Essay on Follow Your Dreams - 1914 Words

Dreams are aspirations that reflect a human’s wants and desires in life. They are a fundamental element that drives human beings to achieve the impossible. Dreams have the ability to motivate oneself to set goals and ideals for the future. Each person in some part of their life has had desires that they would like to accomplish. Without these desires, there is nothing to motivate one’s actions and attitude. However, most people believe that satisfaction only exists once a dream is achieved. Louisa Alcott, an inspirational novelist in the 1880’s once stated â€Å"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. † In this†¦show more content†¦This is displayed in the following quote â€Å"Its furnishings are typical and undistinguished their primary feature now is that they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too ma ny people for too many years - and they are tired†¦ † This quote reveals the harsh conditions of these apartments, the younger’s home being one of them. They were often described as old, dirty unsafe and overcrowded. The fact that the narrator describes the furniture as worn out confirms that the Younger’s are a large and poor family. The narrator also mentions that they are tired of their surroundings and of accommodating so many people in such a small area. This displays the family’s discontentment with the surrounding area, and their need to move to a different estate. In addition, the condition of the apartment addresses the long period of time the Younger’s has inhabited the apartment. This is revealed in the following quote â€Å"Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has been polished, washed, sat on, used, scrubbed too often. All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room. † The use of physical features of the apartment establishes its significance in the Younger’s lives. In fact it was originally Mama’s temporary stand-in for her dream house. It is seen as a place of unity, where the family is able to bond with oneShow MoreRelatedSpeech: Follow Your Dreams Essay445 Words   |  2 PagesSpeech: Follow Your Dreams Opens with Impact: â€Å"There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (John F. Kennedy Speech) Clear Preview: Dreams are important for all people. They give us a sense of hope and motivation to achieve after something that we feel would be impossible. Connects with Audience: Dreams is what keeps peopleRead More Graduation Speech: Follow Your Dreams Essay568 Words   |  3 Pagesdreaming that he could be with them. Each time the eagle would let his dreams be known, he was told that it couldnt be done. That is what the eagle learned to believe. The eagle, after time, stopped dreaming and continued to live his life as a chicken. Finally, after a long life as a chicken, the eagle passed away. The moral of the story: You become what you believe you are; so if you ever dream to become an eagle follow your dreams, not the words of a chicken. I believe that this story holds theRead MoreEssay about â€Å"Sonny’s Blues â€Å" - Follow Your Dreams915 Words   |  4 Pagesand difficulties of trying to fit into the white society. Sonny and the narrator find different means in dealing with their racism.Eventhough, both brothers take different routes in their lives, and they feel at the end be true to yourself, Follow your Dreams! Sonny tries to escape racism with his music, but his brother feels he needs a better means in providing for himself (99).He tries to get his point across to James ‘he replies that there’s no way not to suffer isn’t better thanRead MorePersonal Essay : Feelings In The Air1063 Words   |  5 Pagesglistening with joy. From the slamming of your body on the wooden boards and your eyes flashing open trying to figure out what happened while youre pulling yourself off the ground analyzing where your team is. The referee blowing the whistle your legs shaking as you take your first foul shot. Where I am from the number of baskets isn’t the most important but the effort. The vibration in your ears as the buzzer rings ending the quarter. As you drag your wearing body up the stairs to the loft duringRead MoreTheme : Follow Your Dreams, And Never Give Up1457 Words   |  6 Pages Arielle Theme: Follow your dreams, and never give up â€Å"School is so boring† i said to myself. I wish i could go out to the beach again and help the baby turtles out to sea again. That is the only thing that makes me happy. Not my friends, not my family, not even books, and I love books. â€Å"Arielle† my teacher called my name. â€Å"Yes† I said. â€Å"Please stop daydreaming and listen to what I m saying, you have been failing this class so you should be listening or you won t be able to get into collegeRead MoreEssay on The Last Lecture1064 Words   |  5 Pageschild hood dreams, I admit, it wouldn’t be very impressive. I never wanted to be a firefighter or a policeman. I never had the urge to be a millionaire, and I never even thought of being a G.I Joe or Army Man. If you could see my list, you would see only two words scribbled down in that chicken scratch hand writing of mine. But only one of those words would follow me out of that first grade class room and stick with me to this present day. By now, curiosity must be coursing through your veins, justRead MoreRandy Pauschs Last Lecture Essay1011 Words   |  5 PagesPausch’s Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams You would think a man dying of cancer would not be so