Term Paper on "Amy Tan the "American Dream," Despite Being"
Term Paper 3 pages (1005 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA
[EXCERPT] . . . .
Amy TanThe "American dream," despite being a reasonably abstract idea, tends to act upon individual people in very direct ways -- it can actually influence the way people behave and the choices they make in their lives. This makes the American dream a reasonably potent force within the confines of American society. As Amy Tan's short story, "Two Kinds," indicates, belief in the American dream can significantly affect cross-generational relationships. In the story, Tan and her mother -- despite Tan's very young age -- seem to disagree over how realistic attaining the American dream truly is. This puts a continuing amount of strain upon their relationship; this is because Tan feels that the geniuses and prodigies of society attained most of their skills or fame through luck, while her mother maintains that these things are achieved purely through effort and perseverance. Accordingly, Tan's failures come to represent her overall laziness, rather than the true maximization of her talents.
At the beginning of the story, Tan introduces us to her mother's broad understanding of how the American dream operates: "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous," (Tan). These beliefs grow directly out of the basic notion of the American dream: the idea that the social classes in the United States are somehow a reflection of individual effort and aptitude; as if American society exists as a level playing field, in which each person starts with the same set of tools, and suc
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Tan expresses that from an early age, she was skeptical of this concept. Her mother saw Shirley Temple on television, and tried to mold her into a similar character; although Tan was convinced at first by her mother that her fame was attainable, she eventually realized that she plainly lacked the innate charm, talent, and attractiveness of the famous child -- not to mention the Hollywood connections. She writes, "I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink, and I saw only my face staring back - and understood that it would always be this ordinary face - I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made high - pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror," (Tan). At this point, Tan surrenders the dream of being the adorable television sweetheart, but is not yet ready to give-up the dream of attaining some level of fame through being a "prodigy." Her mother repeatedly tells her that anyone can be a prodigy in America; so,… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "Amy Tan the "American Dream," Despite Being" Assignment:
This is a literature research paper analysis, for english 1302. I would like the paper to be about Amy Tan's short story "TWO KINDS" involving two themes:the american dream, and mother-daughter relationships. The thesis would be about how "two kinds" emphasizes the mother-daughter relationships, and the american dream. This thesis should be of course what the paper is going to be written about. I would like the paper to have several quotes from the "two kinds" story,this quotes have to be related to what the paper is about (mother-daughter relationships, and American dream) .The paper should contain everything about "Two Kinds" related to both subjects (the american dream, and the mother-daughter relationships. For instance, The american dream based on the "two kinds" story is related to many immmigrants who come to this country searching for a better future for themselves and their family, for example Jing-mei(the main character of the story)whose mother is making sacrifices for her daughter to make her a prodigy or someone with a better future,and who is at some point very strict, because she wants the best for her daughter, and is pushing her to be a prodigy or pianist.Please, I would like to have quotes from the story "two kinds" that shows how this is related to the subjects in the paper(mother-daughter relationships, and the american dream), for instance, one of the main quotes in the paper is "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted in america"this quote could be one of the quotes in the paper related to the american dream subject. Also I would like to receive the websites and books where this paper is gonna get information from, so I can make a biography of it, please. Thank you
How to Reference "Amy Tan the "American Dream," Despite Being" Term Paper in a Bibliography
“Amy Tan the "American Dream," Despite Being.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2007, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/amy-tan-american-dream/340274. Accessed 3 Jul 2024.
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