An Essay on the book Strangers from a Different Shore by Ronald Takaki
Concerning the question:
“In what ways did the experience of Asian immigrant women differ from that of Asian men? Use examples from at least two different Asian ethnic groups in your answer.”
February 8, 2008
CES 302
Book Essay
Strangers from a Different Shore by Ronald Takaki
Since the beginning of time there has been a distinct division between the sexes. Through sheer definition there is a physical difference between the two but as time has passed there has been an indisputable recognition of the differences in personality and cognition. There are also undeniable differences in the life experiences had by the two sexes that
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They were instructed to be an honorable wife and mother obeying the male in which whom they were in contact, whether it be their father, husband, or eldest son. Also, women in these cultures, especially in the Chinese culture, were kept at home along with their children because the other family members hoped to use them as a ploy to keep their wandering song from forgetting to send money home and about their family back home. (Takaki, 36). It wasn’t uncommon that women were brought over against their will. While men generally chose to go, many women had no choice; their husbands had decided for them or they were brought as prostitutes. (Takaki, 65). It also wasn’t uncommon for Chinese women to be at home hoping for their husbands return, but to much surprise their husbands had married a Hawaiian to help pass their time way from home. (Takaki, 169). Due to their lack of encouragement to journey to America, the lack of choice to not go if they didn’t want to, and the burden to be a domestic goddess while their husbands were off in America with who knows are just a few reasons why their experiences were completely different.
Korean men made the journey to America as a way to start anew and generate new opportunities. Some saved for the expensive trip and some signed contracts in order to work off the cost of their trip. Korean women’s journey to America was one that offered much more difficulty and disappointment. Korean picture brides was a common
While reading The Stranger I noticed that traits that Albert Camus character depicts in the book are closely related to the theories of Sigmund Freud on moral human behavior. Albert Camus portrays his character of Meursault as a numb, emotionless person that seems to mindlessly play out his role in society, acting in a manner that he sees as the way he’s supposed to act, always living in the moment with his instincts driving him, and if the right circumstance presents itself the primal deep seeded animal will come out. I believe that most of the character’s traits fall under Freud’s notion of the Id and Ego mental apparatus, and don’t believe that his idea of the super-ego is represented in this book.
The Stranger The Stranger exhibits a society that has confined itself with a specific set of social standards that dictate the manner in which people are supposed to act. This ideology determines the level of morality, and how much emphasis should placed on following this certain "ethical" structure. Albert Camus's main character, Meursault, is depicted as a nonconformist that is unwilling to play society's game. Through Meursault's failure to comply with society's values and conform to the norm, he is rejected and also condemned to death by society.
To begin with, The Joy Luck Club centers its content around the lives of eight women of Chinese heritage each with their own stories to tell; yet, all striving to satisfy their aspirations in America. A concisive cross is common between the mothers’ hopes compared to those of the American born daughters. Immigrating to America for various reasons, the four mothers all had one goal in mind, to not only construct themselves a better life, but also ensure the finest future for their daughters. For the mothers in the Joy Luck Club, the American dream was to instill Chinese history, heritage, and habit in their daughters while providing American opportunities of growth, gratification, and gallantry. Carrying heavy pasts, the four original American Joy Luck Club members arrived in The United States to start anew, “America was where
The first documented Chinese woman to arrive in the United States was Afong Moy, in 1834. She was brought by white people to be displayed in the American Museum. Dressed in Chinese clothing, she was meant to display Chinese customs, manners, and lifestyles, showing the Americans how different a “celestial lady” looked from a Western woman. This spirit of Westerners viewing Chinese people as separate from themselves would go on to isolate Chinese immigrants as they continued to immigrate to America. The Chinese would continue to be thought of as inferior, or part of an “other” group by white settlers. Chinese women in particular were fetishized and demeaned -- looked upon as a whole as prostitutes -- when in reality they played many different roles in society and in
Money. A word that captures all peoples attention was scarce among the Asian - American community. The low wages drove both parents into the work force and changed the roles of women in the family. The Asian way of the wife being submissive in all activities and only working at home with the children changed with the move to America. The wife’s working made a more equal standing in the household but also deprived the children of a quality home life. The importance of women in Asia is non-existent. For example: women had to walk behind their husbands in Asian culture but in American culture they rose to equal standing because of their work status.