happy and willing to spend the last few months of his life giving a lecture. But, Randy Pausch, who has 10 tumors in his liver, does not want people to pity him for having cancer. Rather, he wants to teach people how to follow their childhood dreams. Looking at the seven elements of communication we see how he is so effective in his last lecture. The lecture has affected me personallyRead MoreThe Last Lecture By Randy Pausch862 Words   |  4 PagesLast Lecture, Randy Pausch teaches his recipe for a happy and successful life. His main ingredient to this is working toward and achieving your childhood dreams. Pausch gives several examples of wisdom he has used to guide his life throughout the book. All of the advice he gives comes from the experiences he has had while working toward his various childhood dreams. The name The Last Lecture comes from the actual last lecture Pausch gave at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon. He was asked to give theRead MoreA Lecture Series For Students1424 Words   |  6 Pagesliving out dreams. Starting with his youth, he showed how his own dreams came to fruition. Randy also went on to show how he was privileged enough to help others achieve their dreams, also. He highlighted lessons he learned along the way and offered advice to students on how to live life to the fullest. He also highlighted people who helped him achieve his dreams. He spoke about how much his parents meant to him and how wonderful they were. They encouraged him to research and to dream. They alsoRead MoreThe Worth Of A Book By Randy Pausch And Jeffrey Zaslow1116 Words   |  5 Pagesaway from it (James Bryce). If measured by the rule of the quote, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow has tremendous worth. Randy Pausch, a professor dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture titled â€Å"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams† at Carnegie Mellon in 2007. In the book, he reflects upon the lessons of his life experiences mentioned in the lecture. The lessons addressed ways to lead a fulfilled life. At first, his experiences seemed to be entertaining stories from his

The Problem Of Youth Unemployment - 1391 Words

The objective of this paper is to use the triangle model of social analysis to further analyze the issue of youth unemployment. After having a group discussion we have come to a conclusion that this model will allow us to get a deep understanding of the impact that social institutions have on our dominant ideologies and how they are framed through the influence of different institutions. Youth unemployment is an extremely important issue in today’s society and time because over the past decade, youth unemployment has been rapidly increasing and is starting to become a serious, economic and social problem for Canada and other industrialized countries. Since the 2008 financial crisis and the recession that followed in 2009 there has been a high unemployment rate among the youth. Canada’s unemployment rate is sitting at an all high time of 11.8%. (TD Economics) The unemployment rate specifically for youth aged 15 to 24 years old has climbed approximately 24.4%. (TD Economi cs) The impact of youth unemployment is long lasting and can harm an individual’s career opportunities. Economists have conducted a research which determines that the period of unemployment in an individual’s life will negatively impact them in the future because they will earn lower wages. For example, if you are a college or university graduate in Canada who is in a recession the unemployment rate will rise by about 5%, that implies a loss in earnings of about 9% annually. (TD Economics) If the socialShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Problem of Youth Unemployment1834 Words   |  8 Pageskey to how we define ourselves and to our sense of self-worth. In the UK the unemployment rate stands at 6.9% now and from the figures 19.1% are between ages 16-24. Almost one in five young people unable to find a job. Youth employment has become a long-term problem in the UK, with over a quarter of million young people have been looking for work for a year or more (Mirza-Davies 2014). A nd increase of youth unemployment slow down the speed of UK economic recovery, although the financial crisis ofRead MoreThe Problem Of High Youth Unemployment3121 Words   |  13 PagesIntroduction Securing and obtaining jobs has become extremely difficult for young Americans between the ages of 18-25. Youth unemployment rates have been in the double-digits for the past seven consecutive years. This problem comes with many underlying factors that will be addressed briefly in the future paragraphs; such as the stray from past historical patterns. For example, the lower percentage rates of home buying among millennials. The term millennials describes people who are born afterRead MoreProblem Statement : Youth Unemployment, Livelihood Insecurity And Social Protection1506 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction: problem statement – Youth Unemployment, Livelihood insecurity and Social Protection in Ghana In the past 20 years Ghana has experienced a considerably rapid economic growth of Ghana, majority of the people in the Northern region are still suffering from severe poverty. (World Bank). In spite of the economic growth in Ghana, 68.8% of the Northern region is still poor. The Northern Region of Ghana (Upper West, Upper East and the Northern region) has lost over 500,000 of