Scar

    In the story Scar in The Joy Luck Club, An-mei's mother was kicked out of her home because of how she disgraced her family.  An-mei's mother's first husband had died after they had An-mei and she remarried to a man, becoming his third concubine. She was considered a disgrace to the family because in Chinese tradition, when a woman and a man marries, no matter what happens to the man, the woman must stay loyal to him.  An-mei's mother did not do this and was kicked out by her own mother. An-mei, her daughter was taken away from her mother after her mother was kicked out and lived with her Popo. Her Popo was one who continuously discouraged An-mei to have any connection with her mother and banned An-mei from even saying her name.
     The question here is whether or not family and honor should take priority over the rights of the individual family member. In the book, family and honor did take priority. Although An-mei's mother came back for An-mei, none of her family members would allow her to even get near her. They thought she would become like her mother of she was near her. I think that what Popo did was out of being ashamed of her daughter doing such things. She had to suppress the love she had for her daughter and for the good and honor of the family, kicked her out and banned her from ever coming back. 
     At the end of the story, Popo became very sick and An-mei's mother made a huge sacrafice and endured horrible pain to try to make her own mother get better. I don't think love was ever lost between the two of them, but Popo was definitely horribly ashamed of having her own daughter be the disgrace of the family. An-mei's mother came back because she still loved her family despite all that they did to her. I think she understood the reasons they had kicked her out of the family, but still kept the feelings of love. An-mei ultimately "forgets" her mother, but inside her, she will never forget her because she is a huge part of her past. 

Animal Farm Chapter 11

My Chapter11 is on Leon's blog.

Tiger Mother

"Chinese parents can get away with things that Western parents can't. Once when I was young—maybe more than once—when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me "garbage" in our native Hokkien dialect. It worked really well. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed of what I had done. But it didn't damage my self-esteem or anything like that. I knew exactly how highly he thought of me. I didn't actually think I was worthless or feel like a piece of garbage."

     This is the second time I've read this article and it still strikes me the way she expresses the way she felt when her parents disiplined her through calling her worthless. Personally, I've had this kind of experience within my family. It's different when someone else calls you worthless, when your close relatives call you worthless and when your parents call you worthless. When someone else calls me worthless, I blow them off because it just means that they don't like  me very much. Their opinions don't matter to me.  When/If close relatives call me worthless it means a lot because typically, they are supposed to be very supportive. It's only when you are a great disappointment that they would ever call you that. For me, it would be the ultimate insult and wake up call that I am messing up everything. If my parents call me worthless, I don't feel worthless at all. In fact, it gives me motivation to prove them wrong.
    Being called useless and worthless by my parents tells me that I've become so hopeless that they have no other methods to make me do better and are forced to result in making me demote myself to a level they raised me to never want to drop to. My parents said they were ashamed that I was their daughter one time and I remember thinking "Ok then. Be ashamed.  But I'm going to prove you wrong because whatever you think or say, I know you will always see me as your daughter and nothing will ever change that between us. I'll do even better then you'd ever expect to prove you wrong and to prove to myself that I am not as useless or shameful as you say I am." Yep. It was a great motivation for me to better myself for myself and my family,

Connections Between Egypt and Animal Farm

     The connections that I saw between the uprisings and Animal Farm were things like how one rebellion on Animal Farm led to the rebellion or thought of rebellion on the other farms who hear about the reasons for the rebellion in the first place. Like in Egypt, when their rebellions succeeded last Friday, Iran and other nearby areas began to protest on the streets hoping to find a way to break through their governments the Egypt was able to do. Egypt started a huge state of rebellion for many other countries around it and was very much like Animal Farm being the start of a successful rebellion.
     Another connection I found was that in Animal Farm, a small group of animals, or actually, just Major the pig, began the ideas and thoughts of rebellion. Then the idea was spread throughout Animal Farm and an actual rebellion occurred after Major died. It's very very similar to what happened in Egypt. The rebellion started in Tunisia and when the man burned himself to death, the idea of this rebellion spread to Egypt where it ultimately took off and a rebellion really happened. This man is like Major. He sparked the rebellion.
     Another connection is where in Animal Farm, when the humans meddle into the politics and the world where animals ruled is the same as how Americans are going into Egypt and trying to help one side or the other. The humans were fought off in Animal Farm because they embraced the freedom of choice they had without outside rule. In Egypt, many despised how Americans meddled into the rebellions and the business of the Egyptians and their government. They enjoyed having the power and the fact that they are able to "speak" through their own actions and not by some foreign country.
     Orewell is truly a genius. Even though he wrote this book many years before, the connections between Animal Farm and what is currently happening in Egypt are incredibly similar and it amazes me how he wrote something like this in his book even though he knew nothing of how the future would be like.