase a tortoise and saving it as a pet, instead of making it into food.
• Waverly's mom seems to threaten her in a caring way, just like my mom! "Don't do that and don't do this or else your fingers will get chopped off!" or something of that sort. I know parents mean well when they say that, but it's sort of creepy.
  
• I didn't understand why Amy Tan talked about Hong Sing's, the cafe. It was not relevant to the rest of the story, to me.
• Why did Waverly's mom tell her that Chinese people "do best torture"?
• When Vincent asked Waverly, "Why is the sky blue? Why must you always ask stupid questions?" I was reminded of the times when my cousins were young and used to annoy me with these "Why"s.
• I think it's typical that Waverly's mother would encourage her to enter into the chess tournament in such a cold and indirect manner. My parents often do that to me.
• Waverly's mother is proud, too proud, if you ask me. She shows off her daughter because she is proud of her, but she does so in a way that reflects the fact that she has nothing else to be proud of; therefore, she uses her daughter as a trophy to show off and brag to the world. However, Waverly isn't a trophy. She has feelings.
• The ending was very mysterious and it made me want to read more about what happened to their  relationship.

4. After her mom scolds her about "this American rules," Waverly decides to take matters into her own hands. She goes and borrows all sorts of books about chess, looks up words in the dictionary, and practically learns the game from every perspective that she could. That proves to me that she is a dedicated person, someone who might need that nudge/hint from her mother about "finding out by herself" and seeks out her own answers. Waverly is someone who would depend on nobody but herself, an independent individual.

5. I will admit that I didn't fully understand what the conflict was. I thought maybe it was Waverly vs. her mother because her mother was always pressuring Waverly and bragging about her as if she was an inanimate object and Waverly always kept her feelings inside until the very end where she yells at her mom. However, I realized the conflict was her heritage. It was man vs. man, an internal one, where Waverly's two cultures (Chinese and American) battle it out with each other. How do I know? Um, I don't, but this is what I think. Maybe it's because Amy Tan juxtaposes her two cultures throughout the whole story, comparing the contented mystery of her Chinese soup to the luring secrets of American chess and Chinese etiquette to American snottiness, (NO OFFENSE).

6. One of the themes stated would definitely have to be "Is shame you fall down nobody push you" (96). You should realize that trying and failing is better than not trying at all. Every time you try, it is counted as success. You should never give up  before starting. That's just ... bogus. This is definitely an important theme and a moral for life.

"Congratulations! IT'S A BOY!"

Woods' English 2A: "Moon Lady"

3. At the very beginning of the chapter, when Amy Tan talks about how Ying-Ying misplaced her heritage; I began to wonder where the "Moon Lady" of the chapter title would appear. I loved how she started off the chapter all mysterious-like. It kept me reading and learning about the strict Chinese culture. I was somewhat bored when she talked about the adults reading poems and gossiping. I connected with Ying-Ying when her mother scolded her about what girls can't do, but boys can. Ugh, I despise that about the culture. I realized that her shadow was a symbol, but I couldn't figure what of. Why does she keep talking about the shadow and its reactions? There were parts where there was nothing going on, except descriptions of local color and I got really bored then. Honestly, those parts are supposed to be "important" but I just skim through them because of my lack of interest. What was that part with the imprisoned bird catching the fish all about? Oh my dear; when Ying-Ying spread turtle blood all over her clothes, I wanted to slap her silly. Are you serious, Ying-Ying? That makes everything more noticeable and on a special day, you're not supposed to slather yourself with blood! That's unlucky! Then, I felt more sympathetic when everybody laughed at her in her undergarments. I really can't believe nobody cared about Ying-Ying enough to notice that she wasn't even on the boat until a long time after! That's so sad! The man was nice for fishing her out of the water and saving her life, but he was a bit scary. I honestly thought he was going to do something bad to her, but he didn't. I believe the Moon Lady appeared very randomly out of nowhere in the chapter and I was VERY surprised to find out that she was a he, in reality. Did Ying-Ying really think that man was beautiful and radiant with a voice of an angel? That's kind of creepy. Why was he a man anyway? Were there no pretty women who could sing as well as he did? I'd like to see the man, just out of curiosity. Last, but not least, I loved the ending. It was short, yet very powerful: "I wished to be found."

4. Ying-Ying: she gives her half-sisters part of her special pastry, but not the parts with the filling, only the parts with the dough. This proves she is selfish. Also, when they race to the stone bench to sit down and eat, she uses her advantage as the bigger sister and sits in the shady and cool spot, leaving the sunny and hot areas for her younger sisters. VERY SELFISH, indeed, but then again, she was only a child and children are known to be selfish.

5. I believe the main conflict is the internal one, human vs. self. At the very beginning of the story, the author introduces the conflict: Ying-Ying struggles to remember her true self, to remember who she really is inside by remembering her wish to the Moon Lady. She then narrates a flashback, where the conflict started. At the end of the chapter, the conflict is resolved. She finally remembers how she lost herself, through innocence, trust, restlessness, wonder, fear, and loneliness. She remembers that she wished to be found.

6. d. Wow, Amy Tan uses so many writing techniques that I get lost in her words. First and foremost, the chapter consists mainly of a flashback, years ago when she was just a wee little child. It helps me understand how the conflict came to be and gave me many more details of her childhood to help me understand Ying-Ying better. I'm pretty sure the author foreshadowed many times, but I forgot where. Her word choice is absolutely amazing. It forms so many images in my head, of the boat on the water, of Ying-Ying in her bloody clothes, of the Moon Lady performance, etc. In addition, somehow, even though she used very extravagant words, her story flowed with many similes and metaphors. There weren't any awkward breaks or anything of that sort! It simply weaved into a beautiful piece, just like a puzzle.