Double Face

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 681.

Before you read, answer the questions below with a partner.

1. Do you know any second generation immigrants to your country? What country their parents originally come from? Do the parents in the family still keep up their language and culture? What about the children?

2. Do you think some children of immigrants might have a conflict of identity? Why (not)?

The Joy Luck Club consists of sixteen interlocking stories about the lives of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their four American-born daughters. Two generations of women struggling to come to terms with their cultural identity. Here Lindo Jong, one of the mothers, talks about her daughter, Waverly.

Lindo Jong

My daughter wanted to go to China for her second honeymoon, but now she is afraid.

"What if I blend in so well they think I'm one of them? " Waverly asked me. "What if they don't let me come back to the United States? "

"When you go to China, " I told her, "you don't even need to open your mouth. They already know you are an outsider. "

"What are you talking about? " she asked. My daughter likes to speak back. She likes to question what I say.

"Aii-ya, " I said. "Even if you put on their clothes, even if you take off your makeup and hide your fancy jewelry, they know. They know just watching the way you walk, the way you carry your face. They know you do not belong. "

My daughter did not look pleased when I told her this, that she didn't look Chinese. She had a sour American look on her face. Oh, maybe ten years ago, she would have clapped her hands-hurray! -as if this were good news. But now she wants to be Chinese, it is so fashionable. And I know it is too late. All those years I tried to teach her! She followed my Chinese ways only until she learned how to walk out the door by herself and go to school. So now the only Chinese words she can say are sh-sh, houche, chr fan, and gwan deng shweijyau. How can she talk to people in China with these words? Pee-pee, choo-choo train, eat, close light sleep. How can she think she can blend in? Only her skin and her hair are Chinese. Inside-she is all American-made.

It's my fault she is this way. I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix?

I taught her how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it's no lasting shame. You are first in line for a scholarship. If the roof crashes on your head, no need to cry over this bad luck. You can sue anybody, make the landlord fix it. You do not have to sit like a Buddha under a tree letting pigeons drop their dirty business on your head. You can buy an umbrella. Or go inside a Catholic church. In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.

She learned these things, but I couldn't teach her about Chinese character. How to obey parents and listen to your mother's mind. How not to show your own thoughts, to put your feelings behind your face so you can take advantage of hidden opportunities. Why easy things are not worth pursuing. How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best.

No, this kind of thinking didn't stick to her. She was too busy chewing gum, blowing bubbles bigger than her cheeks. Only that kind of thinking stuck.

"Finish your coffee, " I told her yesterday. "Don't throw your blessings away. "

"Don't be so old-fashioned, Ma, " she told me, finishing her coffee down the sink. "I'm my own person. "

And I think, How can she be her own person? When did I give her up?

Source: Tan, Amy (1991): The Joy Luck Club. New York, Vintage Books, pp.253-254.

Taken from URL: http://englischlehrer.de/texts/joy_luck.php

Annotations:
to blend in - to fit in perfectly
to speak back - to contradict, to protest
to pursue - to go after, to aim for
to flash around - to show off
blessings - advantages, gifts

Answer the questions:

1. To what extent do you think Waverly has an identity crisis? What does her mother feel about it?

2. Outline what the mother means by "American circumstances and Chinese character".

3. Explain the concept of the Melting Pot in the light of the text and its title.

4. Examine how the daughter is characterized.

On the basis of the text do the following quiz:

1. Lindo thinks her daughter will not be mistaken for a native-born Chinese mainly because of the way she___________________

a. moves

b. looks

c. dresses

d. speaks

2. Lindo's daughter now__________

a. has forgotten all the Chinese she ever knew

b. wishes she had learned to speak Chinese

c. became less Chinese as she grew older

d. never behaved like a Chinese person

3. What Lindo most likes about the American way of life is that_______________

a. education is free for everybody

b. you don't have to accept your fate

c. other people always help you

d. you can choose your religion

4. Which of these is not an aspect of Chinese character, according to Lindo?

Выберите один ответ:

a. doing what your parents tell you to do

b. hiding your real feelings

c. being aware of your strengths

d. showing off

5. Lindo gives the example of the chewing gum to show that______________

a. American habits were very easily acquired by her daughter

b. her daughter was stupid as a child

c. the American way of life is inferior to the Chinese
d. young people don't pay attention to adults

6. Whose problems do you identify with most, the mother's or the daughter's? Why?