its populationRead MorePromoting Youth Employment For Sustainable Development1587 Words   |  7 PagesSocial Council) Agenda: Promoting Youth Employment for Sustainable Development Name: Suejung Chee 1. Introduction Youth employment has grown in prominence on national and global development agendas. It has now become a problem countries worldwide regardless of their stage of socio-economic development are facing. Studies have shown the rising rate of unemployment, as it was recorded in 2012 that 197 million people around the world are unemployed. In 2013 the unemployment rate was estimated at 12.6%Read MoreYouth Unemployment And Its Effects On The Economy990 Words   |  4 PagesSchuberth Mr. Kyle Burkett Level 9 Reading Writing 22 February 2017 Youth in Unemployment in Saudi Arabia Unemployment is a phenomenon that occur in any country across globe. It considers as very essential topic because its effects on the country. The unemployment rate is one of the most prominent issues discussed today by politicians, news commentators, and economists. Therefore, higher unemployment rate between youth could affect the economy, politics, and other factors. Many countriesRead MoreUnemployment : Unemployment And Unemployment1573 Words   |  7 PagesINTRODUCTION What is unemployment? Unemployment happens when a man who is effectively looking for employment is not able to find some kind of employment. Unemployment is regularly utilised as a measure of the economy’s wellbeing. The most regularly referred to gauge of unemployment is the unemployment rate. This is the quantity of unemployed persons divided by the quantity of individuals in the work force. The unemployed are those individuals capable, accessible and willing to work at the goingRead MoreThe Impact Of Youth Unemployment On The Society992 Words   |  4 PagesThe Impact of Youth Unemployment in the Society One of the most important stage of development in an individual’s life is the days of their youth. At this stage, the society expects much from the individual, and also determines the achievement such a person has reached. However, due to the high expectation, the youths are yet to actualize their potentials. This paper compares the problem of youth unemployment and the impacts it has on the economy as proffered by â€Å"Can Generation Xers Be Trained?†Read MoreYouth Unemployment And Its Impact On The Australian Youth Economy Essay1256 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Youth unemployment has been a constant problem in Australia for decades. In Treasurer Scott Morrison and the Coalition’s 2016-17 budget, a new plan focusing on helping young people join the workforce aims to drastically lower the youth unemployment rate over the next few years: the ‘Youth Jobs PaTH Program’. The $752 million dollar program aims to help up to 120,000 vulnerable young people over the next four years (Budget 2016-17, Queensland Government). However, there is a concernRead MoreAn Analysis of South African Economy1746 Words   |  7 Pageslegitimacy. However, the growth and unemployment challenge facing South Africa is significant one. Investment rates are currently low, furthermore the legacy of apartheid is evident in the persistent distortions in all factor markets: for labour, as evident in the scale and persistence of unemployment and inadequate investment in human capital; for capital, in the low savings/investment rates (Lewis, 2012). The current challenge that the country faces relates to the problem areas of growth, jobs, and povertyRead MoreUmemployment Conditions in Pakistan1514 Words   |  6 Pagesindividuals actively seeking jobs remain unhired. Unemployment is expressed as a percentage of the total available work force. The level of unemployment varies with economic conditions and other circumstances. Unemployment describes the state of a worker who is able and willing to take work but cannot find it. As indicated by the unemployment rate and other yardsticks, unemployment is an important measure of the economys strength. A high unemployment rate generally indicates an economy in recession

The Many Faces of American Identity Free Essays

Since the Civil War, America’s identity and the identity of its citizens has gone through multiple transitions, each building upon or rejecting the ideas and principles of those issues which had come before. From the racial segregation and discrimination of African Americans from the time of Reconstruction through the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, the plight of the poor and the politically disenfranchised, the struggle for equal rights for women and homosexuals, and the post-Cold War issues of globalization and economic viability in a changing world, the concept of what it means to be American has adapted to both the successes and failures of each. At the basis of each of these struggles is the idea that at periods throughout American history each of these groups have felt the need to be heard and represented, having been marginalized by social and political injustices and ideologies that at each turn represented a hypocrisy over the basic tenets of freedom and liberty. We will write a custom essay sample on The Many Faces of American Identity or any similar topic only for you Order Now Unrepresented and kept outside of the political process and the mainstream social identity, these groups have sought to alternately belong to a concept of the American identity and to redefine it. In examining each of these