Best Writing of Freshman Year #2

The Joy Luck Club Analysis
Stuck in a small, dark room, your dad has been detained. A strange man is questioning and asking: follow Chairman Mao, or stay loyal to your family? This is Ji-li’s struggle in Red Scarf Girl. You are abducted from your bed and taken to an unknown location. You witness brutal attacks and murders. You wonder: should I follow the rebels in Uganda, or try to save my childhood? This is the struggle of many “Invisible Children” in Africa. Hearing stories about your mother’s life in China, but seeing a different world around you. You ask yourself: should I follow the culture I am in, or adapt to the culture of your immigrant parents? This is the main struggle of the four daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. Their mothers are stubborn in their old Chinese ways, while their daughters, however, are much more fit to the American way of life. The struggle between these Chinese immigrants and their American-born daughters symbolizes the struggle between Chinese and American cultures.

The American-born daughters have a very different idea about the dynamics of a marriage than their mothers. The daughters, along with most Americans, believe that a wife should be equal to her husband. The mothers, raised in China, believe the opposite. As a young wife in China, one of the mothers is scolded by her mother-in-law: “Bad wife! If you refuse to sleep with my son, I refuse to feed or clothe you” (61). At that time, a woman was to become a wife and bear many sons. This is still true in China today, where almost all marriages and families and patriarchal, and some are even still arranged. Every single mother, at some point in the story, tells her daughter to be a good wife and obey her husband. This is one of causes of most of the conflicts between the mothers and daughters. This is also a cultural clash between China and the United States. The mothers’ marriages and most Chinese relationships are patriarchal, while most women in the United States including the four daughters are more independent thinkers.

The daughters’ independent thinking leads them to stray from other advice given by their mothers as well. The mothers think, like all Chinese mothers, that their daughters should be completely obedient to them. “Only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” (142). This is the traditional Chinese way of thinking, but in America, children are encouraged to follow their dreams, and often told they can be anything they want to if they put their mind to it. The mothers’ wanting obedience of their daughters is like the Communist Chinese government wanting obedience of the Chinese people. Likewise, the daughters being more drawn to freedom and thinking independently is like the freedom of Americans under the Democratic government. This is both a cultural and political clash between the two countries.

The one thing the mothers and daughters did not clash on was the fact that they needed to be the best. The mothers pitted their daughters against each other from a young age. They competed in everything, from grades in school to things like chess and piano. The daughters were just as determined to outshine each other as the moms were. Americans are also very competitive in everything from sports to the workplace. In this same way, America competes with China for power, influence, and other status symbols. These competitive instances occur in politics, culture, sports, and especially the education of the youth of the two countries. Through these competitions, the two countries push each other to advance even further.

One way America has become more advanced than China is in regards to the acceptance of women in the society. Americans have developed many new ways of thinking while China is still stuck on many of their old ideas. Women and their opinions are held in higher esteem in the United States than they are in China. “For woman is yin, the darkness within, where untempered passions lie. And man is yang, bright truth lighting our minds” (81). Chinese focus on the fact that women are not as valuable as men. The mothers tell their daughters things like this, emphasizing the lower opinions of women, like what many other young girls are taught in China. Americans are more open-minded about the equality of women; now there are even many women in the leadership of the country. The United States is progressing toward equality between men and women much faster than China.

This progression says a lot about American culture. The United States were started by explorers, unafraid of new things. They expanded to the west for this same reason. This confidence and leadership has continued through the years, in the people and government. People in America are not afraid to stand up for themselves, and make the decisions that are best from them. Similarly, Ji-li chose to stay loyal to her family. Many “Invisible Children” ran from the Ugandan Rebels to save their lives. The daughters of The Joy Luck Club were able to stay independent and become American. They acted as leaders, not followers, just as the United States does almost every day in world relations.

Best Writing of Freshman Year #1

Oil Spill Article Response

A plane crashes; everyone rushes to find out more details, and more safety regulations are put in place. A terrorist attack occurs; there is a scramble to discover the source and exact target, then more security is put in airports. However, when there is an almost unfathomable amount of oil gushing from the earth’s crust into the Gulf of Mexico, other companies just keep on digging. Oil is the driving force of our world. The amount of oil consumed globally on a daily basis is staggering. The huge need for oil has created a huge oil industry. This industry is beneficial, however, involves some of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was a perfect showing of just how dangerous it can get. The government should temporarily stop all digging and get the industry regulated, then look further into alternative energy sources.


Although all drilling is supposed to be halted while an investigation of the rig that exploded is conducted, it is continuing. “At least six of the drilling projects that have been given waivers in the past four weeks are for waters that are deeper-and therefore more difficult and dangerous-than where Deepwater Horizon was operating,” says Ian Urbina in “Despite Obama’s Moratorium, Drilling Projects Move Ahead.” They not only are continuing to drill, but embarking on even more challenging digs. With so much damage to our environment already done, the last thing we need is more rig explosions like this past one. Officially, no new drilling projects were to be started after April 20, 2010, because of the explosion. “However, Newfield Exploration Company has confirmed that it began drilling a deep-water well in 2,095 feet of water after April 20,” Urbina states. Our government needs to actually step in now. All digging needs to be temporally stopped along with the issuing of permits and waivers to oil companies. An investigation as to the exact cause of this recent explosion needs to be carried out. New regulations should be placed not only on rigs in the gulf, but all around the world so that an event like this can be prevented in the future. And finally, we need to turn our focus away from oil to new energy sources.

The only way to be sure something like this doesn’t happen again is to move away from oil and start looking more at renewable energy sources. Not only will these greatly improve our environment, they will also ensure that we will not run out of energy as soon as we run out of oil. The research and eventually production of these new fuel options will secure our future on the Earth. Once we use up all our oil, it is gone forever. Corn, however, can be grown again and again. From corn, we can get ethanol, a useful form of energy. This along with other new research on the subject should be used to find the best way to make efficient fuel that can be used in place of or alongside gasoline.

Some people would argue that alternative fuel sources are a bad idea and very impractical because of the cost. They may not be aware of the cost it takes to run an oil dig operation every day. By using less fuel, the amount of drilling would be lessened along with the cost, and it would end up costing about the same as what we are paying now. Some also say that the drilling in the gulf should continue as normal. They believe that even if we stop for one week, we will run out of oil. This is not true; we have some stored and could import it if absolutely necessary. Then there is the complete opposite side that we need to stop off-shore drilling totally. This option is impossible without having some kind of backup source of oil.