The Ever-changing Story

In the book “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tam, Suyuan Woo's mysterious Kweilin story changed many times:

“The endings always changed. Sometimes she said she used that worthless thousand-yuan note to buy a half-cup of rice. She turned that rice into a pot of porridge. She traded that gruel for two feet from a pig. Those two feet became six eggs, those eggs six chickens. The story always grew and grew. In other versions of the story, Suyuan Woo would changed that half-cup of rice into a pot of porridge, and this would keep changing for different versions of the story.” (Page 25)

I have many theories on why the mother would keep doing this to the story when telling it to her daughter. One theory that I have is that the mother wanted to teach a lesson to her daughter of that she shouldn't ever stop at something and that she should always persist on no matter what just like how the stories kept going on even though it was thought to be over. She wants her daughter to keep growing and growing and never stop.

Another theory that I have of why Suyuan Woo changes the Kweilin ending so many time is that she wanted to keep the story interesting. Maybe she was afraid that her daughter would get bored and lose interest in the meaning of the story so she kept changing the ending up to make it interesting for her daughter. This would make her daughter look forward to hear the story again and again since the story ending would change and won't be the same.

The last theory that I came up with is that her mother uses the story as an excuse to persuade and change the view of her daughter. For example, in the story, the daughter said that she begged her mother to buy a transistor radio for her, but her mother refused and begin telling a story:

“And then one evening, after I had begged her to buy me a transistor radio, after she refused and I sulked in silence for an hour...And then she told me a completely different ending to the story.” (Page 25)

The way how Suyuan Woo manipluate her daughter is by manipulating the stories. She changed the story benefiting the situation that she is facing with her daughter at the moment . This would allow Suyuan Woo to have control over her daughter because her story would changes the views on the whole problem.

Respond to Why Chinese Mothers are Superior

In the article "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" by Amy Chua, I found an interesting paragraph to talk about:

"Chinese parents can order their kids to get straight As. Western parents can only ask their kids to try their best. Chinese parents can say, "You're lazy. All your classmates are getting ahead of you." By contrast, Western parents have to struggle with their own conflicted feelings about achievement, and try to persuade themselves that they're not disappointed about how their kids turned out. I've thought long and hard about how Chinese parents can get away with what they do."

I think the comparison between Western parents and Chinese parents that the author uses is an interesting one but a very controversial one too. In my opinion, I don't think this is always true because I know a lot of Chinese parents and western parents that are not like how the author describe them to be. My parents for example are Chinese but they don't "threaten" me to get all As or else. Instead, they just gave me support whenever I need it and just tell me to do my best. In some ways, this is just like how the author of this article describes Western Parents to be. Are my parents Westerners? I don't think so.

Another example is my friend's parents. They are Western Parents and they are really strict just like how the author describe Chinese parents to be. They are not carefree at all instead the force my friend to do all sort of things that would benefit his education, and they make him do things that I personally think is just too much for any teenager to handle. In conclusion, I think the parents owe it their children to raise them well, and the children owe it to their parents to obediently listen to them. Every parents have their own views on how they think is the best way to raise their kid therefore I don't think it have to do with race at all.

Connections

After the few first minutes of glancing over the answered questions about Egypt during the gallery walk, I saw that there are a lot of connections that I can draw upon between the incident in Egypt compared to the ones in the book “Animal Farm by George Orwell. One important connection is that I can see that they both undergo a revolution. A revolution is something that I think is pretty rare to come by because all revolution in my opinion need a really strong cooperation between every single citizen which is not very common.

Both the people of Egypt and the animals within Animal Farm had a really strong cooperation. For example, the people of Egypt stood together to protest, and they didn't give up even when things looked bad. In order for the protest to work, the people of Egypt had to have a strong will for one another since if one of them gives up, others would soon follow which is why it was essential that the people of Egypt had to stay strong and fight for what they want as “one”. In Animal farm, the circumstance was similar. The animals saw a opportunity to change things in the farm and so they worked together as one to fight off the bad farmer that was ruling over them. The animals needed one another because if one fell, others would decide to fall too. This wasn't the case in Animal Farm, the animals fought bravely not only for themselves, but especially for each other.