developments, from Jacob Riis 1890 expose of the New York City slums to the new freedoms and challenges of the post-Cold War America of presidents Clinton and G. W. Bush, I will illustrate how each social and political revelation combine to create an American identity that is uncertain of its future while carrying an awareness of its past. Jacob Riis 1890 book How The Other Half Live gave the average, middle-class American room for pause. In his description of the slums and challenges faced by the economically and socially handicapped masses of New York City, show an underbelly to the American dream. The poverty and inequality that pervade the plight of the tenement dweller, both black and white, is at odds with the ideals of freedom. In particular, Riis makes a case for African-Americans who having recently been emancipated had fled the institutionalized racism of the South to come work and live in New York. However, they have escaped one kind of bondage, clearly and legally defined, to be forced into a socially ambiguous but no less prevalent form of degradation and discrimination. But even as Riis decries the struggle of the newly arrived blacks, who based upon their skin color alone are placed at the bottom of the social ladder, his own views speak of a different kind of discrimination. While at once condemning the landlords who profit by courting black tenants due to the ability to charge more money, Riis explanation of the character of blacks is simplistic and demeaning, likening them more to children than adults equal in every respect to their white counterparts, â€Å"If his emotions are not very deeply rooted, they are at least sincere while they last, and until the tempter gets the upper hand again†(Riis, p. 155). He also expresses a desire to maintain a level of segregation, calling the mixing of races on Thompson Street where the â€Å"this co-mingling of the utterly depraved of both sexes, white and black, on such ground, there can be no greater abomination† (p. 156). Despite the shortcomings of his viewpoint, influenced by the historical relationship of whites and blacks in the U. S. , Riis nevertheless realizes that blacks are being pushed away from the very equality promised to them as citizens, as Americans. Additionally, the poor native New Yorkers and immigrants who people the tenements, share a similar burden. Reduced by economic and social circumstance to merely subsist on the scraps of a society which has turned a blind eye to them, the â€Å"pauper† is in a position devoid of hope, He is as hopeless as his own poverty† (Riis, 1890, p. 246). Immigrants such as the Irish fared no better in Riis opinion, being particular vulnerable to the moral deterioration of slum life being the â€Å"soonest and most thoroughly† (Riis, 1890, p. 249) corrupted. The kind of separation between economic and racial portions of society, as well as the defense of one while the other remains degraded, is a common thread that runs throughout the changes of the last century in America’s identity. The 1896 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson legalized this type of segregation with the â€Å"separate but equal† predecent, providing a constitutional basis for Jim Crow laws to flourish and plant deeper roots in the American South. Though struck down over a half a century later by the Court’s decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, the realization of equality as American citizens regardless of race, religion, sexuality, gender, or economic status proved to not be so easy. While in 1881 Chester Arthur hoped to assimilate the Native American population into the broader scope of white society through re-education and removal of tribal affiliation and heritage, no such policy was established in regard to African Americans. As with the struggle for women’s and gay rights, the struggle for African American equality culminated within the community itself. The refusal of Southern lawmakers to rise out of the era of racism and embrace a new concept of American, as non-white and white side-by-side, created a necessity to action. As Martin Luther King Jr. ’s 1962 â€Å"Letter From a Birmingham Jail† attempted to explain this need to the black power structure which both supported and chastised him for his actions in Birmingham and across the South, â€Å"â€Å"unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community no alternative. † More importantly, King understood the concept of the â€Å"mutuality† of the American community, whether it be black or white, male or female, which was picked up again by the youth culture that grew to embody a sense of change and challenge, as embodied in the Port Huron Statement. King noted in 1962 that, â€Å"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. † There is truth still in that statement, as well as in the ideals placement within other struggles for equality. It is a concept that not only did the student protesters understood but was an equal basis for Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique and the rise of the feminist movement and later the push for gay rights and better federal programs to combat the AIDS crisis. Like the inequalities of the previous century, the poverty described by Riis and the racism inherent to the continued racial discrimination, the gender and sexuality issue that has come to a head over the past fifty years have effectively acted to undermine the idealized definition of American while also harming the fabric of