Amy Tan.doc

Writing styles1. Relationship between the mother and the daughter-2. The culture conflict between the East and the West-3. Effectively portrays the somber tone and the themeThe author effectively portrays the somber tone and the theme by using a concise style of diction, images, details, language, sentence structure, point of view, and organization.Diction words include repetition of words, archaic words, connotation, and abstract diction. 4. Narrative styleBy using narrators from two generations, Tan explores the relationships between past and present. Her stories juxtapose the points of view of characters (husband and wife, mother and daughter, sisters) who struggle with each other, misunderstand each other, and grow distant from each other. 5. Portrays the discrimination from the American to the Ethnic Chinese women.6. Writing materials came from her own experience, her family, comparing the culture of China and USA. Influences on her and her worksIt is the constant conflict with Daisy Tan, her mother, and the emotional turmoil that Daisy has bestowed on her that have made Tan discover the resources of scheming her successful novels. Daisy Tans early life and biographical stories were legends themselves. Grew up in an old esteemed family in Shanghai, she witnessed her mothers tragic life. After her scholar husbands death, Jingmei, Tans maternal grandmother, was raped and taken as a low-ranked concubine by a wealthy industrialist. She brought Daisy with her to live in the wealthy family in Shanghai and confided her dilemmatic suffering with her daughter before she committed suicide. Daisy grew up with painful loss of her mother and got married early, but she did not live a happy life afterward; instead, Daisy was maltreated by her violent and abusive chauvinist husband Wang Zo that later took away her right of visiting her three daughters, and further had her persecuted to prison for two years after she escaped and divorced him. During the Sino-Japanese War, she flew with John Tan, a brilliant student who rejected MITs offer but attended Berkeley Baptist Divinity School, and thereafter, they immigrated to States. Tans first two and the most well known works put one theme center-staged the relationship of the traditional immigrant mother and the second generation Chinese-American daughter. In accordance with Daisys stories and Tans own childhood hardship, growing up under severe supervision and with high standards for everything, she schematically tells the story of her mother, her grandmother and other female related or unrelated acquaintance, along with the aids of the ancient folklores, stories and legends that she learned from her father when she was a child. Through her skillful writing techniques and brilliant story-telling, Tans first publication of the first novel swept the world and her name has become a household one.v The Holy Ghost of her father and the Chinese ghosts of her mother.v Discarding all beliefs and starting over again. v The American Dream and a Chinese familys interpretation of that. v Free books from the library every week and reading books that appeared on the banned book lists.v Not listening to her mothers endless complaints about her mothers life and then finally listening and realizing her mother had good reasons to complain. v Writing secret letters to her friends about running away to Haight-Ashbury and writing thank you letters as her mother dictated them to her in her mothers version of English.v The early deaths of her older brother and father and her mothers belief that she would die next.v An SAT score in the 400s for English and the 700s in Spanish.v Listening to her mother a