There is something that I found in New York Times about the latest news on Egypt that gave an estimation of death in Egypt since the incident began:

"More than 300 people are estimated to have died in Egypt since the turmoil began, according to human rights groups."

This made me realize another connection between Animal Farm and the incident in Egypt. That connection that I saw was that death is something that is necessary for a revolution, and it just go to shows that the people or animals are willing to fight for what they believe to the very end.

I also found other websites that gave recent news on Egypt, and I also found connections within them between Egypt and Animal Farm. The connection that I found that I thought was the most important was that both the people in Egypt and the animals in Animal Farm wanted a better life. That is the main reason why the revolution ever got started. They wanted changes that would make their life better such as getting a better person to lead them or building a better system that is more fair for everybody.

Chapter 11

After much argument, the farmers stormed out of the house. They soon rushed out of the house and not far behind was Napoleon trying to apologize. "Its too late!" One of the farmer said with great emphasis. "Get ready animals because we are going to assemble more farmers then ever to take out animal farm once and for all." The war between farmers and animals was on. Napoleon looked at the animals and thought for a moment. For the first time, he looked genuinely worried. Napoleon finally spoke and said: "Comrades! We must protect our freedom. We must fight like we never fought before!"

After his short address, Napoleon rushed into the house to make plans. the animals gathered and decided on what to do. some animals seemed brainwashed and insisted on fighting. However, many of the old animals were tired of their treatment. Their plan was to surrender when the humans returned and not face anymore bloodshed. The younger animals didn't, and persisted on with Napoleon's lead.

Before long, the humans arrived in a van. At least twenty farmers emerged. Napoleon had prepared for this by standing on top of the house giving our orders to the animals to attack. The older animals did not move for the reason of that they were tied of all of this. the younger animals didn't move either. They were scared because never had a real battle before. Napoleon was furious. he started yelling with the rest of the pigs at the animals threatening no foods, freedom, etc... the animals stayed where they were. The humans held off shooting the animals and slowly walked the pigs. A sudden shot from one of farmer's gun went off. blood was spurting out in the air, and Napoleon fell right to the ground. The animals were silent after they saw their leader, Napoleon, fell to the ground. The humans stepped even closer to the other pigs. One by one, gun shots were fired. One by one, the pigs begin to fall. Blood from the pigs was spilled everywhere while the animals just stared in silence.

The silence from the animals were soon broken and they went wild. Each and every animal ran for their dear life. two days later, Animal farm was completely annihilated. Moses the raven had led the animals to safety. News had broke out everywhere that great Napoleon was no more along with the great animal famr. All of the animals that managed to escaped with moses camped by a nearby waterfall. They were all confused on what to do next. When Moses saw that they were all in such turmoil, he shook his head and flew right above their head. he began to talk:

"Comrades! Don't let this defeat saddens you! Napoleon was a cruel and hateful leader along with all the other pigs. Don't let their death turn you down!"

At hearing those very words, the crowd of animals grumbled in disagreement. Moses continued on:

"Comrades! Let us start a new life and we shall soar to freedom! I promise great fame and glory for those of you that decided to follow me!"

All of the animals turned to each other, and wondered if they should listened to the raven. Moses persisted on:

"I have lived in the farm for many years now. I know what is necessary for us animals to live in complete freedom."

He soon flapped his wings wildly. The animals looked amazed at the raven. They were surprised that they have never notice how amazing flying really is.

"Comrades! I'll teach you how to fly and I promise you that it will bring you eternal glory! Follow me to the edge of the waterfall."

The animals was brainwashed by those incredible words coming out of the raven. They soon followed and stand right at the edge of the waterfall. They began to follow Mose's instructions. It went the following:

1. Lay flat on the ground.

2. Stick out your legs forward.

3. Hop out of the edge of the waterfall.

4. Say the following: "long live Moses!"

And so the animals did just that. One by one, they mindlessly began to fall off the waterfall while at the same time yelling "long live Moses". Moses gave out a snicker and flew toward the sunset squawking.