When a Korean man wanted a bride, he would send his picture to a matchmaker and find a woman in Korea willing to marry him. Most often than not, the man would send a false picture of himself and the woman would have no choice but to marry him once she arrived in America (2-3, script). Approximately 800 picture brides went to Hawaii and 200 went to the mainland during this period (Kim, 367).
Through her work called Beyond the Shadow of Camptown which was published in 2002, Ji-Yeon Yuh reveals that due to cultural displacement and US-Korean relations, military brides have been asserting the Korean American identity that both Koreans and Americans would typically marginalize and reject which ultimately challenges American multiculturalism. The military brides had their sense of identities tested due to the pressure to be Americanized and the underlying consequences of their interracial marriages. Their struggle to redefine their own sense of identities had resulted from the gendered relation between Korea and America. Yuh argues that “the gendered context of neoimperliasm is a major factor in the skewed gender profile of intermarriages
Korean “military brides” was a name given to Korean women who married United States soldiers during a time of suspended armed conflict. Unlike war wives, these Korean women are fighting for their identity, but are not only being rejected by Americans, but also their native country. They are not seen as “authentic” Korean women.
For years in our society there has been a lot of controversy over the differences in men and women. Are they equal? What exactly are the real differences? Do these differences affect what each gender is capable of doing in their everyday lives? A philosopher of the nineteenth century, Wilhem von Humboldt once wrote,
Albert Camus creates a series of characters in The Stranger whose personality traits and motivations mirror those that are overlooked upon by the average man. Camus develops various characters and scenarios that show true humanity which tends to have been ignored due to the fact of how typical it has become. Camus incorporates abominable personality traits of the characters, variety, consistency, and everyone’s fate.
Men are from Venus and women are from Mars, a book written by Arthur John Gray, metaphorically stated a popular myth of the impassable difference of genders. In the article “Gender” written by Greer, argues that gender hierarchies cannot be categorized through biological or behavior data. Differences between female and male are also exaggerated by learnt behavior. Also, Brownmiller’s article “Emotion” disputes that women are assessed negatively by the social to be emotional, irritable and tearful which are opposite to men. In light of their approaches, this essay will compare and contrast them two based on their emphasis.
The idea that males and females are much more dissimilar than they are similar, the gender differences model, has been a part of media for years. The opposing view, the gender similarities hypothesis, states that in regard to psychological variables, the two genders are actually much more similar in most areas. This gender similarities hypothesis is supported by many studies, reviewed by Hyde in her article. Effect size, d, for gender differences is given by the mean score for females subtracted from the mean score for males divided by the average within-sex standard deviation. Negative d values favor females, and positive d values favor males.
Every little girl dreams about her wedding day, from the food to her dress. The little girl dreams of what she assumes what will be the happiest day of her life. But for some girls, this day is more of a trade for new beginnings. Such as the 1900’s Chinese picture brides, as told in the story Come, Japanese!. These young women would promise themselves to “extremely” eligible bachelors from places like the United States of America (USA). Their hopes were to start a new life in a new country where they would no longer be oppressed and live happy lives with their “tall and handsome” American husbands. The women came over on a boat and lived on it for several months while waiting to arrive in America. The narrator describes that the women are mostly
The purpose of this article was to come to solid conclusions about the issue of sex and gender differences. Deaux arrived at these conclusions through comprehensive review of studies conducted on the issue in the past. The criteria he used to review this information was he only used psychological literature, he ignored broad physiological data unless related to a specific behavior, and did not use clinical or therapeutic research. As well he only dealt in areas of sex differences where there was wide spread research and held the most promise to explain how sex and gender influenced behavior. In addition he only focussed his research
The Joy Luck Club is a book that has deep ties with emigration and the many joys and hardships that it comes with. In the story, emigration leads to a great many problems, such as breaks in family, tears in people’s hearts, the negation of family wealth and prosperity and the inevitable home sickness that comes with leaving your home for long periods of time. “Ocean that took me to a new country. She did not see how my face changed over the years. How my mouth began to droop. How I began to worry but still did not lose my hair. How my eyes began to follow the American way. She did not see that I twisted my nose bouncing forward on a crowded bus in San Francisco. Your father and I, we were on our way to church to give many thanks to God for all our blessings.” However, there is a great deal of good that can come of this, such as the reunion with family, the finding of good people and the possibility that any and every thing can come true or everything can go wrong. This is what the Chinese mothers had to face in there absolute mind blowing journey to the Americas.