society. Disenfranchised people are left to stagnate rather than grow and instead of reasoned change it boils over in emotion and uncertainty. The women in Friedan’s Feminine Mystique cannot name the hypocrisy of the country’s national values and the gender roles programmed into their psyche and are bowed under an enemy they cannot see. The hypocrisy of American identity has not evaporated but instead become more difficult to understand and identify; to be American has built upon the ideals established by King and Friedan, whose spirit of questioning and rebellion have become part of what it is to be American even as new and more complex cracks have appeared in the facade of such a delicate but no less no dream of freedom and liberty. Both President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush illustrate this new era of a globalized identity with in their respective inaugurations. Each faced challenges during their presidencies, differing on a wide-array of social and political issues. However, on the cusp of their first term they express the optimism and unfailing double-blindness of a nation which tries to steer its hope to the future while alternately cowering against and celebrating its past. Constantly aware of our differences, America has attempted to celebrate this difference even as we continue to marginalize along the lines of race, religion, politics, social status, and gender. It is a cycle of self-hate and self-love that has become as much a part of the American identity as the mythological concept of the American dream. Bibliography Arthur, C. (1881). Indian Policy Reform. PBS. Retrieved 30 April 2010 from http://www. pbs. org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/seven/indpol. htm. Brown vs. Board. (1954). Find Law. Retrieved 30 April 2010 from http://caselaw. lp. findlaw. com/scripts/getcase. pl? court=USvol=347invol=483. Friedan, B. (1962). Feminine Mystique. H-Net. Retrieved 1 May 2010 from http://www. h-net. org/~hst203/documents/friedan1. html. King, M. L. Jr. (1963). Letter From a Birmingham Jail. The Martin Luther King Jr. Research Education Institute. Retrieved 1 May 2010 from http://mlk-kpp01. stanford. edu/kingweb/popular_requests/frequentdocs/birmingham. pdf. Plessy vs. Ferguson. (1896). Find Law. Retrieved 30 April 2010 from http://caselaw. lp. findlaw. com/scripts/getcase. pl? court=USvol=163invol=537. Riis, J. (1890). How The Other Half Lives. New York: Charles Schribner Sons. Google Books. Retrieved 1 May 2010 from http://books. google. com/books? id=zhcv_oA5dwgCdq=How+the+Other+Half+Livessource=gbs_navlinks_s. How to cite The Many Faces of American Identity, Papers

English Paper Joy Luck Club free essay sample

A Look at the Concept of Double-Life Amy Tan’s  The Joy Luck Club  is a narrative mosaic made up of the lives of four Chinese women and their Chinese American daughters. Because of its structure, the book can only loosely be called a novel. It is composed of sixteen stories and four vignettes, but like many novels, it has central characters who develop through the course of the plot. The daughters struggle with the complexities of modern life, including identity crises and troubled relationships, while the mothers reflect on past actions that were dictated by culture and circumstance. The lives of the older women are bound together through their similar situations as immigrants and their monthly mah-jongg games at Joy Luck Club meetings. Each of the stories is a first-person narration by one of the Joy Luck Club’s three mothers or four daughters. Each narrator tells two stories about her own life, except for Jing-mei (June) Woo, who stands in for her deceased mother, telling a total of four stories. The tales are arranged in four groups, with a vignette preceding each group. The first group is told by mothers (plus June), the second and third groups by daughters, and the fourth by mothers. Jing-mei’s final story, in which she learns her mother’s history, concludes the book. â€Å"The Joy Luck Club† is the title of both the novel and this story. Author Amy Tan introduces and explains the concept of â€Å"joy luck† by showing two different Joy Luck Clubs in action. The first Joy Luck Club, in Kweilin, shielded the women’s spirits against the harsh living conditions and constant threat of war. Suyuan had dreamed of visiting Kweilin, a place of great natural beauty, where she thought she would be perfectly happy. Instead, she and the other refugees lived with bad food, disease, overcrowding, and uncertainty. To combat their fear, the women played mah jong once a week. â€Å"Each week we could hope to be lucky. That hope was our only joy. And that’s how we came to call our little parties Joy Luck† (Tan 25). The second Joy Luck Club, in San Francisco, offered hope to women with a common bond. Jing-mei says: â€Å"My mother could sense that the women of these families also had unspeakable tragedies they had left behind in China and hopes they couldn’t begin to express in their fragile English†(Tan 20). The second Joy Luck Club becomes an investment group and social gathering by the time Jing-mei is an adult, and the women have formed strong friendships. â€Å"Joy luck† then becomes a concept the women would like to pass on to their American-born daughters, who do not understand the tragedies their mothers experienced. The mothers are afraid they will have â€Å"grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation† (Tan 31). Accordingly, Tan uses the device