Compare Amy Tan's life to my life - Compare and contrast Tan's different works of literature.

Essay by notliceheadUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, April 2006

download word file, 6 pages 3.0

"...I had seen the signs, really I had. But I just let it happen. And I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by intention. But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over. You have to pay attention to what you lost. You have to undo the expectation" (Tan, Joy 131). Amy Tan tells the tales of her childhood, and the history of her mother and grandmother through her works, particularly her most well known The Joy Luck Club. Furthermore, Tan uses stories--both fictional and non-fictional--to express her inner feelings. She describes feelings about her life, her faiths and most importantly her relationship with her own mother. There are also many similarities and differences between her personal essay "Mother Tongue" and her novel The Joy Luck Club. Additionally, there're many similarities and dissimilarities between Amy Tan and me.

"Amy grew up thinking she could never please her parents.

If she came home with a B they asked why it was not an A...She felt enormous pressure, particularly from her mother" (Ishizuka 81). Like many Asian families, Amy Tan received much pressure from her parents, to do well in school, and to know how to 'behave.' Likewise, as the oldest and only son in my family, I also face huge amounts of pressure on almost anything I do. My mother in particular, wants me to do the very best in everything. Unlike Amy Tan, I wasn't born in America. I was born in Hong Kong, and attended a very strict private primary school. Unlike America, schools in Hong Kong have a very high standard, and starting at a very young age students are taught to compete against one another. Thus, even when we moved to America, my mother's anticipation of me was...