of the Joy Luck Club meeting to introduce the mothers and the daughters. She offers initial insight into the mothers’ characters by giving Suyuan’s opinion of them and develops the characters of Jing-mei (June) and Suyuan. The conversation about black sesame-seed soup in the first few paragraphs reveals that Jing-mei understands some Chinese, but imperfectly. Her statement, â€Å"I can never remember things I didn’t understand in the first place,† begins the development of two conflicts. In the first, Jing-mei struggles with understanding her Chinese heritage. Not until the final pages does she come to terms with it. The second conflict, overcoming language problems, affects all the characters to greater and lesser degrees. Later in the story, Jing-mei states she felt as though â€Å"my mother and I spoke two different languages, which we did. I talked to her in English, she answered back in Chinese† (Tan 23). Mothers and daughters struggle with their imperfect understandings of one another, seeking reconciliation. In addition to this, this story also introduces a continuing motif, the idea of seeking balance. Suyuan’s criticism runs along the lines of â€Å"Something was always missing. Something always needed improving. Something was not in balance† (Tan 31). Auntie Lindo explains that Jing-mei will take her mother’s place at mah jong because without her the women are â€Å"like a table with three legs, no balance† (Tan 33). These are minor examples of what will be a significant concept in the novel. Surely, in  The Joy Luck Club, Tan intermingles the thematic treatment of intercultural conflict with that of intergenerational conflict. The mothers who immigrated to the United States from China still have very strong cultural ties to their old home and want to raise their children in the traditional Chinese way. Their Chinese American daughters, however, feel that they are trapped in the conflict between traditional Chinese culture and mainstream American society, between their aspirations for individual freedom and their sense of familial and social obligations, and between their false and their true identities. Paradoxically, the conflict is both frustrating and constructive. The daughters are eventually led to conclude that they must embrace what they cannot culturally reject, and that they are as American as they are Chinese. Thus, The Joy Luck Club  highlights the influence of culture on gender roles. The Chinese mothers in the book, all born in the 1910’s, grew up in a hierarchical society in which a woman’s worth was measured by her husband’s status and his family’s wealth. When they were young, the women were taught to repress their own desires so that they would learn to preserve the family honor and obey their husbands. The difficulties in marriage encountered by Lindo and Ying-ying as well as by An-mei’s mother emphasize how few options were open to women in a tightly structured society in which their economic security and social standing were completely dependent on men. Consequently, when the mothers immigrate to the United States, they want their daughters to retain their Chinese character but take advantage of the more flexible roles offered to women by American culture. The postwar baby-boomer daughters, however, are overwhelmed by having too many choices available. They struggle to balance multiple roles as career women, wives or girlfriends, and daughters. The materialistic focus of American culture makes it difficult for the daughters to internalize their mothers’ values, particularly the self-sacrifice, determination, and family integrity that traditional Chinese culture stresses. In addition to gender roles, mother-daughter relationships are an important focus of the book. Mothers are shown to have profound influence over their daughters’ development, yet their influence is constrained by the surrounding culture. As girls, the Chinese women wanted to be like their mothers, whereas the American-born daughters are estranged from their mothers. This contrast is consistent with a difference between cultures: Americans expect their children to rebel against parental authority, while the Chinese promote obedience and conformity. The daughters in  The Joy Luck Club  think that their mothers are odd because they speak broken English and miss the subtleties of American culture pertaining to dress and social behavior. They also tend to see their mothers as pushy. Waverly and June rebel against their mothers’ expectations without understanding that Lindo and Suyuan are trying to give their daughters the opportunities that they never had themselves. As adults, Waverly and June struggle with the conflicting desires of pleasing their mothers and developing their own individuality. Because they perceive their mothers’ guidance as criticism, they are slow to understand the depth of their mothers’ love and sacrifice for them. Indeed, Peter Tavernise in â€Å"Fasting of the Heart: Mother-Tradition and Sacred Systems in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club† asserts that â€Å"just as in the Confucian ritual system, very little of the mother-tradition in the text is told explicitly from mother to daughter: ritual actions are supposed to be observed, absorbed, read, and understood in order to be transformed, preserved and handed down in turn. † All in all, despite such generational and cultural gaps, the author suggests that daughters resemble their mothers in character as well as in appearance.